Called to the Body
The focus of a Christian evangelist is to bring people to Christ. It’s their passion. God created and gifted these Christians to reach the lost. But often they have a blind spot. Because their strong passion for souls can cause them to minimize the callings and gifts God gives other Christians. 
Scatter the evangelists! Because every church needs one. (M.H. Puccini)
The Body Wasn’t My Idea
When Paul shares that we are the body of Christ, he emphasizes certain gifts and callings. But he doesn’t treat any calling of God as unimportant or of less value. We are all one body, but we’ve been created to function in very different ways.
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:29-31 NIV)
I could easily add, “Are all evangelists?”
The answer is clearly “No.”
A Word about Sharing the Good News
Let me speak to all my Gospel-sharing brothers and sisters. You are urgently needed in the body of Christ. None of us can do what you do with ease. In spite of evangelism training, I still get tongue-tied, trip over my words, and sometimes push people away from Christ instead of drawing them toward Him.
I don’t have your gift. But I do have a good chunk of your passion. Because I believe Hell is the destination of every person who doesn’t receive Jesus as their Savior.
This Book Changed Me
One of the greatest evangelists in the 20th century, Leonard Ravenhill, wrote a book called “Why Revival Tarries.” Interestingly, his emphasis in the book is quite different than I expected. He doesn’t say, “Run out and witness to your neighbor,” Instead, Ravenhill speaks about the all-night church prayer services when he was a boy, where people would broken-heartedly cry out for the Lord to save the lost.
He considered praying for the salvation of those who didn’t know Christ as critically important. Because without the work of the Holy Spirit, no one would ever come into God’s kingdom.
Yes, continue to pray for those you love by name. But let me suggest something more. Because the world is full of people who are going to spend eternity in Hell unless God supernaturally intervenes.
Let me suggest some areas to concentrate your prayers.
- Choose a country, like India, and read stories of missionaries who’ve labored there.
- Pray for a specific group; I’m asking God for a great harvest from the LGBTQ community.
- Pick one unsaved person in your life who really irritates you or has been unkind. Ask God to save them, as often as they come to mind.
Interestingly, if you want to learn how to pray for Muslims and Muslim extremists, check out the Pray for Isis website. They offer a written in-depth prayer for Muslims from day 1 to day 30.
Billy Graham and Other Believers
If most Christian evangelists are a sparkler, people like Billy Graham are an amazing light show.
Yet Billy honored Christians who were following God’s will in a different way.
Think about Mother Theresa’s call to show God’s love to the poor, who were dying in the streets of Calcutta, India. Or William Wilberforce, an English Minister in Parliament from 1784 to 1826. As a politician, he worked his entire life to abolish slavery in the British Empire. In the Old Testament, Jeremiah spoke truth to power and paid the price for it. Finally, the most successful evangelist in the Bible saw 120,000 people repent in little over a month—and was very grumpy about it.
Of course, I’m talking about God’s runaway prophet, Jonah.
My Spiritual Point:
All of us make up Christ’s Body. But my heart delights when I see a evangelist join a church where they are the main soul-winners. You create the baby Christians and I’ll feed them, and help them grow up.
Because that’s my calling.
These images came from Pixabay.com.
