Monday, November 10, 2014

Where are the Evangelists?

I have written a lot about the prophetic ministry, because I want to see it restored to the Church. However, the ministry that we need restored more urgently is the Evangelist. Lack of evangelist is the greatest weakness in the modern church.

I do not mean that we need another Billy Graham. That old style of mass evangelism does not work in our modern secular culture.

By an evangelist, I mean a person who can meet a stranger in a shopping small or park and quickly establish rapport with them, and share the gospel in a natural conversational way. The evangelist that I am describing can ask a sick person that the Lord wants to heal for the opportunity to pray for them without causing offence. They can teach other Christians to do the same.

The house Church movement in China grew rapidly, because it had plenty of evangelists, who could share the gospel with the people they met. The house church in the west has plateaued due to a lack of evangelists. Without a constant stream of new converts, a house church turns inward and eventually stagnates.

Every church needs an evangelist to have a balanced leadership team. They evangelist can share the gospel effectively in a variety of situations and teach other Christians to do the same. This is essential for a growing church.

1 comment:

August said...

Maybe you aren't seeing this in New Zealand, but we've got enough evangelists. In fact, we are hip deep in a bunch of outgoing emotional people who can't explain the Trinity to save their life, but will happily creep people out by telling them how much Jesus loves them. As Christianity shrinks ever smaller (since the 1960s) those still aboard shout ever louder about evangelism. This is because it is the Christian version of playing the lottery rather than doing the work to build a society where our children could actually grow up as Christians.