In my recent post Apostles and Insiders I contrasted the role of apostles, who are designed by God to take the Gospel to new soil, and insiders, who continue to share the Gospel with people with whom they are in relationship. The way these two different types of people share the Gospel is very different because they are playing very different roles in the expansion of the Kingdom. Through the Spirit coordinated effort of both, we see the Gospel spread through a society like a small bit of leaven in a lump of dough.

In a Facebook conversation with my friend Lyle, he made the comment “I’m wondering if this gets apostles, evangelists, and workers in the harvest all mixed up.” It’s a good point. I’d like to use this post to clarify the role of evangelists in the harvest and how they relate to insiders.

Evangelists

See this video of an interview with Ed Waken to get the heartbeat of an organic evangelist.

Evangelists and Insiders

Evangelists have a very important role to play in the Great Commission; but in an organic context it is not what most of us have come to expect from evangelists. The key verses to understand are Eph. 4:11-13:

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.

Here’s a key phrase we tend to blow right past when we read this passage: to equip his people for works of service. That’s what each of these five gifted types of people do; they equip others for works of service. But each does it in a different ways. How does an evangelist equip Jesus’ people for works of service? An evangelist’s role is not to preach the gospel for everyone. That is sadly what it has become, but that’s not the function of this gift. It is to train others how to share their faith in natural, normal ways, so that insiders 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.

If the Kingdom is to spread through the society, like leaven spreads through an entire lump of dough, we can’t have a few apostles preaching the gospel in new soil and then a few more evangelists carrying the burden from that point on. In an organic system, everything reproduces after its kind. Apostles not only do apostolic work, they reproduce budding apostles. Evangelist reproduce budding evangelists, while at the same time they are teaching everyone to be mature enough to share their faith as insiders.

In an organic formation of the Kingdom, everyone shares their faith. And, they have a few very experienced and gifted people, called evangelists, who help them learn to do that. How? They do it through life and relationship.

Insiders

Every insider should know at least one gifted evangelist who can be showing them how to: Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone (Col. 4:5-6). That’s what insiders do, year after year, graciously showing with their life and through conversations how outsiders can become insiders.

Let’s imagine for a moment that a new insider, Toby, wants to reach his old friends with the good news of the Kingdom. How does he do it? In church as it has become, he would have been sent to an evangelism class where he would learn to share the gospel in a forceful way. The usual outcome was that Toby lost most, if not all of his friends; and the organic spread of the Kingdom got stopped dead in its tracks.

In an organic setting he would talk about this with more experienced Christians, having natural conversations and dialog. The more experienced Christians would say, “why don’t you talk to Ed Waken[1], he’s really good at that. Ed would start sharing life with Toby and in the process Ed would help Toby lead his friends to Jesus. In the process it’s even possible that a church would get planted in one of Toby’s old spheres of influence. Isn’t that a much more natural, friendly, gracious and seasoned way to give an answer to everyone?

  • Have you ever been connected a real live evangelist like Ed? 
  • What would be some of the first things you asked him? 
  • Do you feel personally equipped to let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone? 
  • Have you been turned off by traditional evangelism to the point that you’re afraid to share your faith? 

 

[1] Ed is a real, natural, gifted evangelist who works among Church Multiplication Associates churches (and others). You can see his blog here: Thoughts Out There by Ed.

 

Did you like this? Share it:

« »