Video: What is the role of the Evangelist

Recently on The Exchange, Rice Broocks joined Ed Stetzer to discuss the role of the evangelist in the church.

Every pastor wants the church to grow. I want my own church to grow.

However, I don’t want only Christians from other churches to be part of my church. I don’t want a local believer coming to our midst looking for the “next best thing.” I don’t want a spiritual nomad to come and graze for a few months before moving on to the “next best thing.”

Rather, I want my church to make a difference in the lives of spiritually dead people. I want to see

• The broken find healing from their wounds.
• The addict set free from their addiction.
• The morally upright find true righteousness.

I want to visibly see the power of the gospel changing lives on this side of eternity.

He quotes (approximate numbers because it’s live conversation)

• 3% of north american churches grow through evangelism
• 80% are plateau or decline
• 17% is migration of believers between churches.

Of those 3% that are growing, most are focused on “Come and see” versus “Go and Tell” which suggests the church is not doing well in equipping people to share their faith.  (Here is how I do evangelism training).

Why is that?

1. We are not clear what the gospel is.
2. We hope people admire our works and ask us about our faith.
3. Few evangelists.

The New Testament evangelist is there to equip the saints.

A simple definition of an evangelist is

• Sharing the gospel with unbelievers while
• Equipping church members to do the same.

Equip people to share their faith

This is my purpose in running EvangelismCoach.org as a website and teaching ministry.

I want to help you grow your church by providing evangelism training.  You can learn evangelism skills to share your faith:

• Without fear,
• Without public speaking in front of large crowds
• Without hesitation when conversational moments arise.

I want to help your church be ready to receive those who come to your church by providing hospitality training.  You can help move visitors to members by

• Improving your ministry of welcome
• Training your greeters
• Helping newcomers build new relationships with your church.

Do you need help in Personal Evangelism?

Start here with this MP3 Download on Evangelism Training from the store to help you see where you need to grow.

In this 70 minute MP3 AUDIO recording on personal evangelism you will learn:

• How church invitations are part of evangelism
• How to discover and share your own journey to faith
• What you can say about the gospel message.
• How to personally lead someone to faith in Christ.

It’s a 70 minute audio file that takes just a few minutes to download, but it may help you answer the question:

What can you do in the next 90 days to grow in your evangelism skills?