By Beau Crosetto

What Evangelists Bring

Evangelists bring an un-quenching intensity to see people not following Jesus start following him. They want the community of faith the reach far and wide and if people that don’t know Jesus are not being reached, then the community is not in a healthy spot. Evangelists not only do evangelism themselves and lead others to faith, but at their best this person is creating vision for the community as a whole that is evangelistic where everyone is active in working to see people come to faith. Called evangelists are responsible to train the believers in witness, proclaim the gospel boldly and shape the community of faith to be a place where “sinners” draw near as it was said about Jesus in Luke 15:1

“Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.”

But every gift casts a shadow and the evangelist has two clear dimensions.

They can be so energized towards the lost in our world that the discipleship of new believers into mature faith can be left behind as they pursue more and more people that are outside the faith. In a sense, reproducing discipleship models can be less prioritized when evangelists are in charge because their primary concern is the lost.

Another problem that arises if evangelists are left alone is that ministries can tend to become attractional and get stuck there. While I don’t think attractional is wrong, it is a great and needed strategy, it can become detrimental to mission and the empowerment of all believers if a church gets stuck as one big group that everyone has to come to in order to hear the “gifted” evangelist preach. Evangelists and evangelistic communities tend to draw people towards themselves and consequently Jesus, so left alone, the impulse to send and start new works from scratch in new places can be overlooked.

So without further ado, here are the key ways I see the other four callings integrating with the evangelist so that health and maturity is present.

Apostle – Sending not just Attracting 

The apostolic calling inside a ministry and especially partnered with an evangelist will keep the community of faith oriented around movement and sending. As we have noted in many posts before, the primary role of the apostle is to guard the sending nature of the church. Apostles are deeply burdened with reaching new places and joining the Holy Spirit in mission to reach a lost world. While the evangelist and apostle have many overlapping energies, the evangelist left to themselves can tend towards attracting people to the center – themselves, the community of faith, and ultimately Jesus. Evangelists tend pull the outside world together with the inside world of the church. They are the great connectors of the faith. But what is lacking in the pure form of the evangelistic calling is an impulse to send and keep going to new places. Many evangelists are completely content with finding what is working and bringing people into those structures. This is why many evangelists (of course not all) have found themselves in the mega church “seeker friendly” services. These services can be very helpful for seeking people just getting started with faith. It is the apostolic energy and calling that reminds the evangelist that some people cannot be reached by even the biggest, most well done service. We have to go start new things where people, not connected to Jesus, are living their lives.

Prophet – Social not just Personal

Prophets in a community make sure that when evangelism is happening, it is not just for the sake of “personal sins being forgiven” but also for the whole of the Kingdom of God being announced. Justice, Shalom, healing, forgiveness of sin, reconciliation. Evangelism, being a herald for the gospel, is more than just getting people saved from the penalty of their sin. It is about announcing the Kingdom of God is at hand and all that comes with that inauguration.

But evangelists left to themselves – concerned with the sins of the world and the way Jesus can and will forgive – can get stuck at sharing a message that is only personal and not social. We do need to announce the forgiveness of sins and by Jesus alone. But we need to announce so much more as well. Prophets help the evangelist remember that the gospel is bigger than personal sin.

Shepherd – Transformation not just Information

Shepherds in the community bring soul care to the new believers that evangelists lead to faith. It is the shepherding instinct that says, “This new believer needs care for their wounds, baggage, and struggles.” Without the shepherd in the community to make space for the care and development of souls, the evangelists will just keep leading people to faith but transformation may not happen. People will have lots of information about the gospel, but time, care, and community is needed for that information to massage its way into the soul of the new believer. Shepherds guard the fostering of community and transformation of believers and if we are serious about new believers transforming into the image of Christ, then we need shepherds to lead this way inside of conversion communities.

Teacher – Depth not just Breadth

The teachers in a community teach us how to follow Christ and to obey his teachings. If we are serious about discipleship and not just conversion than evangelists need to make room for teachers to deepen the understanding of the faith for the new believer. Inherently, evangelists are not going to think deeply about the necessary things new believers need to know to grow maturely into the faith. Evangelists are spending all their energy dreaming about how to connect an outside world to the faith while teachers are spending most of their energy thinking about how to connect believers to the deeper teachings of the Kingdom. They need the teacher to come along and help them think about next steps for new believers and how to actually disciple people into the faith.