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Service and Missionary Work?
By Jamie Driessen, Assistant Mission Leader“Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers” (D&C 112:10).
We all know that service and missionary work go hand in hand with each other. We are often told that missionary work and service are actually one in the same.
But I have struggled sometimes to know, which is it? Is it our service to others that leads us directly to missionary opportunities? Or, is it our missionary effort that works so well to lead us into opportunities for service?
I am finding more and more often that the answer is: it just depends. It depends on whom it is that I may be serving at the time and whom it is that I may be teaching. The Lord has chosen to reveal to me lately that His work has but one true purpose; and that purpose is both my own eternal salvation and the eternal salvation of all mankind.
But He has also revealed to me that I too must consider the Lord’s timing in all that I do and all that I say in His name . . . to prayerfully seek answers as to timing; and to seek to understand when it is right to approach people. And, how do I know which hand to put forward? Should I first put that hand of service forward or first seek to preach the gospel?
I think the answer is that in some circumstances I may need to teach the gospel first in order to open the doors to allow me to serve people. In other situations, I need to just serve and then simply hope that the missionary doors will eventually be opened. Most of the time I find that no matter whom I am dealing with, I must first accept them as my brother or sister, before I can do either service or missionary work for them.
A Psalmist once said when approaching a new land and a new people for the Lord’s sake, “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” (Psalms 137:4). A few hundred years later, the Lord gave us our answer through his servant Alma, the son of Alma, telling the story about how Gideon was slain by Nehor, how Nehor was put to death, and how the people then learned ways to best cope with the evils and persecutions from strange people about in their land:
“And they did impart of their substance, every man according to that which he had, to the poor, and the needy, and the sick, and the afflicted; and they did not wear costly apparel, yet they were neat and comelyRichard G. Scott then told us in a 1997 general conference, “There are few things in life that bring as much joy as the joy that comes from assisting another improve his or her life. That joy is increased when those efforts help someone understand the teachings of the Savior and that person decides to obey them, is converted, and joins His Church” (Richard G. Scott, “Why Every Member a Missionary?” Ensign, November 1997, 35).
"And thus they did establish the affairs of the church; and thus they began to have continual peace again, notwithstanding all their persecutions.
"And now, because of the steadiness of the church they began to be exceedingly rich, having abundance of all things whatsoever they stood in need—an abundance of flocks and herds, and fatlings of every kind, and also abundance of grain, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious things, and abundance of silk and fine-twined linen, and all manner of good homely cloth.
"And thus, in their prosperous circumstances, they did not send away any who were naked, or that were hungry, or that were athirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and they did not set their hearts upon riches; therefore they were liberal to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no respect to persons as to those who stood in need. "And thus they did prosper and become far more wealthy than those who did not belong to their church” (Alma 1:26-31).
This process of establishing the Church can apply to us anywhere and at any time. Nowhere is it more important than right here in Utah where we often find ourselves dealing with a people who have either just recently come to Utah (or to other states within our wards and stakes) and they have been here for some time, but for whatever reasons, they do not particularly like or ascribe to the people or the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So often I will hear someone talking about reaching out to these so-called “non-members.” They will say, “Let’s get out to all the ‘non-members’ houses and to all the ‘less actives’ in our ward and bring them a gift or do some service or something to break the ice and then we can use that opportunity as a missionary tool.”
That thought of Church members wanting to get out to be missionaries is very encouraging to me, but at the same time I often find that particular approach to be just a little disturbing, because I will also hear people of those other faiths complaining, “I wish I could feel a part of this neighborhood, but every time I begin to get friendly with some of the Mormons, they immediately just want to shove their religion down my throat and try to get me to join their church.”
Sometimes, I fear, we must come over to them as a little disingenuous with our approach to service and missionary work. It almost reminds me of some of those sleazy sales pitches I get on the phone where some telemarketer wants to set me up with some “free” prize only to get me there and find out that it has all been some scam to get me to buy an overpriced product that I don’t really need and no one would buy unless they used those tactics. If those marketers couldn’t trick enough people into coming down, they wouldn’t have the sheer volume they needed to produce any sales at all.
If this is the Lord’s church, then I don’t want to be a part of some sales pitch in order to help my fellow humans. Like Alma, the son of Alma, I would want to be simply helping people and allowing other people to help me. That is what the kinship and goodwill of true brotherhood is all about; people helping people.
