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1 What Is an Evangelist?

Let’s take a minute to define and reclaim the term “evangelist” according to its ancient creation and context among the followers of Jesus. Scholars of the first and second century agree that the term “evangelist” was utterly unique to the followers of Jesus. The word evangelium in Greek and Latin is not found elsewhere in literature contemporaneous to the New Testament documents. Either the followers of Jesus coined the term on their own or it was created to describe the disciples by others. Either way, the word evangelium meant both “good news” and “messenger.” Over time, we began to use the term “gospel” to refer to the “evangelium” or “the good news.” It is unclear whether or not the “good news” was understood as the narrative of Jesus or as the person bringing the news of Jesus.

I love this historical linguistic ambiguity because it unveils a sacred truth about holy evangelism: what we say is only good news because of the way that news is actually transforming our lives. The evangelist that is being transformed by the love of God in Christ is the Good News in the flesh. A person being transformed by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is the proof of the power of the gospel. A Christian is the gospel not because of what they say, but because of what God’s love is doing to them and in them and through them in the world. You don’t ever have to wake up in the morning and wonder how you can start being an evangelist each day. If you are following Jesus, your life is already an evangelist sharing the Good News of Christ with the world. Belief in Christ is not just an idea that you carry in your head. Living in a relationship with Christ is a real experience that is happening to your whole body and soul. The Good News is living in you and changing your life with love. Therefore, a disciple is an evangelist while she sleeps or while he sits in silence. A life being transformed by Christ is sharing the gospel with every breath. Your life has been part of God’s evangelism of all creation since your baptism.

A Christian evangelist is simply a baptized person whose life inspires other people to become baptized people. The more aware you are of your identity as an evangelist by baptism, the more intentional you can be in how you share the gospel that is already transforming your life. Notice that I said, “whose life inspires other people,” not “whose words inspire other people.” The most powerful evangelism is the power of a life that is committed to the love and mission of Jesus Christ in the world. The person who has made this commitment and who has adopted spiritual practices to get better and more faithful in this commitment every day will inspire others to do the same. Words are important but they are not the only and not the most powerful way to share the love of God with other people. This is the crucial difference between the Christian evangelist and an evangelist for Facebook or Google. Brand evangelists have the challenge to convince people to become new customers or new consumers in a crowded marketplace. But Episcopalians believe that God is already present in every person’s life. We are not sharing a new product. We believe that God knows and loves every person already and that the love of God is present in the lives of every person already. What is often missing in agnostics or un-churched people is the awareness, belief, desire, or ability of any person to hear the voice of God present and calling in their life.

Episcopalians believe that God is calling all people into deeper and deeper relationship, every minute of every day, whether a person believes in God or not. Episcopalians believe that people are free to ignore or reject the constant call of God in everyone’s soul from conception and through death. But we also believe that God will not stop calling despite any person’s inability or refusal to listen. In our theology, humans are free to ignore God’s voice, but our freedom does not limit God’s freedom to call and call and call again, in the depths of every human heart and conscience. The Episcopal evangelist does not introduce God’s love to a person, as if any soul had never heard it or felt it. In the Episcopal tradition, we believe that we are bringing Good News, not New News. We are not introducing anyone to a new product or idea or service, like Lyft or Amazon or Twitter. We are on God’s mission to awaken every soul to the love of God that is, from conception, at the core of their being and is the source and end of all their longing and hope. In one of our liturgical prayers for “deceased people who do not profess the Christian faith” in the The Book of Occasional Services, we pray:

Almighty God, we entrust all who are dear to us to your never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come, knowing that you are doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for . . . .³

God’s love for every person is never-failing and God’s love is present in every person already. An evangelist listens to God to discern how best to participate with God doing for others better things than we can desire or pray for. In our prayers to bless evangelists, we pray:

Gracious Father, your Son before he ascended in glory declared that your people would receive power from the Holy Spirit to bear witness to him to the end of the earth: Be present with all who go forth in his Name. Let your love shine through their witness, so that the blind may see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the dead be raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. . . .⁴

Notice the core convictions in this prayer. Preaching is only mentioned once in describing how an evangelist shares God’s love with the world. Before speaking at all, the prayer defines evangelism as bearing God’s love, healing illnesses, and even raising the dead. The evangelist is a beacon of light and love, not a carnival barker with a story to shout.

The evangelist uses his or her life to show people what listening to God looks like. They clear the ears of the soul of others to hear God calling within their own soul. We do this by listening to the lives of others so closely, so compassionately, and so curiously that we can find the voice of God calling in the lives of others.

