Evangelism Gift Evangelism

That does not necessarily mean you are supposed to travel the world, preaching the Gospel. The Greek word "Euangelistes" means to proclaim glad tidings, a messenger of good. It denotes a proclaimer of the Gospel. The evangelist can either be a preacher who stands before a crowd, imploring them to be saved, or perhaps an individual sitting in a living room or on a plane, trying to persuade someone to accept Christ. As an evangelist you have the Spirit-given capacity and desire to serve God by leading people who are beyond your natural sphere of influence to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. You are sometimes classified as the aggressive soulwinner who seeks the lost.

As an evangelist you are likely very outgoing and personable. You compliment even strangers and are not afraid to ask them questions about their lifestyle - such as where they work, what hobbies they have, what's their favorite sports team, where they were born, and do they attend church. This opens the door to talk about their relationship with Jesus Christ - something you're just itching to do. Be careful not to be too overbearing or you may push some people farther away from Christ.

You have great joy in seeing people come to Christ and are often consumed with the desire to confront sinners with the Gospel. You urge other Christians to do the same by directly telling them they must win souls or by encouraging them by telling about your most recent experience. However, you must be careful not to belittle them or make them feel unspiritual because they do not have the burden for lost souls like you do.

You probably have memorized Scripture so you are not caught "empty-handed" while witnessing. Rather than waiting for opportunities to present the Gospel, the evangelist often makes opportunities. Since you will influence so many people, you must be careful to live in such a manner that you do not bring reproach upon your message. For instance, if you influence 30 people and only one of them accepts Christ immediately, the other 29 are left to be harvested later (by you or someone else). If you were to fall spiritually, your life\'s witness may negatively influence those 29 onlookers against Christianity.

If you are a new Christian, you may want to begin using your gift by providing prospects to seasoned evangelists and giving testimonies to those you knew before you were saved. Perhaps you could pair up with an experienced evangelist to follow up on prospects and visit strangers for the purpose of reaching them for Christ.

If you are a more mature Christian, with experience in evangelizing, take a new Christian "evangelist" under your wing. Share your experiences with him or her and provide encouragement. Continue to look for opportunities to share the Gospel and lead souls to Christ.

Other people may tend to think you are pushy, that you are more interested in numbers than people, and that you judge their spirituality by the number of souls thay have won. Beware that Satan can attack your gift by causing pride in your number of converts, causing failure to grow and learn, causing you to see people as numbers rather than people with needs, causing discouragement when converts are few or infrequent, and causing a lack of concern for Bible passages that cannot be used as "soulwinning texts."

How can you use this gift?

There are many avenues in which you can carry out the gift of evangelism. Visitation programs are the most obvious. You may enjoy visiting juvenile detention centers or jails, going door-to-door, going to orphanages and shelters for women or the homeless, and of course, following up on visitors in their homes. Your gift is a plus for leading people to Christ during an invitation or altar call. You could participate in special evangelistic efforts, such as fairs and other events. Your gift also fits well in church planting, on Gospel teams, immigrant ministry, men's or women's conferences, and many public speaking ministries.

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