Doing the Work of an Evangelist

"As for you, keep a clear head about everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." (2 Timothy 4:5, HCSB).

Sometimes I fear that we have lost our bearings when it comes to Christ's mission for the church. We have one mission: to make disciples. In order to fulfill this mission, Paul reminds us that we need to "do the work of an evangelist." An evangelist is one who speaks Good News, who proclaims Good News, who shares Good News. And this Good News is not just any good news, it is specifically THE Good News about Jesus!

We are to be prepared at all times to "give an account of the hope that is within us." The New Living Translation of this familiar verse says it this way: "If someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it." (1 Peter 3:15, NLT) So, why are so many Jesus-followers today at best unprepared to "explain it" and at worst unwilling to?

I was caught off guard today when I read Ed Stetzer's column in the January/ February 2010 edition of Outreach Magazine. What I was caught off guard by was the way his words so grabbed my heart. I said to myself, "These are my observations.....exactly!" In his column entitled "The Mandate of Evangelism" he answers my question "Why are so many Jesus-followers today at best unprepared to explain their hope in Jesus and at worst unwilling to?"

He asserts that there are at least three common detriments to evangelism: Universalism, Holism, and Invitationalism.

He describes Universalism as the "Oprah-fied version of Christianity." This insidious re-creation of universalism he says asks the question, "Why evangelize those who are going to heaven anyway?" I agree with his assertion that "too many people in our churches no longer believe that people need Jesus for eternal life."

Holism, he indicates is the belief that all we need to do is take care of people's physical needs and we will never need to speak a word. He writes, "We need to be holistic and we need to do much more to serve the hurting, but we must never forget to tell people how they might be saved."

Ed states that we have excessively relied on "invitation rather than proclamation." He warns, "We must not teach people that inviting friends to church is evangelism. It can be a part of it, but evangelism necessitates more, specifically 'telling the Good News.'" People are changed by the Gospel message. At some point it needs to be spoken, shared, proclaimed. The goal for each of us is that we might do the work of an evangelist. Anything that falls short of this is ultimately buying into the third detriment Ed calls Invitationalism.

Which of these isms have you noticed in yourself, in the church?