Scarce commodity

I would like to comment on “Evangelists Neglected,” which appeared in the Oct. 16 issue of The Alabama Baptist. Although we cannot be dogmatic about the interpretation, most consider that God gave not four but five gifts to the church to equip the saints for ministry. That is: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. I have come to believe we Baptists will generally use another pastor to preach our revivals instead of a full-time evangelist for several reasons. The first, I believe, is the lack of a necessary financial commitment on our part. A pastor who already has a full-time church only “needs” a small love offering. A full-time evangelist must receive enough from a revival to support himself or herself and a family. Most will give to missions rather than a visiting preacher. A second reason may be that only the evangelists who can minister under a strong anointing of the Holy Spirit will be successful and survive. So there may not be enough evangelists to preach our revivals. And also, we cannot know just how many God is calling to serve as evangelists at this time in our church. We must also ask ourselves do we want to have a revival or an evangelistic crusade at our churches.

Aaron Bruce
Hokes Bluff, Ala.