The “I’m not an Evangelist” Excuse

Bob FranquizLeadership, Teaching

I am amazed God has allowed Calvary Fellowship to be such an evangelistic church.

Seriously. We see unchurched people coming to know Jesus every single week.

The reason I’m so amazed is because I’m not an evangelist. I’m a Bible teacher. That’s my sweet spot. Teaching through books of the Bible and feeding God’s people is where I’m most comfortable.

While teaching is my primary gifting, my passion is to see lost people found. Nothing gives me greater joy than to see a lost person give their life to Jesus and start growing in their faith.

I know a lot of Pastors who aren’t evangelists (like me) in gifting think we get some sort of pass for not having to preach the Gospel. So we ignore the opportunities to “draw the net” and see people come to faith in Christ.

Can I be honest? I think it’s a cop out. Even if you aren’t an evangelist, we still have to “do the work of an evangelist”.

I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of reasons.

First, I have a book on outreach and evangelism for Pastors coming out on September 15th (Pull: Making Your Church Magnetic). If you would have told me 10 years ago that I was going to write a book on that topic, I would have told you to get your medication adjusted.

Second, Calvary’s 13th anniversary is on September 22nd and we are in the middle of the greatest evangelistic season in our history.

Our story didn’t start out with people giving their lives to Jesus every week. It started with my wife and I and 5 people in a living room. It started with us not reaching anyone in those first 18 months because “I wasn’t an evangelist”. Then I woke up to this fact: God wanted to use our church to reach lost people if I would simply get over myself. The result has been 2,000 people saved in the last 2 years at Calvary.

So let me share 4 thoughts that I think will help you:

#1 – One of the reasons churches stay small is because of the Pastor’s mindset. The Pastor says he isn’t an evangelist and the rest of the church follows suit. When the Pastor changes his mindset, that’s half the battle. Start believing God can use you to lead people to Christ.

#2 – Pastors get frustrated because they employ bad strategies.  I have a belief that if you do the opposite of what the average church does, you’ll probably grow. We need to stop doing outreach that isn’t well thought out. Good coaching can help. Good planning can help too.

#3 – Start Preaching the Gospel. Even if you aren’t gifted in evangelism, God can still use you. Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day. You may never lead evangelistic crusades, but God will use you to lead people to Christ.

#4 – When you make evangelism a priority, your church will make evangelism a priority.  When I started presenting the Gospel in all of our services, unchurched people started attending all of our services. When you present the Gospel each Sunday, it becomes part of the culture of your church and your ministry takes on an evangelistic flavor.

What this world needs is faithful preachers who present the Gospel out of a passion for God and a love for people. Who knows, you may find God blesses it and you start to think you’re gifted as an evangelist.