This post is going to be one long post, and it will be edited over time. Today (inside the walls of our church), we were given the task of re-reading a book of scripture (3 Nephi) and researching all of the instances of "ministering". Our greatest examples of ministering come from Jesus Christ, and with as much about Christ as is written in 3 Nephi, this could become a long post. So here we go.
The first chapter starts out with a description of the then-current social norm - anything Christian was considered bad. At this point, the descriptions of the civilization can be broken into two groups - those that followed the prophecies about Jesus Christ, and those that despised them for it. Essentially, according to the backdrop, there was a targeted day on which the anti-Christian would kill the Christian if the prophecy of his birth had not occurred. This alone strikes me as similar to current social norms - if you don't subscribe to the current ideology (we can call that a theology, it's the same thing in this case), you are likely to be "socially assassinated". This is the backdrop for how this story begins.
After describing the scenario, the commentary immediately describes a prophet who "went out, bowed himself down", and "cried mightily" for his people (3 Nephi 10-11). This simple act of prayer is the first directly reference of ministering. Before any action happens, before any plans are made, it always begins with prayer.
This prayer then resulted in the second act of ministering - it was answered, "this night shall the sign be given". The astonishment when that sign occurred was strong - the anti-Christian group even fell to the earth. This was then met with fighting against what had been documented. Arguments, lyings, and deception ran rampant in an attempt to discredit. Despite this, there was a strong effort by the ministering angels of the time for peace (peace is a result of abiding by the moral teachings of Jesus Christ, so the entire list of repentance comes into play). The big thing
Summary
It appears that there are some steps to ministering. As this post is compiled, this summary will also be compiled.
First, ministering begins with prayer. Before someone acts, there will be a prayer - even if no god was involved. Our thoughts and hearts have to be in the right mood to do it. Not always are these prayers answered at the time we think we need it, but they are answered.
There will always be opposition from people that do not take time to understand, or who desire to find the negative in an attempt to discredit efforts. This happens even today (a former church member trying to identify missed taxes, etc).
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