Paid Evangelism Opportunities?

There is a real need for local evangelists here in Australia. Churches pay to send missionaries out. Are any Churches paying to support local evangelists? Below is a documented concept for local evangelists to gain financial support within Australia.

In order to recognise and appreciate a solution, it is worthwhile to first understand the problem. The problem is that many evangelists go out for 2 or 3 hours one night per week after work to evangelise in the streets. This is at the end of their day when they are not at their best. They give their best to their employer or their own business and give the exhausted left-overs to their God and the lost.

Churches that hold evangelistic events do their best to promote the events in the community or by asking Church-goers to invite friends. Unfortunately, these events rarely attract many of the lost. There may be a handful of non-Christians who attend, but the majority of attendees and converts are usually Christians and back-slidden church-goers. As a result there is usually little effect in the community.

The Crazy Question: Why aren’t there many full time evangelists within Christian circles?

The Facts:

• Traditionally the role of the evangelist has been to move from event to event in a public speaking role within church events or crusades.
• Every church must have evangelists in it somewhere! Most are not full time practicing evangelists but instead just do some on the side but still maintain regular secular careers. Some evangelists are hibernating and need to be woken, equipped and encouraged.
• Churches send full-time missionaries off to distant lands to reach the lost.
• There are full-time teachers and leaders and ministry workers within the flock but how many evangelists are infiltrating the community full-time?
• Most evangelists are busy working secular jobs so that they can feed their families.
• How many lost people hear full gospel presentations via the average local church? Let’s be generous – perhaps 200 per year?
•  Less than 5% of church goers actively evangelise on a regular basis.
• Churches spend almost all of their resources caring for the saved within their own Church (this includes maintaining a Church building, utilities, rent/mortgage, staff, Church events, counselling etc…) NB. These are all valid and worthy causes, don’t get me wrong.
• How many people could a full-time evangelist reach in a year if he/she was freed from other responsibilities; if that was their full-time job/career, they could focus on what they are passionate about, what they are gifted at and what they are CALLED to do!

The Concept:

Part A: One full-time street evangelist could share a complete Gospel presentation with more than 20 unsaved, un-churched people per day and hand out more than 100 tracts.  If they did this 220 days per year, that is over 4400 gospel presentations with the lost and more than 22,000 Christian tracts per year.

How many Churches reach this many un-churched people, even with their large teams and budgets?

Part B: Where will the evangelists come from and how can we mobilise teams of them?

• Send out teams of evangelists to all Bible-believing Christian Churches to hand out brochures after the services. Recruit and direct people to a website which explains the Concept. Find a few evangelists from every Church. Promote online via websites and advertisements.
• Develop a presentation for business owners etc where they could sponsor evangelists (be it full time or part time).
• Develop website and tracts to support people that are impacted in the community/ a point of contact for them to be followed up, discipled and from where they can access  resources from.
• Develop accountability processes for recording results to show and encourage the sponsors and the local Church.

Potential Dangers:

• Some people could see it as a business opportunity rather than a ministry (sad but possibly true).
• If locked in under a paid salary position, some evangelists could become cold and not rely on the Holy Spirit and risk falling in to the danger of evangelizing to meet quotas.
• It could run the risk of taking away an evangelists passion by putting it in the compulsory/every day job scenario.
• If evangelism was “policed”, would evangelists lose their ability to be Spirit-led?
• If an evangelist back-slid, he/she may be forced financially to live a lie by continuing to evangelise whilst living hypocritically, so as to continue “feeding the family”.
  NB. But, all of these dangers are equally valid for ANY full-time/paid ministry position and are not unique to sponsored evangelism.

Most evangelists are good sales people and with the right training, would not find it too difficult to promote the concept or find sponsors within Christian circles.

Before being considered for a sponsorship as an evangelist, the individual would have to meet strict criteria and complete a volunteer training course and undergo a 2 week full time, on the street, apprenticeship with an experienced mentor (evangelist).