Answer: The overseers (elders/shepherds) if the
Lord's church at Philippi had deacons as their helpers,
(verse 1).
NOTE: The word "deacon" means "servant or minister."
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
Qualifications for deacons are listed in 1 Timothy
3:8-12. The results for those deacons who serve well
are found in 1 Timothy 3:13.
From Word Meanings in the New Testament by Ralph
Earle:
The word diaconos occurs no less than 30 times in the
New Testament. But it has the technical meaning of
"deacon" only 3 times--here and in 1 Timothy
3:8, 12. Elsewhere in the KJV it is translated
"minister" 20 times and "servant" 7
times. But since "minister" usually carries an
ecclesiastical connotation today, it would be better rendered
simply as "servant" (The Vocabulary of the Greek New
Testament, p. 245).
