Our recent study on the gifts of the spirit has been a wonderful reminder of God’s provisions for us as His church and the honor we have of serving Him by exercising our gifts to His people and the world. As we consider this passage, “And He gave the Apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints…” (Eph 4:11, 12) I thought we should give some thought to this gift of evangelist. 

Generally the gift is defined as, “the ability, coupled with a passion to clearly and concisely proclaim the truth of the gospel to an unbelieving world.” This is a functional, working definition but I wonder if it does justice to the context and authorial intent of the passage.

The other gifts listed in this passage are clearly what we would define as “equipping gifts” that is to say those gifts that are given to the church specifically to equip the church to carry out its purpose in thisage. If we are to understand evangelist in this way (and the context demands it) we must expect this gift to be more than the previously stated definition. Evangelist, if it is to be considered an equipping gift, must carry with it the added consideration of equipping the saints to clearly and concisely proclaim the truth of the gospel to an unbelieving world. So we should look for those individuals who are gifted in evangelism to also pass their skill and zeal for this task onto the church at large so we may “be equipped” to proclaim the truth of the gospel.

If you haven't yet, please consider taking a spiritual gifts test to see what God has gifted you. You can download one HERE.