By Tyler Allred

Beau wrote a great post helping us understand how to identify an evangelist in our midst.

Now, I want to talk about how we can effectively empower and release those with the gift of evangelism in our ministries.

Many Christians I know assume that “everyone is supposed to do evangelism” (even though most still don’t!). Those with the “gift” of evangelism (like the rest of the gifts) are there “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). They are given to lead everyone else into the regular practice of sharing the good news of our King Jesus and compelling others to follow Him as Lord.

Here are five reflections on how to empower and release those you’ve identified with the evangelistic gift.

Help Them Connect to God’s Love

One spiritual practice that has shaped me as an evangelist more than anything else is the discipline to daily pray for God’s heart. Let’s face it, we can’t love our own family, let alone the rest of the world, in the way that God does. Encourage young evangelists to seek God’s transforming love; it will compel them to find ways to reach others with the gospel[1]. Evangelistic leaders should pray every day for God to replace their heart with His[2] (I have mine set an alarm on their phone to remind them!)

Teach Them to Hear and Obey God’s Voice

Good evangelism is not found in memorizing some script but in being an ambassador of the Word and Presence of God, “as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore others on Christ’s behalf: ‘Be reconciled to God!’”[3] Whenever I’m talking to someone outside about Christ I’m constantly praying in my mind, “God what the heck do I say next!?”  We need our evangelists to be tuned to the voice of God. It’s God that sets up the divinely appointed conversations, it is God that directs our words in the moment, and above all it is God who is drawing them to Him! Teach them to hear and obey the voice of God; this keeps us from ever thinking that we have anything to do with the miracle of conversion!

Equip Them to Bring Stories to Life

There are three stories that every evangelist needs to become an expert at relating and bringing to life- Their Story, Your Story, God’s Story.

 Their Story: people want to be known, an evangelist needs to be equipped to know how to get to know people’s passions, questions, experiences, and feeling towards “god”. But here’s the catch: they need to actually want to get to know them! If our questions are just a means to an end then that inauthenticity will turn them away. However, if people are truly known then that often opens them up to go deeper. [4]

Your Story: Our “coming to faith” journey is a great story to have prepared, but I think that stories of what God is up to right now often packs even more of a punch. Evangelistic leaders need to be constantly interacting with God and His good news in a way that continually transforms them. Prepare them to, at any moment, be able to answer the question, “What is God doing in your life today?”[5] 

God’s Story: Teach them to genuinely get to know other’s stories and find ways to share parts of their story in such a way that it all points to God’s story. Evangelists need to know how the gospel, the death and resurrection of Jesus our King, is the culmination of the grand story God has been weaving throughout history; they also should be able to challenge others with the good news that God wants them in His story![6]

Encourage Them to always talk about “Jesus”

I’ve found that it is important to quickly turn our evangelistic conversations directly to Jesus.[7] Keeping our conversations on “God” can get confusing because most of the people we interact with have incredibly different views about what “god” is. Our gospel is that because of God’s love He sent Jesus into the world to die and rise from the dead and that Jesus now sits as King over all. Jesus is the climax of God’s story as well as the clearest picture of who this God actually is. Teach them the need to always look for ways to land the conversation on Jesus.

Evangelistic Leaders MUST BE Disciple-Makers 

There is a harmful divorce between evangelism and discipleship in the church at large today. If we’re going to release evangelists to truly impact the next generations we need to mend that divide!

Instill this in them: If God gives you the incredible privilege to be the agent through whom He brings someone’s salvation, then you also have the mammoth responsibility of seeing that they get discipled! This may not mean that they personally have to walk with every new convert every step of the way, but at the barest minimum it means that your evangelists are going to spend the week or two it will take to make sure that those they see come to faith are plugged in to the right discipleship relationship and community for continued growth. If all evangelists thought like disciple-makers we’d be so much closer to actually fulfilling our Lord’s great commission![8]