Are all believers an evangelist is a question that was asked in a bible study class I found years back, the question emanated from these two verses of the bible 2 Timothy 4:5 & Ephesians 4:11
2 Timothy 4:5
[5]But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, DO THE WORK OF AN EVANGELIST, make full proof of thy ministry.
Ephesians 4:11
[11]And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and SOME EVANGELIST; and some, pastors and teachers;
The person that asked this question thought was thought was that everyone should be an evangelist since the work of an Evangelist is evangelism. Also, Evangelism is an assignment given to all believers and not some.
I will be doing justice to this in case my readers may also be having this confusion in mind. Ephesians 4:11 give us an insight into the 5 fold ministry which areas are:
1. Apostle (Apostolos-apostolos – the sent/delegate/ambassador)
2. Prophet (prophets – inspired speaker)
3. EvangelistsEvangelist (evangelists – preachers of the gospel)
4. Pastor (poymane – Shepherd/bishop/overseer)
5. Teacher (didaskalos – teacher)
All believers are privileged in a sense to work in a dimension of each of these folds looking at their meaning, let me analyze it further:
1. Apostle: this means the sent or an ambassador, the Bible says we are an ambassador for Christ 2 Corinthians 5:20, we are all sent from heaven to this world to represent the interest of God on earth.
2. Prophet: A prophet is an inspired speaker that is having the ability to see visions and we can see from the letter of Paul to the Corinthians that all believers are having the ability to speak as inspired prophet Joel also prophesy that all believers can see visions, this is the prophetic dimension of all believers.
3. Pastor: A pastor is an overseer, someone that cares for a particular set of people, and when you look into the scope of Christian leadership, you will see that all believers that are serving in the kingdom of God have one time or the other oversee some certain set of people which qualify them to be a pastor at one time or the other.
4. Teacher: A teacher is someone that teaches the word of God, it is expected that all believers should be able to teach the word of God as it is even a command given to all believers by Jesus that we should go and teach all the nations.
5. Evangelist: An evangelist is a preacher of the Gospel, which is the responsibility of all that believes
We’ve seen the aspect that concerns all believers but that doesn’t annul the office of the fivefold offices. The office of an Evangelist is predestined, it is not stepped to by wishes, those that work in it operate deeply in the power gifts (working of miracles, faith, and gifts of healing), and they must know how to preach and make their message simple and they are called into the ministry fully because of the itinerary makeup of the ministry. As far as preaching the gospel constitute their major assignment, that doesn’t mean that believers don’t have the responsibility of preaching the Gospel again. Preaching the Gospel is a commandment given to us by Jesus before He ascended to heaven.
Mark 16:15
[15]And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
This means all believers are having an evangelistic assignment, and we are expected to do the work of an evangelist anywhere we find ourselves.