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What does today's evangelist look like?
THE EVANGELIST IN THE 21ST CENTURY
In the first of a two-part teaching series, Counties CEO Martin Erwin looks at the role of an evangelist and the challenges churches and evangelists alike face in today’s ever-changing society.
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The apostle Paul writing to the Christians in Ephesus, explained to the church how God would build, strengthen and establish the work:
"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his
people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." Ephesians 4:11-13 (NIV)
This is one of only three places where the word ‘evangelist’ is used in the Bible. (The other two are Acts 21:8 and 2 Timothy 4:5).
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
Of course, the word ‘Evangel’ is the NT Greek word for glad tidings, or good news, usually translated as ‘Gospel.’ But when used as a noun the ‘gospeller’ or bringer of Good News is called an ‘evangelist.’
There is a danger that we presume that everyone in our churches understands what the Gospel is, and are committed to it. A Counties evangelist said to me a number of years ago, “The problem is that we have many churches that call themselves evangelical, but they are simply not evangelising!” Sadly, too many churches are setting aside a
‘mission’ or ‘evangelism’ budget and purely spending it on social enterprise. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in particular, the work of evangelism requires both our presence – bringing the love of Jesus through our actions, loving our neighbours - and a demand for clear proclamation.
“But how can they call on him to savethem unless they believe in him? Andhow can they believe in him if theyhave never heard about him? Andhow can they hear about him unlesssomeone tells them?” Romans 10:14
In part two of this article (out in the Winter edition of Ignite), Martin will look at the challenges facing churches, Bible colleges and evangelists and look at ways of moving forward to encourage more evangelists in their mission.
