How you can be a pastoral evangelist

Picture an evangelist. What springs to mind? Perhaps a motormouth with the enthusiasm of a labrador pup, the skin of a rhinoceros’s hide, the social skills of a boisterous toddler, and the patter of a ‘Phones 4 U’ sales rep.

Now picture someone you’d describe as ‘really pastoral.’ What are the images now? Surely it’s endless cups of tea, frowns of concern, head cocked permanently to a 45 degree angle. ‘Aw bless’ they say with an empathy perilously close to patronising.

Recognisable divide

These of course are caricatures, but still recognisable. And they speak to a real divide we can see both in the popular Christian imagination and in church life too. But this divide has nothing to do with the Scriptures. In the Bible, an evangelist is ‘a teller of good news’. A pastor is a shepherd – one who, like David, takes on lions and bears to protect the flock.