fbpx



What about the ministry of the modern-day evangelist?

The closest thing to the modern-day Evangelist paradigm in Scripture was when Philip the deacon (later called an evangelist in Acts 21) went into Samaria and preached Christ, with the result being that the whole city was filled with joy (seems like a great revival broke out! Refer to Acts 8:1-4).

However, as we examine this, we have to realize that, since he did not have a microphone, it was likely not the same as a huge evangelistic campaign but more like he went street to street preaching the gospel and possibly even house to house. (Acts chapter 2 :46; 20:20 all speak about going “house to house” as part of the methodology of sharing the gospel—even as we see powerfully illustrated in Acts chapter 10 when the Apostle Peter went to the home of Cornelius the Roman Centurion.)

Also, there was not yet a Christian community planted in the city of Samaria since his entrance there was the initial and official birth of the Church (even though there were likely believers in Jesus from His visit to that city as we see in John chapter 4; however they were not yet part of the church post ascension and post Pentecost); thus, he went there alone to preach because, as aforementioned, there was not yet a church planted and because he ran for his life because of persecution.

Also, Philip never would have left Samaria unless and or until the Apostles from the Jerusalem church came behind him to establish it (He didn’t just preach and run after collecting an offering!). Consequently, to use Philip as an example to justify many typical Evangelistic Crusades is to wrest the Acts 8 narrative out of context and out of N.T principle.

In closing, I am not at all opposed to evangelists coming to a city to do a crusade—I served as a vice chair of Billy Graham’s last crusade in NYC in 2005 and I also helped Kevin Palau behind the scenes when the Luis Palau team came to do a festival a few years back in NYC. However, both of these Evangelists worked through the local churches and attempted to further unite the Body of Christ (which may have been even more important than the actual attempt to win people to Christ based on my reading of John 17:20-23 which states that the world will only believe Jesus was sent when the church is One with each other and with the Triune God).

My main challenge with the above perspective is – if this is the only paradigm the Body of Christ has for reaching their community—then the church will become passive by depending upon the big evangelist to come to town to proclaim the gospel; instead of viewing the primary call of the evangelist to equip the saints.

My prayer is that the church will fulfill its primary mission, so each believer will incorporate a lifestyle of sharing the gospel so the church as a whole can serve as a “proclamation community” and reach their communities.

Translate »
X