I found myself thinking about this lesson Christ taught his disciples after they were positioning as to who would be in charge, be first to speak and be heard and in control.
His example and direction was one on one, direct, non-administrative service.
It reminded me of cleaning the chapel with a member of the stake presidency who regularly filled cleaning assignments.
What examples of this in action can you remember? When and how do you expect to see this sort of service?
Wheat & Tares 
Several years back reading the Gospels one after another together as a family we started doing something with Jesus’ words. When we would come to places where the written words are harsh, which come with some frequency, we would read them with a voice that was exaggeratedly kind and soothing. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” “Go ye, and tell that fox.” The point we were making to ourselves is that we could project a certain persona onto Jesus if we wanted to, but it would be just something we were making up that was not derived from the text.
I think we do that with ideals of service. Very little of what ye find in scripture matches the sort of service that we might extol in a Sunday lesson or blog post. A few years back a woman in my ward was overwhelmed with a lot going on, and to ease her life a bit three women and a couple men spent a few hours cleaning her house and putting it back in order for her. I think this act fit within most’s ideals of service. It is not something you read about Jesus doing though.
Jesus’ miraculous healings can be taken as models of compassion and prioritizing the needs of individuals, but I find it a stretch to consider those miracles service akin to scrubbing someone’s bathroom, scrubbing her kitchen, and sorting a living room full of toys and papers. The main things Jesus did for people were that 1) he atoned for their sins and provided a way through him to be one with the Father, and 2) he taught and preached how to follow him. The example quoted above of washing feet is the one case I can remember where Jesus served a material need without calling upon miraculous power, and from the text it seems the point was not so much to make his disciples feel comfortable with their nicely scrubbed feet, but to teach them something, chasten them even; it was very preachy service.
When people wish for missionaries to spend more time in community service, that is an extra-scriptural wish with about one and a half examples that don’t really fit. There is Ammon the king’s son who obtained an audience before a Lamanite king’s son and attached himself to the Lamanite court, and there is Paul sewing tents. I kind of like Paul sewing tents; one of the steps toward taking the first translation of sections of the Book of Mormon to Mexico was setting up a saddle-making shop in El Paso where the missionaries got to talk to people and get familiar with the border. When people cite Ammon as a model of service, though, they fortunately do not really mean they think missionaries should routinely become underlings to the richest big shot in town.
In contrast, there are dozens of scripture examples of preachers mainly opening their mouths and telling people what they ought to hear. As the miraculous healings pile up in the Gospels, there is a tension in the text that physically healing sick people and feeding multitudes was not the greatest need Jesus could supply but it was extremely popular to the point of getting in the way of his preaching and teaching. Peter called seven to attend the poor Christians when that work was cutting into the apostles’ time teaching Jesus’ gospel.
John Mansfield,
There’s extra-scriptural and then there’s excessively intra-scriptural. Should our missionary program really be about following examples of how prophets and major figures from thousands of years ago fulfilled their callings? Is it the “priesthood responsibility” of every young man in the church to stand up on a city wall and cry repentance while dodging arrows, or to denounce wicked kings while getting burned at the stake, or to build tools and boats from scratch to save our families from floods and wars? Jesus, Paul, Alma, etc. are kind of exceptional people living in different circumstances than the average 18 year old kid in Davis County. Speaking of wars, I would wager I could find a lot more examples of fighting battles in the scriptures than of anything resembling knocking on doors to use the commitment pattern on people so that they stop drinking coffee and commit to paying tithing.
Another way for a missionary effort to be grounded in scripture could be to do the things that Jesus taught, both as example and as living the covenant. Giving to the poor, visiting the sick and afflicted, feeding hungry, clothing the naked, etc. are all quite scriptural concepts.
Your food allergy: you just referenced one of my favorite scriptures:
http://adrr.com/living/judgment.htm
Matthew 7:21
21. Not every one that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven; but
he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven.
Matthew 25: 31-46
31. When the Son of man
shall come in his glory, and all
the holy angels with him, then
shall he sit upon the throne of
his glory:
32. And before him shall be
gathered all nations: and he
shall separate them one from
another, as a shepherd divideth
his sheep from the goats:
33. And he shall set the sheep
on his right hand, but the goats
on the left.
