Unfortunately that point is often overlooked in debates about church government.  My conviction is that when a church becomes as concerned about maintaining high standards of purity and integrity in leadership as it is about upholding a specific form of government, it will begin to fall more in line with Scripture in every other area as well.

How is the word deacon used in the New Testament?

The New Testament text uses three primary words to refer to deacons: diakonos, which means "servant"; diakonia, which means "service"; and diakoneo, which means "to serve."  The original use of this group of words seems to have been specific, meaning the service of waiting on tables or serving people food.  But it broadened beyond that and came to mean any kind of service.

It is important to understand at the outset that, in a biblical context, the group of Greek words from which we get the word deacon has meanings no more specific than the meanings of their English equivalents.  In biblical usage, diakonia suggests all kinds of service, just as the English word service does.  We might use the word serve to describe anything from the start of a volley in a tennis match to a convicted criminal who "serves" a term in prison.  We use it equally to describe a slave who serves his master or a king who serves his people.

The Greek words diakonos, diakoneo, and diakonia have just as wide a variety of meanings, but in general they refer to any kind of service that supplies the need of another person.  The words are used at least a hundred times in the New Testament, and they are usually translated with variants of the English words serve or minister.  In a few places in the King James Version they are translated differently--diakonia is "administration" in 1 Corinthians 12:5 and 2 Corinthians 9:12, and "relief" in Acts 11:29.  But in those verses, and in every usage of the words throughout the New Testament, the primary meaning has to do with service and ministry.

What kind of service is implied by the Greek word for "deacon"?

Serving food.   The original and most limited meaning of the word diakoneo has to do with serving food.  The account of the wedding at Cana is a good illustration of that: "His mother said to the servants [diakonoi], 'Whatever He says to you, do it'....  When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants [diakonoi] who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom" (John 2:5, 9).  That is clearly a reference to people who actually served tables.  And that is the traditional and original sense of the word deacon.

Luke 4:39 tells us that after Christ healed Peter's mother-in-law, she "immediately got up and waited on them."  The verb form of diakoneo appears there.  Peter's mother-in-law waited on both Christ and Peter, which probably means she served them a meal.  Three other texts in the gospels where the word deacon refers to serving a meal are John 12:2; Luke 10:40; and 17:8.

General service.   On some occasions, diakoneo or one of the related words is used without specifying what kind of service is involved.  In John 12:26 Christ says, "If any one serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if any one serves Me, the Father will honor him."  The meaning of the word is general there and could refer to a number of forms of service.

Biblically, the use of the word diakonos is not limited to describing believers.  Romans 13:3-4 says, "Do you want to have no fear of authority?  Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good.  But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil."  There diakonos, translated "minister," is used twice of a policeman or soldier who isn't necessarily a Christian.