Evangelists Neglected

Lafayette Heights Baptist Church recently invited Dr. Don Ledbetter, a full-time Southern Baptist vocational evangelist, to lead our church in revival. While Dr. Ledbetter was with us, he shared an alarming statistic. When he entered full-time evangelism 20 years ago, there were more than 3,000 full-time vocational evangelists, but today that number has declined to only 150 full-time evangelists who do not rely primarily on some other means of support such as retirement income or a bivocational job.

I would like to encourage our Alabama Baptist churches and pastors to consider using a full-time vocational evangelist in their work. The Scripture tells us in Ephesians 4:11 that God has given the church four gifts with which to equip the saints for the work of ministry. One of those gifts is the evangelist. To neglect using evangelists would be analogous to a carpenter going out to build a house but refusing to use his saw. How effective could he be without a saw? And how effective can our churches be if we neglect using those whom God has gifted and called as evangelists?

Our churches need revival, and America needs revival. Let’s use every means available, including evangelists, to fulfill that need.

Paul H. Howard
Lafayette, Ala.