Unit One: A Few Covenant Essentials 

Lesson Eight: Leaders and Helpers 

Can you name some of the people who lead your church? With so much work to do, every church should have a long list of helpers and leaders. If they don’t, then there is a good chance that some work will just not get done.

There are all sorts of helpers and leaders working around us. Some are given an official position with an official title. They might be called deacon or Sunday School Superintendent or President of the Women’s Circle.

But a lot of work is unofficial. Some people just have a way of cleaning up in the kitchen after a potluck dinner—or watching out for their younger brothers and sisters—or knowing the right thing to say when someone needs to say something.

When the church began, back in the early chapters of the book of Acts, there wasn’t much talk about official leadership roles. God didn’t set down a specific design for how the church would be organized in the future.

But he did begin to shape leaders and helpers for the church. As the church grew, the shape of leaders and helpers became more clear. So we can find a lot in our Bibles about how we can work in the church today.

The job titles are a little different. For example, the President of the Women’s Circle is never named. But if we are ever elected to that official position, the Bible has a few things to say about how we do our job.

Let’s look at a few verses and define some terms. This comes from the very first verses of the letter to the Philippian church.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:1-2     (NIV)

I underlined a few words because they deserve a good definition. Remember that this is the greeting part of a letter. It tells who is writing the letter and who gets to read it.

The letter comes from Paul and Timothy, two very important people in the church at that time. They spoke with a lot of official authority, yet they are apparently both servants of Christ.

This doesn’t need a lot of special defining. A servant is a servant. Paul could have said slave. That’s what the word means. In spite of his authority, Paul is not his own boss. He goes where Jesus sends him, and he does what he is told.

And he is also a servant of the people at the church. Look at the book of First Thessalonians, chapter two, verse 7. Paul said he was like a mom caring for a little baby. He wasn’t a boss. He wasn’t a king. He was a mom.

Okay, he wasn’t really a mom. But he was like a mom with a little baby. A mom will put aside her own plans to care for her child—and a dad will do the same thing. Pastor Paul did the same. He did what was best for the people in the church.

And now for the most misunderstood word in the Bible. Saints. It doesn’t mean what you think it means, unless you don’t think it means what everybody thinks it means. And I mean that.

A saint is anyone in the church. Anyone. The word means a person who has been called out of their old life and into a new life in Christ. That’s it. When Paul writes to all the saints, he means everybody who has been called to a new life in Christ.

So when you hear about Saint Thomas, understand that Thomas (whichever Thomas you might mean) is a saint only because he is called out of his old life to live for Christ. It isn’t a title for the special few. Our church can be filled by Ashleys and Melissas and Coreys and Tylers—and they can all be saints, just like that. 

Two more words to go. How about deacons? We actually have deacons among our own leaders, because we like the word. But when the church began, the word deacon meant a servant or helper. 

And the overseers are leaders. They are responsible for the life of the church. They make decisions. When you put the leaders together with the servants, you include a lot of people. So let’s concentrate on leaders and helpers.

Overseer = authority. Deacon = service. Supervisor and servant. Leader and helper. That’s the general outline for workers in the church. The Bible never really gets more detailed than that.

Here’s a wrinkle. In Titus chapter one, if you could read the original Greek language of Paul’s letter, you would find that an overseer can be called an elder, which is an older, wiser person who can lead.

And you could find a Greek word in your Bible that sounds very much like presbyter, which is one reason the Presbyterian church is called Presbyterian. That’s a word that they use for their leaders, taken from the Greek.

People actually argue over what to call their leaders, but the words that are given to us in the Bible were very general. And it all comes down to two things: leaders and helpers. Call them whatever you want, but they are leaders and helpers.

Enough of that. Let’s look at the last chapter of Romans, because there are some nifty examples of leaders and helpers in that chapter.

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me.

Romans 16:1-2

Don’t tell anyone, but Phoebe is a deacon. That’s the word that Paul uses. You will find that most of the credentials for deacons in the Bible are written for men, but there are a lot of women who are working in the church, right from the beginning.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house.

Romans 16:3-5

These two people are husband and wife, and they have a church that meets in their living room. Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned in several places in the Bible, and they do some fantastic things. They are workers for the gospel.

Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.

Romans 16:12-13

I don’t know what these people are, but they are good workers, and Rufus’ mother has taken good care of Paul, the traveling missionary pastor. We never see if they have an elected position in the church. They may not serve on a board. But they do an important work in the church, and Paul says that they have served well.

And what about our church? We have a chairman, who leads the church with the help of all the rest of the people elected to the Board. Some officers handle money, some look out for the spiritual ministry of the church, and some lead ministries like Sunday School and Covenant Women.

Very important decisions in the church are made by all the members of the church together. Our church looks to the entire congregation for their official decisions. There are other ways for a church to make choices, but that’s the way we do it.

The board with the direct responsibility for spiritual ministry is called the Deacon Board. And the word deacon means helper, as you know, but these people also have a leadership role. They are overseers and helpers, at the same time.

In a way, every leader in the church will be both an overseer and a helper. Take the Sunday School Superintendent, as an example. What decisions might she make? In what way is she a servant? Who are the other helpers who work with her?

We have great freedom to choose leaders and helpers that make sense to our church today. We can call them all sorts of things, but if they serve faithfully they will have one thing in common.

They will have a Christian character. We should look at that. Grab your Bible and dive into these next few verses.

In Acts chapter six, the early church began to look around for leaders and helpers to do the work that had to be done. They needed help serving food to the poorer members of the church, especially the widows who had no way to support themselves. So they chose seven men to take on the job.

Read verses 3 and 4 in chapter six of Acts. 

According to verse 3, what two things did these new workers need to have in order to do their job?

According to verse 4, what two ministries would the apostles concentrate on?

In First Timothy 3, Paul gives a list of qualifications for overseers and deacons. Let’s try to define some of the words he uses. I’ll give you a small part of the list, taken from verse 2.

What does it mean to be above reproach?

What does temperate mean? You might want to look this up in a dictionary.

Why should they have self-control?

What does it mean to be respectable?

Why would it be important to be hospitable?

Why would it be important for a leader to be able to teach?

Remember that those who lead the church are servants of Christ. Sometimes they oversee the work of the church, and sometimes they help. They may help a person in need, or they may help with the work of the church.

Either way, the end result is to strengthen the saints, those who have been called away from their old life to live for Jesus Christ.

That’s a lot of work!

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