2001 Mr. Evangelist

Mr. Evangelist is proclaimed to be great at what he does and I have no reason to doubt that fact. Unfortunately, I only know the Mr. Evangelist that I have met at meetings and then behind the scenes. At meetings, he was the networking type leader, ready with a handshake and a, “Let’s do lunch sometime, okay?” - to be expected.

Behind the scenes, I guess I mean off the stage and not around crowds, he badgered the people that I knew. He was judgmental and accusative. Conversations were all “preachy” and it seemed as if he was always looking for a problem. No, better yet, it seemed that he had already identified a problem (even if this was the first time actually meeting you) before the lunch, the dinner or the coffee conversation. My wife would say that he spoke down to people. Others would say that he simply seemed as if he was better.

I know several people who avoid him. I know a few people who tried to talk to him about it. I know a few who simply got up and left but I only know one man who ever shut him down. After an hour of inquisition from Mr. Evangelist about why this man felt he was good enough to do ministry, the man finally looked at him and answered, “I don’t know what your standards are or who developed them but God told me to do ministry and I am sure of that – I do ministry because God called me. Whether or not that is a good enough answer for you, I don’t know.”

Mr. Evangelist is young and all he knows is going from town to town sharing the Gospel with people who don’t know or aren’t living for Jesus. It is the premise of his call to ministry that people need to repent. Unfortunately, he seems unable at times to assume that some people have it all together. It seems that he has forgotten that if he can live it, then others can too.

Mr. Evangelist seems to have forgotten, as well, that once we are believers, we share lives in fellowship. Fellowship comes with knowing one another and sharing the Lord together and being bound in His Spirit. It is in knowing one another and simply talking and listening to each other that we will sanctify one another. Jesus did not die to fix us but to bring us into fellowship – that was his goal. In fellowship we find edification and sanctification.

One day, I caught myself frustrated in the pulpit and feeling like “we would never get there.” I saw in me what I wasn’t so sure I liked in Mr. Evangelist because, in reality, many in our church have “gotten it” and are great at “it.”

Another day, I found myself judging the actions and choices of another only to realize that I “didn’t know the facts” and hadn’t been spending time in fellowship with the person. I saw in me what I wasn’t so sure I liked in Mr. Evangelist as I rendered quick judgment without having fellowship that might give me the right to speak, the wisdom to understand or the ability to help sanctify.

I am glad that I met this man and saw the frustrations of others as they dealt with him. I am even more certain that as I have grown there have been more than a few who have been frustrated with me. Fellowship is the goal and sanctification and edification will only come from that fellowship.