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From Anxiety to Peace

An old sermon about something that I continue to bring up when talking to people about difficulties endured in the here-and-now.

The Uniqueness of the Evangelist Role

A colleague recently put me onto an article by Rice Broocks, The Evangelist and the Missional Church, featured on Ed Stetzer’s site. Broocks makes a valid point, i.e., evangelism is not a spiritual gift, rather, evangelist is a role. Let’s take it a step further. The role of evangelist is, as are the other roles mentioned in Eph 4:11, the culmination of multiple grace gifts, a calling and a God-granted personality. I will compare the role of evangelist to both apostle and shepherd, list the duties assigned to the evangelist and briefly consider personality. For the limits of this blog post, I’ll forego calling. I should preface the discussion by three assumptions. First, I don’t think the Lord limits people rigidly to one role for all time with no crossover. He is able to and I think does gift persons to cross lines that we tend to draw and we therefore should remain flexible enough in our understanding to ignore such lines according to the leading of the Spirit. Second, though I appreciate Alan Hirsh’s increasingly popular study and presentation of the Eph 4:11 roles, I doubt that the relationship between roles is quite as linear as as he presents (see the APEST assessment). Third, for the sake of referring to a biblical example, I consider the duties assigned Timothy and Titus by Paul. Paul told Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim 4:5) and Titus was instructed to duties strikingly similar to those assigned Timothy. With these assumptions in mind, know that my description below is not an attempt to draw ridged lines between people serving in different roles.

Apostle vs. Evangelist

Apostle simply means “sent one.” There were apostles who were with the Lord during his ministry and witnesses of his resurrection, either present during events as were the twelve, or via visions as was Paul. I think we appropriately distinguish them from other sent ones. There were and are other apostles in a more generic sense. Biblically speaking, Apollos was enumerated with Paul and Cephas (1 Cor 1:12); Barnabas was enumerated with the same (1 Cor 9:5, 6); Andronicus and Junias seem to have been referred to as apostles (Rom 16:7); James, Jesus’ brother was an apostle (Gal 1:19); and, of course, the apostle who was sent the furthest, Jesus (Heb 3:1). Not everybody, depending on grace gifts and personality, could handle being sent. I think that “apostle” in its regular sense is very general. Paul, an apostle, was also prophet and teacher (Acts 13:1). Peter, an apostle, was also a fellow shepherd (1 Peter 5:1). "Apostle" seems to have been used fairly generically in some cases. Additionally, the close connection between Paul's work and Timothy's blurs the line. Paul told the Corinthians that Timothy was doing the same work as he (1 Cor 16:10) and should therefore be sent as well (1 Cor 16:11). The role distinction between apostle and evangelist therefore is not stark.

Shepherd vs. Evangelist

Likewise, I think shepherd and evangelist roles necessarily intersect. However, we should view the evangelist’s role as a unique and valuable convergence of gifts, calling and personality that the church at large ought to under-girded for the equipment of the saints. Expecting the evangelist to take on too many shepherding roles denies the kingdom the needed ministry of evangelist. I have observed that 2 Timothy 2:2 often gets used to ends that I question, blurring the differences among equipping roles more than appropriate. Many people treat the instruction to “entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach to others also” as an apprenticeship function to raise people up to the same role. Maybe . . . and maybe not. Those men that Timothy taught may have been gifted and called to the role of shepherd, never to move to the role of evangelist. I suspect that most shepherds remain shepherds and most evangelists remain evangelists. I’m not suggesting that Timothy never taught people who became evangelists. I am, however, suggesting that it was not to move people in a hierarchal upward leadership direction in the organization; rather it was to equip according to gifts, calling and personality.

An Evangelist’s duties

This is just a quick bullet list run-through of the equipping duties (forgoing attention to the many personal instructions) assigned Timothy and Titus in the so-called pastorals:

• 1 Timothy
• 1:3 - instruct.
• 1:18 - fight.
• 4:6 - point out (i.e., doctrine, Christian behavior and elder and deacon qualifications).
• 4:11 - prescribe and teach.
• 4:12 - be an example.
• 4:13 - read Scripture publicly, exhort and teach.
• 5:1 - appeal to people according to their generational roles.
• 5:7 - prescribe instructions about widows.
• 5:20 - rebuke sinning elders.
• 5:21 - maintain principles.
• 6:2 - teach and preach (social relationships).
• 6:3 - instruct in regard to appropriate use of wealth.
• 2 Timothy
• 1:8 - suffer.
• 2:2 - entrust teaching to faithful men who will teach.
• 2:14 - remind them of the Gospel.
• 2:15 - handle the word accurately.
• 2:25 - correct.
• 4:2 - preach, reprove, rebuke and exhort.
• 4:5 - endure hardship and do the work of an evangelist.
• Titus
• 1:5 - set order and appoint elders.
• 2:1 - speak the things which are fitting sound doctrine.
• 2:7 - be an example.
• 2:15 - speak, exhort and reprove.
• 3:1 - remind (of Christian behavior in society).
• 3:8 - speak (of Christian behavior in society).
• 3:9 - shun controversy.
• 3:10 - reject factious men.
• 3:13 - send others supplied.

God-granted personality

A bit of a digression maybe, but one connection that strikes me as interesting from Broocks research is his finding that only 1% of the people in a faith community are suited to this role. Compared to this, the Church Planter’s Assessment Center looks for what is generally termed an “entrepreneurial characteristic,” so identified, in-part, as a High-D personality trait in the DISC assessment. High-D personalities account for 2-3% of the U.S. population. Could there be a correlation here? Is a person an evangelist solely due to grace gifts or is the convergence of grace gifts and God-granted personality?

As it relates to church planting

There’s a difference between the pastor who plants a church and in doing so gathers a flock around his gifting, calling and personality which is suited to shepherding and an evangelist (maybe and apostle) who goes out to start multiple churches, appointing shepherds as he discerns the Lord has gifted and called them. Shouldn't we recognize at least a meandering distinction between the equipping roles of shepherd and evangelist?