Restoring the Roll of Evangelist to the local Church

The roll of evangelist throughout the church age has varied among cultures, but the one common thread is the harvest of souls to the glory of God. In Ephesians 4:13 is it clearly noted that God called some people to be evangelist. The role of the evangelist is to win souls for the kingdom and renew the passion of His People to be soul winners. Even though any believer can evangelize only an evangelist is one who has a life long burning desire to flow in this gift and finds the greatest kingdom satisfaction in winning lost souls to the kingdom. When a pastor and local church host an evangelist to come and minister souls for the harvest should be the end result to come forth.
Over the last few decades among many churches a slow decrease in hosting a series of services with an evangelist has occurred throughout North America. Many of the factors related to this have varied, but the underlining result will ultimately be a lack of the of new souls and a diminishing fire of passion in the local church. So we must ask ourselves what causes the lack of results. Among all the probably answers (of which I am sure many would conclude) would be the lack of committed time in prayer and fasting. The preacher could be an outstanding communicator who is anointed, but without a solid prayer base and desire among at least a core group of people the lasting results are likely to be minimal. The local church needs to restore the empowering of the called evangelist while gathering a group to pray and fast for the effectiveness of the evangelism efforts when the evangelist arrives to minister.
Why Evangelistic efforts in the local community? Since my earliest days of becoming a Christian I have felt the tug to do the work of evangelist. After 13 years of full time pastoral ministries the burden has grown even more so despite the growing unpopularity of inviting evangelist or hosting evangelist for week long meetings. In many churches the reasons behind not hosting an evangelistic crusade may vary from lacking funds to the lack of respond of the people in the church to sacrificing secular activities to attend designated spiritual meetings. One pastor’s testimony reflects the positive results of good prayer preparation and attendance among the people that any pastor I would hope would also desire. “but this revival, praying around the clock two nights, church open at eleven PM till one AM each night, opened again at six AM, not only was the police who patrolled around the church probably every hour, but even this week, the town is still taking about the Nazarene church having revival.”
Regardless of the reasons for not hosting an evangelist and special services, the need for the work of evangelist has never been greater than it is today. Over the last few decades evangelistic services have dramatically declined among evangelical and holiness churches across the country and perhaps in other areas in the world too. The key to success in the meetings in the local church is truly not just the evangelist as much as it is in the preparation and desire of people in the local church in preparation for the meetings through prayer and fasting. The fields are still white unto harvest and the results in the local harvest fields are ready for evangelizing. Unfortunately, we have become a people in America more consumed with ourselves than our fellow man and therefore we need a great awakening in each local community.
When I first became a Believer I remember week long services a few times a year. Going to church each night for a week to listen to the Word of God preached as well as inviting un-churched friends along to the services was not an issue, but rather a joy! However, with the continued development of modern convinces and technology we did not gain more time to do the work of Christ, but have seemed to have loss that time to working more hours and multiple jobs to keep up with the materialism of the day.
Recently, I had the rare opportunity to spend some time with a 92 year old evangelist who has stayed committed to winning at least 1 soul to the Lord per week for decades. In our time together he assured me that the harvest is still plentiful, but the churches willing to hold evangelistic services longer than 1 day time span are now rare. I walked away not feeling discouraged about going into evangelistic work, but rather being all the more determined to find those pastors and churches who still believe that God works through the role and office of the evangelist along with the efforts of a believing and praying people.
Having served in pastoral roles now for over 17 years I am well experienced in the demands of ministry. I truly desire more now than ever to help churches and ministry restore passion and fire for God in the local church by winning the lost and reviving the people of God to reap the harvest in God’s vinyard.