Category: Evangelist

Gospel preachers are in the public spotlight and that is exactly where God wants his faithful ministers.  Sermons are delivered in the most public manner. …

In 2 Timothy 4:5, the Apostle Paul exhorted young Timothy, “But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,…

The soil tester turns up his nose at the man with tattoos and the coworker who is trying to quit smoking. He judges everyone under the age of 30 to be too wild and everyone over the age of 30 to be too old to change their ways. At the end of the day, the soil tester has not sown a single seed, but he feels justified because it is the soil’s inadequacies that are to blame. When Jesus returns, however, he is found to have wasted his opportunities as a poor steward of the seeds and he is cast into outer darkness as an unprofitable servant.

In less than a month I will have preached the Glorious Gospel of our Lord for fifty years. My only regret is that I don’t have another fifty to give. I know there is much work to be done yet in the Pacific Northwest as well as other places and I want to encourage men to rise to meet the challenge. Indeed, “the fields are white indeed unto harvest and the laborers are few”.

On January 3rd, 1997, JoAnn (my wife) and I left our home in Duncanville Texas and spent eleven months on an extended preaching trip, at least half of it in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wisconsin and the province of Alberta Canada. The rest of the time was spent in my holding meetings in Ohio, Mississippi, W. Virginia and the south Texas area.

I have known of Glenn’s work all of my life, and my respect for the Roger’s influence has grown. When I was a very young man growing up in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, I heard the name Glenn Rogers. The local church my family attended received a little bundle of newsprint papers from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. The paper was called “Along the Border,” edited by Glenn Rogers. As a little boy, I remember thinking about how suitable these papers were for the childish purpose of making a paper airplane. In my immaturity, I had no idea all the good and serious work that little paper represented. Bro. Rogers reported on various activities of preaching and teaching among the Mexican people along the border separating Texas and Mexico.

The work of evangelism can be a lonely task. Just as prophets of old had to stand alone and aloof from every obstacle to his work, so evangelists must be ready to “be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5). Yes, one must “study (give diligence) to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

In 2 Timothy 4:5, Paul tells Timothy, “Do the work of an evangelist.” Evangelists are mentioned among those the Lord gave the church “for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-12). They thus have an important place in God’s plan for the church, the saved. As the title indicates, the purpose of this article is to tell what place in God’s scheme an evangelist has.

As we noted in the introduction, brethren in the first century had to deal with the logistics of their work and, as we have seen, so must brethren today. All told, such logistics usually demand a large amount of time and money. Sometimes preachers are said to “only work a few hours a week.” Hopefully, the things brought forth in this article will give a greater appreciation for what men in different places go through to preach the Gospel.

Men such as these and Paul, John the Immerser, and Peter would not be allowed in many pulpits today. Though the word of God highly commends them, many, including some brethren, would reject them and their teaching from God. Yes, in times past and present, those who strive to uphold the right ways of the Lord are demonized and maligned so as to prejudice others against them.

The next time you look in a mirror and arrange your hair, etc., trying to enhance what little physical beauty you have, sit down and look at your feet. No one brags on these “less comely” parts of the body (1 Cor. 12:21-24). But God chose this exact analogy to describe gospel preaching in order to eliminate human pride and philosophy from the consideration of those who would preach (1 Cor. 12:28-29).