Personality Of An Evangelist Series

Personality of an Evangelist

One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex was staring up at the large plaque that hung in the foyer of the church. The plaque was covered with names, and small national flags were mounted on either side of it. The seven-year-old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside him and said quietly, "Good morning, Alex."

"Good morning, Pastor," replied the young man, still focused on the plaque.

"Pastor , what is this?" Alex asked.

"Well, son, it’s a memorial to all the men and women who have died in the service."

Soberly, they stood together, staring at the large plaque.

Little Alex’s voice was barely audible when he finally managed to ask, "Which one, the 9:00 or 10:30 service?

I hope we will not have any such casualties during this morning service after my sermon.

We are still fresh from the Christmas season. For many of us, Christmas is not just a celebration. We try and use this season to influence others and to get others know about Christ and the Gospel. Many organisations organise Christmas events for non Christians and try to get across the real meaning of Christmas to as many people as possible. Even on the Christmas day, we try to call our neighbors, our colleagues, friends, especially non believers to our homes so that we can share the joy of Christmas with them. And many of us do this with a genuine desire to get the Christmas message across to them. So the burden to reach out and explain the message of Christmas, the Gospel, is there with many of us. This is good, God has called us to do exactly that. God tells us that the harvest is plenty, and workers are few. (Luke 10:2) . Hence it is the right thing for us to think about what we can do in this area of However, many of us struggle to find the right ways to reach out, the right ways to convey the good news. We are faced with questions.. what is the right thing to do? What is the right thing to say, will they get offended if we say some thing? How open should I be about the gospel to others?

This is a question which haunts many of us who want to do ministry… or in other words, am I Shaped for Ministry work? SHAPE is an acronym coined by Rick Warren, Author of “Purpose driven Life” and “Purpose Driven Church”. He coined this in the context of Leadership. However I would like to use it for ministry too.

1) Spiritual Gifts (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12) : What are the spiritual gifts that I have been endowed with, for ministry?

2) Heart or Passion : Do I have passion for ministry?

3) Abilities or Natural Skills : What are the abilities and skills that God has given me for Ministry? Am I willing to dedicate those skills for the

4) Personality : What personality traits of mine should I use for ministry?

5) Experiences: What experiences have I had in the past that I should use for furthering the ministry?

I am going to dwell on just the personality part of the SHAPE this morning. What are the right aspects of personality to do ministry, where we are placed, In our neighborhood, in our workplace, in our business, in our friends circle. I am not talking about full time missionaries here. I am talking about you and me, who live among the quote unquote “pagans” and are called to influence them so that they may have same hope that we have too.

My studies reveal to me that there are six aspects of the personality that we need to be conscious about to do ministry in our own space.

We need to be a person of the six P’s for us to be able to do ministry effectively.

The first P is the Person of Peace. Talking of peace, I am reminded about a story. You might have heard about the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem

In Jerusalem, a CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Wailing Wall to pray, twice a day, everyday, for a long, long time. So she went to check it out. She went to the Wailing Wall and there he was!

She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, she approached him for an interview.

"I’m Rebecca Smith from CNN. Sir, how long have you been coming to the Wall and praying?"

"For about 60 years."

"60 years! That’s amazing! What do you pray for?"

"I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims. I pray for all the hatred to stop and I pray for all our children to grow up in safety and friendship."