What is the difference between evangelist and apostle

Paul traveled over 10, miles to reach people with the message of the Gospel. Persecution and being stoned did not stop him from sharing the message of Jesus Christ. His life is an example to missionaries today on how to lay your own life down and serve God with everything you have. An evangelist is a person who preaches the Gospel. They are called by Christ to serve Him by preaching.

Their goal is to preach the Gospel in an effective way that people can understand and ultimately lead them to salvation. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Evangelists work to share the Good News to people within their culture. They are dedicated to sharing how Jesus Christ died for our sins and providing people with the opportunity to hear this story.

Billy Graham is one of the most well known American evangelists. His simple message of sin and salvation touched the lives of billions of people. He is famous for his crusades which took place from During , he held a three-week crusade in Los Angeles. Click To Tweet. And when I say build I mean they recruit outsiders and lead them to the gospel of Jesus but connect them to what already exists. They help existing churches grow up and become bigger. The bug to plant and start new communities of faith is the apostolic bug and we cannot confuse this with the evangelistic.

Now, you can be an evangelistic apostle and this is what I am. This is part of the reason it was so hard for me to understand the difference, but also why the language of the apostolic, when I finally got doused with it, really hit me and opened up a whole new world of thinking for me.

It was literally like I could hear God ten times more clearly once I finally knew what the apostolic was and how it was different from an evangelistic calling. Evangelists want to reach new people who are not hearing the gospel and recruit them to Jesus and communities that already exist. Evangelists are not driven the same way planters are to start new things. What do you think of my distinction between apostle and evangelist?

What would you add or take away? Please let us know in the comments. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Sign up to receive our blog posts via e-mail and get instant access to our APE Library with videos, seminars, leaders notes, and more. Beau is the author of "Beyond Awkward: when talking about Jesus is outside your comfort zone". He is called by God is to raise up and release people that want to start new ministries apostolic as well as people that want to share their faith evangelists.

Beau is married to Kristina and they have three kids: Noah 8 , Sophia 6 and Wesley 4. There is certainly a clear distinction between apostles and evangelists, and we could add prophets, shepherds and teachers to that list. What do you think of the idea that apostles are catalytic generalists who usually bring along a share of all of those other abilities when they go out to start something new?

That is certainly the way Neil Cole sees it, and I tend to agree. Chris: I agree with everything you say and will be writing posts on those things you suggest. Cole is great! This post was highlighting two callings that I think we mix up frequently.

I so enjoyed your explanation on the difference between the office of an Evangelist and the office of an Apostle. Someone had asked on a different site the difference and I googled and found your explanation.

It was well worth the time in googling. You are such great teaching , explanation. Unfortunately not many people have been exposed to this sort of thinking. Certainly here in the UK most people would be unlikely to think beyond pastors and evangelists. Apostles were only for the early church or maybe there were only ever twelve of them and evangelists go on missions.

Beau— Great post! Would you be willing to share more on your experience as an evangelistic apostle? In the minds of many people, there is no difference but the Bible makes a distinction and a clarification between a pastor and an evangelist that has been lost in religious circles today.

Paul explained to Timothy and Titus that an elder or pastor had to have specific qualifications to fulfill the role of being a pastor. To serve as a pastor the man excludes women must be blameless, the husband of one wife, believing children, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; with a number of other qualities that distinguish him as a spiritual leader including not being a novice.

An evangelist is a man excludes women who are not required to be married or have children but must take heed to himself and to his teaching in his work of spreading the gospel. His work is preaching and teaching the word of God. The scriptures make a clear distinction between a man who is a pastor and a man who is an evangelist who is a proclaimer of good news as a preacher and minister of the gospel of Christ. The only place it is found in scripture is when the term is used of God Himself.

No preacher is called Father or Clergyman. It is startling to the religious mind to see how easy the Bible is to understand when taken for the face value of Biblical proof. If a man calls himself a pastor, where is the scripture that gives him that right? If he is serving as an elder or bishop or overseer, he can be called an elder. When a preacher calls himself a pastor or when people refer to the preacher young or old as a pastor they are not calling things by Bible terms.

John would suggest in the final chapter of the book of the Revelation that this would be adding to the word of God. The distinctions of a pastor and an evangelist are defined by their qualities and their work.

Not everyone can be a pastor as strict guidelines are given in scripture concerning their qualifications. When a man takes on the role of preaching the gospel of Christ as a proclaimer of truth, he may be called an evangelist or preacher as seen in his role. The denominational use of the pastor is not a Biblical approach to the word of God. This perspective retrospectively applied to the interesting case of the two principal leaders in the first Methodist revival - George Whitfield , the greatest soul-winner of his generation is rightly acknowledged as an office-gift evangelist; whereas John Wesley although a very gifted soul-winner as well, possessed a superior organisational ability that marks him as the apostle of Methodism.

While the two had significant theological differences Calvinism vs Arminianism , the former acknowledged the wisdom of the latter's establishment of his "classes" effectively small group discipleship meetings in these terms:. My brother Wesley acted wisely—the souls that were awakened under his ministry he joined in class, and thus preserved the fruits of his labor. This I neglected, and my people are a rope of sand. I will answer both questions that are asked.

The first question is whether the perceived biblical role of apostles is the same as that of evangelists. Apostle - Friberg Lexicon 1 as one who is sent on a mission with full authority apostle, messenger, envoy JN This is the role taken up by many today and in some churches they are called apostles but in most western churches they're called missionaries. They're specifically sent with authority and their purpose goes beyond preaching the gospel.

They are also expected to start churches and eventually move on leaving local people in charge as pastors, elders, teachers, etc. They often stay in communication with these churches and correct doctrine or deal with bigger internal issues that may arise the local church cannot or doesn't know how to handle. Evangelist - Friberg Lexicon one who brings or announces good news; in the NT evangelist, preacher, or teacher of the gospel AC This role is seen in a few forms.

There are traveling preachers who go from church to church or town to town and preach. Those usually don't stay for a very long time. It could also be someone that preaches around their town on street corners who would point people interested to an already established local church. Billy Graham is an example of an Evangelist. The second question: In regard to churches and traditions that affirm the office of apostle is still distributed in the church today, how do they view the difference between the office of apostle and evangelist?

The only Christian Churches that I've known of to have an office of apostle s are within the Pentecostal denomination. The role varies quite a bit from church to church or from one sub-denomination to another. This is the one item that is the most in common.

That all the apostles are called directly for a mission or purpose that is lifelong.