Wouldn’t it be great if there were evangelists who didn’t just conduct meetings? Wouldn’t it be awesome if evangelist not only lead crusades but stirred and equipped local churches to be evangelistic all the time? What if Evangelist formed God’s people to be evangelistic rather than simply preaching sermons? After all a main call of Ephesians’ 4 Evangelists is to equip the saints so that they would do the work of ministry, in this case evangelism.
Eph 4:11-12 And He gave some as…evangelists,…(12) for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, to the building up of the body of Christ. Amplified…12…the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering
In June 8-10 our C2C family held a Summit in Pittsburg Kansas regarding Ephesians’4 evangelists. Our goal was to take steps towards evangelists making connection with churches and other evangelistic types so the equipping process can be facilitated among our C2C family. We want to see every local church embrace and fulfill their evangelistic mandate by seeing Ephesians’ 4 evangelists related to, and equipping local congregations and regional spheres on a regular basis.
Some Christians mistakenly see the Ephesians’4 ministries like slices of a cake. Each ministry represents one slice. You can take any slice away and still have a cake. Without a particular slice (like evangelists) the cake will still be desirable to some.
What if we saw the ministry gifts of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, and Teacher, more like the ingredients of the cake rather than slices of the cake? Cakes usually contain sugar, eggs, flour, butter, and oil. What if the evangelist (or any of the other gifts) were like flour? As you may know flour is the basic substance in a cake. The other ingredients are added and it creates the chemical reactions that occur in baking. Flour helps all the ingredients to adhere into a mass, to add flavor, or both.
If evangelism or any other of the five fold gifts are like the flour in a cake it causes Spiritual/chemical bonding that connect with every other ingredient and thus the whole cake. Evangelism or any other aspect is part of every slice and every bite. It would be a wonderful cake (local church) if every bite had the flavor of all the five ingredients in it!
The Summit was a good first step. Recognized Ephesians’ 4 evangelists Glenn Middleton and Jim Morgan came with many others to see what God would do. There were international representatives from both Sweden and Spain who are involved in Evangelistic ministry in several nations. There were great relational connections that stimulated the evangelistic desires of Jesus among us. We believe that this will be a seed bed for further mentoring and stirring for the equipping process in local churches on a regular basis. Here some accounts of the gathering from Glenn and Jim.
Glenn Middleton – It was very exciting to be attending a summit made up of evangelists. You could feel the expectation in the air on Friday night of what the weekend would bring…It didn’t take long to discover the diversity of ministry among us. We had everything from child evangelism; church planting from Sweden and Spain to crusades in Africa and Asia. There were pastors, local evangelists, woman evangelists, street evangelists, and university ministry reaching international students.
Doug helped us see the restoration of the equipping aspect of the Evangelist to local churches. He used the analogy of a cake with its ingredients that was very effective.
We all cheered when Buck Hudson got up to speak and said “This is the decade of the Evangelist!” He also spoke on the similarity of the Evangelist and the Prophet, which there are many. Buck taught about Abraham being given three important things … A Call to create a family. We are to call people into a family. A Promise God gave him of ingathering “all the nations shall be blessed.” The harvest in that his descendants “shall be like the sand of the sea.” A Commission which entails not just a call but the journey to get to the commission, which includes things like rejection as well as relational and other blessings.
Jim Morgan talked about all the revivals and awakenings and how they affected evangelism. One statement he made was “We shake-em and you shape-em” which sounds like team work to me that together will help make disciples!
I spoke of the “Fourfold Dynamics of the Church” Family, School, Army, and Hospital and how all components affect each other. I also spoke on the tension between the Helmsman (senior leader) and Evangelist. One of the things that burns in my heart is to see the Church begin to be evangelistic. Not just wait for the Evangelist to come and “get’r done” but the body of Christ reaching the lost. The ultimate purpose of the church is to press darkness to give up souls!
Jim Morgan – I think the evangelistic summit was a great turning point for evangelistic efforts of the C2C family of churches. The summit topics and ministry time greatly affected attendees understanding as to what God is doing with evangelistic efforts among the churches in the present time. I personally saw and heard testimony of how people’s hearts were stirred, convicted, enlightened, and energized for renewed evangelistic thrusts. Messages from Doug Kreigbaum, Buck Hudson, Glenn Middleton, and others (including myself) brought an understanding of family and relationships in the local bodies as the ultimately effective plan of God for evangelism. Also, messages came forth that convinced us that there will be more interaction between the churches with evangelism. We all left with a feeling that there is support available one for another and resources are available to be shared one with another. I personally connected with the evangelists and others at the summit to help in any way possible. Buck’s declaration that we are in “the decade of the evangelist” and Doug’s teachings on the five-fold pertaining to evangelism today meant the most to me. I see that the evangelist will be supported by the five-fold ministry in a new and productive way and that the support for evangelists in local houses will not be isolated.
The evangelist will be an integral part of the next move of God with the interaction from other ministry gifts. The message that will extend to the church is that all are to utilize their gifts in the body to further the spread of the gospel with an understanding of the church as a family in relational life. The U.S. statistics concerning the effectiveness of crusade evangelism (a vast majority of people making decisions end up falling away) is alarming. The church is obviously God’s desirable method.
The fact that we had this summit and the great things that were shared, gave strength in the understanding of the commission to the church by Jesus. The teaching on the great commission as seen from all four gospels put a new light on how we should approach evangelism. The summit gave strength and direction especially to the evangelists, but also gave the conviction to everyone that we should see the local body as a family and that family brings the lost into family, relationship, and discipleship.
There have been many testimonies I have recently heard from evangelists subsequent to the summit that have blessed me. I see in them a continued effort with more fire to do the will of God. My team from Christian Life fellowship in Raleigh was tremendously impacted and envisioned for new outreach efforts.