B. The Priest Evangelist Partnership

An evangelist is someone who has a message and who takes that message and shares it. An angel is an other-than-human type of evangelist, also taking a message and sharing it at the command of God. The "Good News" and the idea of "going" are tied in with both.

Throughout history, God has always had two groups of enthusiastic followers. What was true in the Old and the New Testament times is also true today. There were those who represented humans to God, the priestly apostolic maintainers of religious order. Then there were those who represented God to humans, the evangelistic, prophetic group. They were people with God's message, who were prepared to tell it. So, you have the dual ministry of the evangelist and the priest or as it is found in Old Testament times, the prophet and the priest.

The Evangelist in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament, a priestly family, the Levites, was given the responsibility of maintaining and ordering worship in the religious sanctuary, whether it was the Tabernacle, the Temple or later, the Synagogue. They were set aside for the sacrificial tasks, and were often a full-time, professional group. They were the priestly class. They represented man to God. Then there were those who represented God to man. They had a special message from God and were instructed to "Go - Tell!" They were called prophets and a great many of their names are preserved in the second half of the Old Testament as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea and so on.

A good example of a prophet might be Jonah. He was given a message of impending doom upon the city of Nineveh and was told by God to go and tell it to them. Thus, he was given a message and told to go to Ninevah. These marks make Jonah a typical prophet. Jonah's story was included in the prophetical section of the Old Testament by its Hebrew compilers because they recognized this.

A shepherd holding a lamb Sometimes there is hardly any story, but all announcement. In Zephaniah the first verse sets the scene but the rest is a message from God. The prophets are plucked out of all walks of life to fulfill their task and often disappear as quickly. We find a court servant, a potter, a shepherd, a pruner of fig trees coming from nowhere to speak God's message. One oddity, Ezekiel, is actually taken from a priestly function to be a prophet. Another peculiar instance is the formation of a school of prophets as in Elisha's day. Perhaps you can link the prophets with their occupations in the quiz in later pages?

The Evangelist in the New Testament

With the coming of the Holy Spirit a new order began. The Old Testament prophets received the power of the Holy Spirit for a specific task. They were given the resources for the job, but for only as long as it took to do it. After the Day of Pentecost, it was different. The Holy Spirit descended on all who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, rather than on a select few for a particular task. With this pouring out of spiritual power on everyone, the prophecy of Joel was fulfilled: "Your sons and your daughters will proclaim my message, your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams. Yes, even on my servants. both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will proclaim my message." (1) From that day, there were to be a multitude of prophetic figures, rather than a few chosen prophets. These prophetic figures were to be the evangelists - women as well as men, old and young - but all proclaiming God's message.

In parallel with this new order of prophets came a revision to the priestly order. The apostles developed a pastoral and administrative role as maintainers of the religious order. The great majority of our professional ministers fulfill this role today. Their intended task was not so much to go beyond the church gates with the Good News for those outside, but to give pastoral oversight to the Christian flock who were vested with this evangelistic function. Like the priests of the Old Covenant, these pastors eventually came to be responsible for the ordering of ceremonies, although this was probably not the case with the absence of church buildings during the first three hundred years of the Christian era.

The Evangelist Today

The tragedy is that the role of the evangelist has been largely neglected while the full-time pastoral role has dominated. Perhaps desiring a tight organizational framework, the church has purposely subverted the uncontrollable element of the lay evangelist. The congregation of the faithful were taught that their minister did the work and they sat back and received. Their spiritual gifts were ignored. Today, however, there are hopeful signs that lay evangelism is resurfacing. More pastors are encouraging their people to speak out, to be involved in visiting the sick, to use the business skills that few clergy have, to take a lead. So the great body of ordinary Christians is again becoming the prime mover in outreach, and not the passive recipients of the pastor's ministries. The evangelist is again rightly becoming the minister whom the full-time pastor is building up and supporting!

Notes

(1) Acts 2:17,18

"Practical Christian Outreach in the Local Church"

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