One of the best approaches I have found in breaking the ice with new people in the neighborhood who are perhaps of another faith (I will never call anyone a “non” anything, particularly I will never call anyone a “non-member”) the best approach I find is to simply introduce myself and genuinely seek to get to know them. If later it turns out that they actually need some help with something, I am glad to pitch in and give them a hand with anything they might need, including preaching the gospel. But I have also found that sometimes it is more important to find out how they might be able to help me, or to ask them if they have some abilities to be able to help out someone else in the neighborhood who is particularly in need of something that person of another faith has to contribute.
I have already told you above through Richard G. Scott’s testimony that “there are few things in life that bring as much joy as the joy that comes from assisting another. . . .” Why then should we deny our own neighbor that same opportunity for joy? Why does he have to be the one whom we are always helping, but he never has the opportunity to serve in our community just because he is a “non-member”?
Hey, come on, let’s just get out there and fellowship everyone, including those people of other faiths. We know that our Church is the “only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which . . . the Lord, [is] well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually” (D&C 1:30).
Our Church is not some shameful product we need to scam customers into buying.
Let’s stop referring to that family as the “non-member” family and start calling them by their proper last names—the Smiths or the Jones family—not some arbitrary “non” something. We call each other “brother” or “sister”; is that term not accurate for your neighbor who happens to belong to another church?
This concept becomes particularly important for us as members and leaders of the Genesis Group, where Black people become a part of our neighborhoods and then they immediately begin to feel different or set aside like some kind of freak show. There seem to be Mormons constantly running up to them to talk about their missions in Africa or they are just dying to introduce this new family to the one other Black family that happens to be the only other one in the whole stake.
As member missionaries, particularly Genesis member missionaries, let us remember what Alma, the son of Alma, taught us: impart of our substance.
Let us not ever be (or even appear to be) shallow missionaries. Let us go out then with our preaching of the gospel and with our works of service without the slightest need for sales pitches or false enticements. Let us bring all into our flocks, no matter what labels have been improperly assigned to them. If they are different in any way, let’s truly seek to understand and politely ask questions when the time is right. It can never be proper to observe the skin color of someone and then proceed to just begin telling them about themselves. Black people do not need us to go telling them about our “missions in Africa” to try to explain how we know about other “Black” people. I am sure in time if you get to know them, they will be more than happy to hear about your mission in Africa, but they don’t want to be put into some preconceived category that you have created for all Black people.
And for all you Genesis members who are Black, don’t let yourselves fall into that same trap either. I know how tempting it is when we see another Black family about in our towns or at the store. We want to run right up to them and tell them all about Genesis in hopes that they might come and feel welcome in our community. I actually think that is a great idea, but let’s also be careful that we are not labeling or prejudging them in any way as we seek to talk with them. How do you know anything about this family? For all you know, that father is already the stake president somewhere and may already know all about Genesis. But then there is certainly no harm in inviting him and his family to come to Genesis.
My wife and I once met a Black lady at local buffet restaurant who told us she was from Missouri and just visiting here for a business conference. It was she who walked up to us to introduce herself (my wife being the only other Black women in the place) just to tell us how happy she was to see another Black person in the restaurant because she had not met another Black person all day and was feeling a little worried that some of the horror stories she had heard about Mormons might just be true. She was even more happy to find out that we were Mormons and that the Church really wasn’t all about racism and non-acceptance of Black people.
Just because a person has not been baptized into our Church does not make them a “non-member.” They are members of our community, our neighborhoods, and are of our flocks. We need to reach out to them in every way we can, but we must not allow ourselves to fall into that trap of placing labels on anybody.
Whether we begin by preaching the gospel or begin with service, it is our acceptance of them as members of our flock that immediately and unconditionally helps put us truly engaged in the Lord’s work.
In John 21:15-17, “Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
"He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
"He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep."
Not only did Jesus tell Peter to feed his sheep three times to get his point across, but he said it three times to stress that there are three ways to feed the sheep: first, through missionary work and preaching the gospel; second, through service and providing for their temporal needs; and third, simply through love and friendship in a true and loving manner.
When we prayerfully seek understanding and the ability to find those in need, the Lord will direct us as to which to put forward first, preaching the gospel or service. Our success will then be measured by the feelings we create both in those people we touch and those feeling we find in ourselves. May the Lord continue to lead us and guide us in the imparting of our true substance as member missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
—Jamie Driessen