Evangelists are hard to come by these days. Although the gift of evangelism is listed with several others in Ephesians 4, it seems like evangelists are few and far between. Peter Wagner, a longtime professor of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary, first estimated that 10 percent of Christians are evangelists. However, more recent studies have suggested the percentage of a congregation who are gifted as evangelists to be closer to 1 to 4.
Interestingly, the word evangelist only appears three times in Scripture, which supports the idea that it may be somewhat rare (Acts 21:9; 2 Tim. 4:5; Eph. 4:11). What are the marks of an evangelist? How do you know if you are gifted? Here are several indicators:
For most of my time in ministry, I’ve focused on helping pastors, from seminarians to veteran pastors, lead their churches in evangelism. Here are the key convictions as to why I think evangelism is as vital today as it ever has been and why I am devoted to it.
