EVANGELIST OR PREACHER?

EVANGELIST OR PREACHER
(Who am I?)
by Shan Jackson
In recent times many of our brotherhood writers have tried to make an argumentable difference between "evangelist" and "preacher." To the best of my ability to understand their claim is that an evangelist is one that is sent and a preacher is one that stays. But I have a problem trying to differentiate between the two. W.E. Vine says that an evangelist is "a messenger of good" but that sounds a lot like a preacher to me. He also says that a preacher is "a herald of the Gospel" but that sounds a lot like an evangelist. They evangelize the same group (the lost), and they preach the same truth (the New Testament), so it sounds to me like they are one in the same. An evangelist who is not preaching is not an evangelist and a preacher who is not evangelizing is not a preacher. It seems like my high school geometry teacher mentioned something about that (if A=B and B=C then A=C). Regardless of the name if the desire is the same ("To seek and save the lost"), and the truth is also the same (Thy word is truth), then why the big deal about the calling. Remember, "A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet."
So what is the work of an Evangelist/Preacher? Well, by definition an evangelist is a messenger of good. Paul told the young preacher (emp. S.J.) to "do the work of an evangelist" (2 Timothy 4:15), so we realize that spreading the message of good is a work and he also said "He (God) gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists" (Eph. 4:11) thereby showing that this is a God given opportunity. Furthermore, he also defined the opportunity as being for the "perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12). Thus, evangelists must seize on the opportunity to evangelize. This same Paul writing to this same Timothy also said, "Whereunto I was appointed a preacher" (1 Timothy 2:7 ASV), further showing that Timothy was quite familiar with both terms as used by the apostle, teacher, and friend, Paul. This might have caused him to remember Paul's words to the churches in Rome. "How can they hear (hear what? the Gospel) without a preacher" (Romans 10:14).
Evangelist or preacher, it doesn't really matter as long as the same goal is there (to seek and save the lost), and the same method is used (2 Timothy 2:15). That we "preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:2). And that we "hold fast that form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me" (2 Timothy 1:13).
Shan Jackson preaches the gospel in Palacios, Texas

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