Author
R. B. C. Howell
R. B. C. Howell (1801–1868) was a prominent Southern Baptist minister and theologian whose pastoral leadership at the First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee, made him one of the most influential ecclesiastical voices in the antebellum South. His theological writings, particularly The Deaconship: Its Nature, Qualifications, Relations, and Duties, contributed significantly to Baptist polity and ecclesiology during a formative period in American denominational development. Howell's work reflected the broader nineteenth-century Baptist emphasis on congregational autonomy and the proper ordering of church offices, establishing him as a key figure in shaping Southern Baptist institutional thought.
From The Deaconship: Its Nature, Qualifications, Relations, and Duties
p. 13 Definition. — Variety of opinions. — Our own doctrine and practice. — History of its origin. — Perpetuation of the office. — The injury of diverting it from its original design. A Deacon — klaxovos — is a Minister, or Servant. The term, in its broadest sense, describes ministers, or servants, of all classes, whether their department be temporal or spiritual. It has in its sense, a similar indefiniteness with the word — . exx-krjoia — Church. In illustration of the truth of this remark, I will refer to several passages of the word of God. " Wilt thou not," says the author of the episde to the Romans,* speaking of civil rulers, " be afraid of the power? Do that which * Rom. xiii. 3, 4. p. 14 is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same ; for he is [0£cv yog Sidxovos, the Deacon…
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