How to become an evangelist

I'm no expert but I think that you might want to find a church where you can gain experience in being a pastor and have a senior pastor mentor you...expecting to live off donations isn't going to work very well when you're a complete unknown and have no sending church (for being a missionary). I'd start looking for an associate pastor/youth pastor sort of position.

 

I believe you should be talking to successful evangelists first, rather than here. The only guy on the BB who claims to be an evangelist merely goes street preaching a couple of times a month. Also, if you have not read it yet, The Evangelist, by John R. Rice (my grandfather) is an absolute must.

Having said that, I've known many greatly used evangelists, so maybe my advice would help. As others have said, I suggest an internship in a local church first. Most evangelists spend time at one point or another as a pastor. This gives them sympathy for and understanding of the pastors they are trying to help.

Secondly, if you really are called, God will open up opportunities as you serve him. Never turn down an invitation to preacher, no matter how small the church is, unless there are mitigating circumstances.

Finally, the job of an evangelist is, through mass evangelism and personal soul-winning, to encourage revival and soul-winning in the local churches. If you are not out seeking to win souls yourself and encourage evangelism among believers, you'll never be much of an evangelist.

 

Think also good to have established some work skills, as paul was a tent maker, and one can be an accountant, salesman, mechanic etc, and have God iprovide that way also while in the field!

 

You will probably have to begin as either a bivocational evangelist or as an associate pastor. To out of the gate, make it as a traveling evangelist, you better be a fireball that will pack the house.

 

How would you describe "revivalism" in the IFB churches? Is it just the idea that one can schedule a "revival week" ? Is it the idea that an "evangelist" should preach in a local church to reach a lost visitor? Is it when they have an altar call then repeat the sinner's prayer? Can an "evangelist" bring revival to a local church on a certain date in the calendar?

Is the purpose of an "evangelist" is to tell funny stories, play an instrument and swallow gold fishes? Where did IFB churches get all these ideas?

 

You can't really pin down one idea of revivalism common to all IFB churches, of which there are over 13,000.

Here is the view of the church I attend and our college, and the churches and evangelists loosely affiliated with us. An evangelist is one who encourages personal evangelism and mass evangelism in the churches, as Philip the evangelist did.

A revivalist is a preacher, usually an evangelist, who seeks to spread the revival life, including obedience to the Great Commission, a deepened prayer life, a life of complete surrender to Christ and obedience to the Holy Spirit's leading.

Our pastor is leaving today for a conference on prayer in another state, where he and his evangelist brother will preach and teach on how to have a complete hour with God every day: praise, confession, prayer and intercession. This is true revivalism.

For an example of how this version of revivalism is done, see the website "Thee Generation," which is aimed at young people, at: http://www.theegeneration.org/

I wouldn't know where IFB churches got these ideas, because I've never heard any IFB people express this as the purpose of an evangelist, and I've been in the movement all my life--65 years. I've never known an evangelist to swallow a goldfish, though I've heard of youth leaders doing that, and I've known dozens of evangelists. IFB evangelists do tell funny stories, but then so do preachers of all stripes.

The only evangelists I've known to play an instrument are Jack Van Impe (accordion), who left the movement, and Paul Levin (accordion), a wonderful and very godly youth evangelist all his life (in Heaven for years now), who did duets with blind singer Bob Findley (guitar). Why in the world you would object to evangelists playing instruments, I have no idea.

 

Talk to your pastor about it. If you're not doing it under the authority of your church, I think you're making a big mistake.