Thanks again for your exhaustive reply.
So it's mainly a matter of personal or political preference for one word or the other, since the word bishop is derived from Greek episkopos, which literally means an overseer (epi+scopos = above+watcher). Deacon is, likewise, a word derived from Greek (diakonos) meaning a server, helper.
My question was basically why mix-and-match, using an English word for the former and a foreign word for the latter. Bishop/deacon or overseer/helper would be more consistent.
I think the baptists are avoiding the word bishop lest it be confused with some hierarchical churches. In other words, politics.
“I think the baptists are avoiding the word bishop lest it be confused with some hierarchical churches. In other words, politics.”
Perhaps. The Baptists largely formed in England, but England or the Continent, they were persecuted for not submitting to the state-approved church.
However, it also avoids some of the baggage that goes with the meaning of the English word ‘Bishop’. The primary dictionary meaning of Bishop is “a person who supervises a number of local churches or a diocese, being in the Greek, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and other churches a member of the highest order of the ministry”. (dictionary.com)
For Baptists, such a person doesn’t exist. The CONGREGATION has an overseer, or elders, or bishop - but that role is strictly limited to the individual congregation. No one supervises multiple congregations for Baptists. Each congregation is completely independent. The SBC is a group of like-minded congregations, but the President of the SBC has no authority over any congregation save his own.
Many Baptist refuse to be part of any organization. Others, like the SBC, join together to provide financial support to seminaries and missionaries - but we have no bishops, in the typical English meaning of the word. So we don’t use it.
I think the scripture supports either approach. The church I was part of in the Philippines may have come closest to how the NT church was organized. Clark Field Baptist Church had started over 50 other churches. We had ZERO authority over any of them, but if they had questions, they would often ask us about it. The pastor of Clark Field didn’t rule over anyone, but the other congregations respected him. That is about as close as I’ve seen of a Baptist church with a ‘bishop’.