Evangelists are seekers not salesmen. We do not bring God into someone’s life, rather we listen and study the joys and pains of others—even in a first or brief encounter—to discern where God is already calling and converting darkness into light.

You Can Be an Evangelist

Both extroverts and introverts can be patient and passionate listeners for God, and the world needs both. Both personality types can listen to the words and worries and wonders of another person and help them hear the voice of God in all of it. Evangelism is holy hearing and loving listening by any kind of person. We help people hear God by listening to their words and stories, watching their eyes and faces, and then pointing out where we see and hear God’s holiness, goodness, mercy, and love at work in their daily lives. In later chapters, we will consider precisely how to engage people about where God is in their lives.

In my experience, the most persuasive preaching is a life lived in faith. I can remember the names and faces of people in my life, all the way back to childhood, who were people of strong and contagious faith. Some of them talked to me about their faith or answered my questions about it. But others never mentioned their faith, or talked much at all. What drew me to them then and now was the observable transformation, love, and power of their lives. What made them my spiritual heroes was how their unique lives showed evidence of hope, faith, and love daily. My curiosity for their faith led me to ask questions, to pull words out of their lives. They were disciples of Jesus and it showed. And I knew miraculous transformation when I saw it.

Lives lived abundantly are evangelists more than any personality type. Jesus said so many life-changing things. But prophets before him had spoken powerful words about God too. Jesus lived his faith in a community that could watch him talk to God, take risks, experience suffering, heal the sick, expel demons, endure rejection, break bread, and love others heroically. Jesus was more than a preacher and teacher. His life was a walking explanation of and invitation to what it is like to know God and give your life over to God’s presence and purposes. It is the life of Jesus that I have experienced in my baptism, in the Eucharist, and in my prayers and body that converted me to believing He is God. Though the scriptures have been indispensable in helping me recognize the presence of Jesus in my body and soul and in the world, there is no Bible verse attributed to Jesus that alone converted me to a belief that Jesus is God and that he can transform lives. It is the transformation I have seen in others who are following Jesus that has convinced me that following Jesus can transform my life too.

It is people that talk to God, not just about God, daily and authentically, that experience real transformation in their own lives. When their family, friends, and even strangers see that transformation, then others know something real is happening. It is that witness—the observable fact of something real that is happening in your life because of the love of God—that is the force that stirs others to ask you or others about your faith. Your words should not be necessary as commentary on something more real, more obvious, more unique, and more powerful than language can adequately capture. When people see you forgive the seemingly unforgiveable, give to the deserving, show mercy to the guilty, show love to the haters, show patience to the thoughtless, show kindness to the mean, show generosity to the selfish—then as Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

If you don’t know what to say about your faith or you don’t know what words to use, there is a deep and divine truth in your hesitation. Words alone were never meant to be the witnesses of Christ to the world. It is you—your whole life, your body, your breath, your suffering, and your hope—that is the witness, the evidence, and the ultimate persuasion. Your life committed to Christ transfigures your humanity, not some turn of phrase. Do not traffic in terms, but delight in practicing the faith daily—seek the sacraments, read the Bible, say your daily prayers, love your neighbor—and the world will most certainly meet the Christ taking over your life. Believe that Jesus can live in you, and you in Him, and before you ever open your mouth, Christ in you will be the light, the leaven, the salt, and the hope of glory that can convert the world to the love of God.

Remember we do not “do” evangelism for God. God evangelizes the world through those who choose to follow Jesus and to be filled with Christ in sacrament and prayer. Evangelists are the faucet of the living water with which God wants to bathe creation. You are the chalice, not the wine.

It is your life, not your words or lessons or sermons, that will turn other people toward God. If your life is being transformed in Christ, then others will see it, experience it, and seek it. God is contagious. Faithful followers get up in the morning and see their own lives as their mission field—they are the first convert from their choices each day. They spend their days drawing closer to God through prayer and fellowship and learning and liturgy and serving others. And, as their lives become more and more deeply rooted in the life of Christ—as their baptismal identity and its miraculous power becomes more and more the core and course of their life—other people around them will see God.

The 5 Steps of a Highly Effective Evangelist

1 Be a disciple.

2 Learn to recognize and follow the voice of God in your life through scripture, prayer, sacrament, and community.

3 Listen to other people share their lives with you, and listen for God’s presence and voice in their story.

4 Name where you see God in their life story, using their words and their experiences.

5 Be ready to explain what you mean by God’s voice and how you have learned to hear it. This last step is, for many people, the only step in evangelism. But although it comes last in joyful and liberating evangelism, it is nonetheless an important step.