Ephesians

3. Evangelists. An evangelist has a special gift for communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ in relevant, compelling terms to non-Christians. While every Christian is called to be a witness, some Christians are specially gifted with the ability to share Christ in a way that creates a strong connection and wonderful attraction.

A witness is different from an evangelist. A witness simply tells what happened to him or her. That is all. All Christians are expected to be able to give a simple testimonial of what Jesus Christ has done in their lives. This is as easy as talking about any other experience. If you can talk about what a joy it was to get married, how wonderful your husband or your wife is, or your children or grandchildren, you can witness for Christ. To talk about the Lord in your life, and to do so simply and naturally, is to witness.

An evangelist goes further. An evangelist knows how to explain the why and the how of the great redeeming story of Jesus Christ. He or she is able to proclaim the truths that produce a new birth. An evangelist’s gift enables him or her to make the great and compelling proclamation that God has not left man in a hopeless condition, but has made a way of salvation through the cross and the resurrection, so that men and women can be set free from the oppression of sin and experience an exciting newness of life. That is the message of the evangelist.

The gospel is a message of hope and gladness. The evangelist’s task is not to denounce sin and sinners, nor to expose the horrors of hellfire and portray God as roasting sinners over searing flames. If that needs to be done at all, it is the job of a prophet, not an evangelist. The evangelist is a messenger of the overwhelming, redeeming grace of God, expressed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The gift of an evangelist does not need to be exercised in mass meetings, in big-top tents and stadiums. It often is, but that is certainly not the only kind of place evangelism happens. The gift of an evangelist can be exercised one-on-one, as when Phillip spoke to the Ethiopian eunuch and told him of the grace of Jesus Christ (see Acts 8:26-40). An evangelist can exercise his or her gift anywhere.

The gift of an evangelist is linked with the next gift, pastor-teachers. Evangelists and teaching-pastors work together, just as apostles and prophets work together. In the body of believers, evangelists and teaching-pastors work with individuals within the church. The evangelist is concerned with the beginning of the Christian life, while the teaching-pastor is concerned with the development and the growth of that life. Therefore, evangelists are the “obstetricians” of the church, assisting in the birthing process of new Christians, and teaching-pastors are the “pediatricians,” helping to promote and maintain the growth and health of Christians once they are born again.

Returning to our mixed metaphor of the body as a building, we can see the evangelist is the “quarryman,” who digs the rock out of the earth and delivers it to the building site. The teaching-pastor is the “stone mason,” who shapes the rock and fits it into place, according to the blueprint of the Architect.