Sriram, from Akanksha, pointed to a discussion that their teachers had at a recent retreat: Are "service" and "be the change" are seperate journeys?  I responded with the following:

Helping, fixing and serving are three fundamental ways of seeing life.  When we help, we use our own strength to support someone with less strength; we see life as weak and our offerings are rooted in a sense of inequality.  When we fix, we have pre-judged idea of delivering a solution and that judgement creates a separation.  When we serve, though, we work with the understanding that another's suffering is our own and that when we heal others, we are healing ourselves; we see life as whole, without demarcations between giver and receiver.

A Chinese parable, to further illustrate that point: an old man set out to change the world. He found that he wasn’t making much progress, so he tried to change his country. This was also too difficult, so he tried to change his neighborhood. When he didn’t have success there, he tried to change his family. Even that was easier said than done, so he tried to change himself. Then an interesting thing happened. When he had changed himself, his family changed. And when his family changed, his neighborhood changed. When his neighborhood changed, his country changed. And when his country changed, the world changed.

From that point of view, being-the-change is the highest form of service.  We flow with our change, and that very commitment allows others to flow with their own dynamic conditions.  In a very real sense, we become instruments for these arrangements that are constantly constructing and deconstructing themselves in each moment.

The difficulty arises when we don't know what change to be.  Then we start compromising and confusing ourselves with our mental algebra of good and bad.  In a state of clarity about what change you need to be, it's a choiceless action.  But when we're unclear, we have hedge our bets.  Do we feed the hungry or do we meditate until effortless action arises by itself?  And, of course, all the shades of grey in between those two options.  In addition, there's the issue of fundamentalism.  A false sense of clarity delivers us into arrogance and close-minded-ness while a connection with something more fundamental creates a sense of unity.  So until you gain clarity, how do you maintain your conviction without being narrow?  Wading through all of this is the actual work, and there's no cookie-cutter recipe.

Still, if one heads in the direction of being-the-change, service is an inevitable outcome.  If one heads in the direction of helping or fixing the world, being-the-change isn't a gauranteed end.  In that sense, if you like the idea of being-the-change AND service, being-the-change seems to be the most prudent path.