The Three Tables

In his interesting historical work on the Baptist diaconate (The Emerging Role of Deacons, 1979), Charles DeWeese suggests that the earliest Baptist reference to deacons serving “three tables”—a model the dominated Baptist understanding of deacon service for a very long time—comes from Thomas Collier’s 1654 work, The Right Constitution and True Subjects of the Visible […]

Here is another example of and reference to The Three Tables from Baptist history. In the Thursday, September 17, 1908, edition of The Journal and Messenger, the “Central National Baptist Paper,” we find an interesting article in which the writer recounts a deacon installation service at Bethel Baptist Church in Mad River Association. In that

On Saturday, September 9, 2023, I was invited to present The Three Tables to the Calvary Baptist and Little Red River Associations in a gathering at First Baptist Pangburn, AR. It was wonderful to fellowship with these dear pastors and deacons and to discuss The Three Tables. At one point, a pastor explained that he

I am the editor of the eight-volume Collected Writings of James Leo Garrett Jr.: 1950–2015. In volume 3 of the series, we published Dr. Garrett’s two 1991 articles on the historical role of Baptist deacons. The Three Tables are referenced in these articles. Here are the two articles:  

In “Ecclesiological Guidelines to Inform Southern Baptist Church Planters,” a 2004 document written by R. Stanton Norman for the SBC North American Mission Board, Dr. Norman writes: Deacons have played a significant role in Baptist churches throughout their existence. Early American Baptists identified three “tables” of service for deaconate. Deacons were to care for the

On Thursday, January 18, 2023, I offered an overview presentation of The Three Tables to a number of North Arkansas Baptist Association pastors, deacons, and spouses gathered at Freeman Heights Baptist Church in Berryville, Arkansas. Here is audio of that presentation with a few pictures below. My sincere thanks to Associational Missionary David Graham for

Last Christmas Eve, our church, like so many others, held a candlelight Christmas Eve service. We sang and prayed and turned to the Word to hear the good news once again. We took the Lord’s Supper to remember the great work of Christ and to proclaim the coming of the Lord. And then we took

PDF Version It has been said that the truly great movements in human history come about not as a result of the discovery of new truths but as the result of the rediscovery of old truths. I suspect there is something to that. At the very least the idea should encourage us not to dismiss