34. Then shall the King say
unto them on his right hand,
Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of
the world:
35. For I was an hungred ,and
you gave me meat: I was thirsty
and ye gave me drink: I was a
stranger, and ye took me in:
36. Naked, and ye clothed me:
I was sick and ye visited me:
I was in prison and ye came
unto me.
37. Then shall the righteous
answer him, saying, Lord, when
saw we thee an hungred, and fed
thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38. When saw we thee a stranger,
and took the in? or naked, and
clothed thee?
39. Or when saw we thee sick,
or in prison, and came unto thee?
40. And the King shall answer
and say unto them, Verily I say
unto you, Inasmuch as ye have
done it unto the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41. Then shall he say also unto
them on the left hand, Depart from
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels:
42. For I was an hungred, and ye
gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and
ye gave me no drink:
43. I was a stranger and ye took
me not in: naked and ye clothed
me not: sick, and in prison, and
ye visited me not.
44. Then shall they also answer
him, saying Lord, when saw we
thee an hungred, or athirst, or a
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in
prison, and did not minister unto
thee?
45. Then shall he answer them,
saying, Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye did it not to one
of the least of these, ye did it
not to me.
46. And then these shall go away
unto everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into life eternal.
A clear reading of the scripture is that Christ will judge us not by whether we have recognized him or whether we call upon his correct name, but by whether or not we fed him, gave him drink, clothed him, visited him, came unto him.
Not our doctrine — our calling Lord, Lord — but our love and kindness, our Christlike Charity, reveal whose children we are. Thus “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God,” not “blessed are the scribes and pharisees, who stand in Moses’ gate.”
For those who disagree, and who feel it is what we say, what we profess with our lips, I only quote Christ’s rebuttal:
Matthew 7:21 “Not every one who saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord … 23. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
In Australia there are 144,000 volunteer rural fire fighters. Volunteer means they are not paid, they do it purely out of service to the community. There is an international standard for training and fitness for rural firefighters whether they are volunteers or professionals. There is another level above rural firefighter, which is remote area firefighter which requires higher fitness levels and training. In California these are called smoke jumpers, but in Aus not glorified.
Our youngest daughter is a remote area fire fighter, and to keep her fitness up she carries 50 pounds five miles in 43 minutes, which is the requirement, during training, each week. She and another 200 Australian volunteer rural fire fighters have been fighting the forest fires in Canada, for the last month. They have been working 14 hour days, 10 days on 2 days off. They are all suffering from mild smoke inhalation. Eye and breathing problems from the continuous smoke.
One thing she has observed is that pine forests when burnt don’t spontaneously regenerate, like eucalyptus forests do. Unless a pine forest is replanted it will become desert, which will contribute even more to climate change.
Our last 2 years have been wet with lots of flooding, and plant growth. The next few years are predicted to be hot and dry. Fire weather, with increased fuel loadings from the recent wet. Our volunteer fire fighters are going to be busy in Aus.
There is no requirement or reward for putting your life on the line to fight forest fires. JUST PURE SERVICE.
@Stephen R Marsh, usually when I see multi-scripture passages quoted in a comment, it gets a side-eye from me. Almost always it’s about fabricating a bludgeon that can be used, roadrunner style, to bop one’s hapless coyote opponent.
Not only do you get a pass for being the OP writer, but I grant you license because that particular passage of scripture is exactly what the discussion called for, to re-center service in its rightful place in the hierarchy of needful things for disciples. After having confusion sown into my thoughts by considering the premise that service can be preachy,( even Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet!) and also —can caring for the needs of others cut into one’s time better spent doing the real work of proselytizing? After that, **I** needed a little bop with the passages from Matthew.
We’ve discussed the ineffectiveness of door-knocking by missionaries, and some say a mission has great value in training future member activity. Many possibilities for missionaries doing labors of service to increase proselytizing effectiveness, but imagine the effect on future member activity if the passage from Matthew was the basis for the development of mission service programs.
Those verses were quoted at my grandmother’s funeral, and I’m not surprised they are a favorite of yours. They’re like poetry, they ARE poetry, but more important, they’re a short primer on how to live the gospel. I need the reminder. I’m going to keep trying to get that part right.
Thanks for the bop.