Traditionally, 1 Timothy 3:11 has been interpreted as qualifications for the wives of deacons.  This is very curious in light of the lack of qualifications for elder’s wives.  A preferable interpretation recognizes the natural divisions of the section on deacons, noting that in the first century at least some women were serving in specific tasks for local congregations (see Romans 16:1).  C. R. Nichol (God’s Woman, published 1938) was a vocal proponent of this position; I believe he was correct.

It is quite disingenuous to argue another meaning for “deaconess” (NASB, “servant” is a woefully inadequate translation that ignores the gender inherent in the original) in Romans 16:1, when that is what the text clearly says.  The thinking of some is defective when it ignores or qualifies the word describing the faithful work of Phoebe as explicitly stated in Romans 16:1. 

Deaconesses may have had principally the care of women or assisted females who presented themselves for baptism, but whether that could be proven in scripture or from external sources is not the point.  I don't have to prove "what" she was serving in, since God has called her a "servant-ess." She may have exercised some fiduciary function for the Cenchrea church that would have required her presence in Rome and the assistance of the Roman church for the duration of her labor, but I don't have to prove that, either.  Whatever she was, she was no more than a servant-ess of the church in Cenchrea and deputed by it to do something. 

Furthermore, Paul's endorsement of Phoebe and whatever work she was in Rome to accomplish, and his frank imposition of obligation upon the Roman church(-es) to provide for her is proof positive that God authorized whatever it was Phoebe was doing and the description Paul attached to her for it.

No woman has the right to enter a role God has not defined for her, nor would she have a right to expand her role into an area defined for men.  But, that she can be a task-servant as was Phoebe (“of the church in Cenchrea”) is clear from scripture, for that is what Phoebe was defined to be. Furthermore, Philippians 4:2-3 and numerous other citations in Romans 16 show women in supportive roles of ministry. Yet, they were never acting in a way that was inconsistent with God's defined role for them.

This is not an issue of godly women acting in a forbidden way, but it is an issue of doing what God said.  No godly woman is ever a threat when she is doing what God authorized her to do. 

If we have traditional biases against what God said, that is OUR problem, not God’s.