The Evangelist and the Local Church

“You don’t understand, Josh! I’m passionate about evangelism, but my church isn’t. I feel like they are pulling me down and putting out the fire within me. I’ve decided not to go to church anymore – I will simply go out evangelising.”

I can’t begin to tell you the number of times I’ve heard people make comments like the statement above. Recently, I met a young man who is full of zeal, but he refuses to attend church as they don’t want him to evangelise in the way he wishes. As a result, he is running around by himself as a ‘lone ranger.’

In some ways, I understand the frustration. Evangelists are ‘get up and go’ types of people. We see the lost around us, and we want to take the good news to them. We have big hearts, and we long to see people come to know the love of Jesus. But then we look around, and we see that people don’t always have the same drive as we do. As a result, we begin to question if the church is worth it. When I first started in evangelistic ministry, all I wanted to do was spend my time speaking with people; if that meant I had to skip church, then so be it! Thankfully, the Lord put godly leaders and mentors into my life who were able to direct me on a more biblical path. While zeal is good, zeal without knowledge is not (Proverbs 19:2).

The truth is - evangelists need the local church. We are made by God to be in fellowship, not lone guns running around doing our own thing. I would even go a step further by declaring that it is counter-biblical for someone in evangelistic work to separate themselves from a local church.

Let me make the biblical case for why we as evangelists need the local church. Also, I would suggest that if you claim to be an evangelist, yet are not in submission to a local church, then you need to step down from ministry until such time as you are acting biblically.

1. Gospel Workers Are Sent Out by the Local Church

When we consider the ministry of the Apostle Paul, it is easy for us to focus on the later parts of his work. Yet, what we need to remember is that Paul started somewhere. Even though Paul was called to be an Apostle, we are told in Acts 13:1-3 that he was still accountable to the local church.

Acts 13 tells us it was the church in Antioch which, after prayer and fasting, set apart Paul for gospel work. Paul wasn’t a lone ranger. He didn’t run around doing his own thing; rather, he was sent out by the local church.

Since the Apostle Paul was sent by a church, then surely it stands to reason that today’s gospel workers need to be endorsed and sent out by a local church also. Moreover, since Paul showed submission to the local church, then today’s evangelists need to show submission too.

To operate independently of the church is to be counter-biblical.

2. God Makes the Local Church Central

If the local church isn’t important, and if God doesn’t care if we are in fellowship or not, then why are many New Testament epistles written to local churches or those in local churches (1 Corinthians 1:1-2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; Philemon 1-2)?

God spends much time giving the Scriptures to the churches, not to some lone ranger evangelist. The pattern we see in the New Testament is that the local church has a central role in spreading God’s redemptive plan to the world. Jesus loves the church, and He walks amongst His churches (Revelation 1:9-20). Why would we want to separate from God’s plan to spread the good news?

The example of the New Testament is that the local church plays a central role. To be separate from the church is to be counter-biblical.

3. God Places New Converts in Local Churches

I’ve heard many evangelists declare they aren’t interested in having people come to church, but I would suggest that is opposite to what we see in the Book of Acts. As we read through Acts, we see the Holy Spirit doing many wonderful deeds. People are being converted and revival is spreading, but where do all the new converts go? What we see is they all end up in local churches! When people are saved, churches are formed.

I don’t doubt that every God-called evangelist wants to see people saved, but if someone is converted, then what should we do with that person? The example we see in Acts is that the new Christian should join a local church. It would be complete hypocrisy for an evangelist to recommend new Christians go to a Bible-believing church, while at the same time refusing to attend himself. God places Christians in local churches; to refuse to attend a church is to be counter-biblical.

4. God has Given Ministry Gifts to Local Churches

If the local church isn’t important, then why are we told that God has given gifted men to the church? Ephesians 4:11-13 teaches that particular ministry gifts, including evangelists, have been given to the church. These gifts are not to be used for the individual Christian but for the entire local church.

Further, the Bible teaches that within local churches, God has established leadership positions that are to be filled by qualified men (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-16; 1 Peter 5:1-4). These qualified men are appointed as leaders within the local church, and it is to those leaders the local congregation is called to submit (1 Peter 5:5; Hebrews 13:17).

How can a lone ranger evangelist say they are in submission to the leaders God has placed over them if they do not attend church? Not so long ago, I spoke to a young man in Portsmouth who claimed to be an evangelist. He refused to attend church and opposed all local churches. I asked him if he believed the Bible, and he affirmed he did. So, I asked who were the elders he submitted to. His response was to say he submits only to Jesus. That, quite simply, is not the biblical pattern of Christianity.

By separating from the local church, the evangelist isn’t operating in the gift he claims to have; rather, he is rebelling against the God-ordained example we have in the New Testament. Leaders in local churches are given the role of shepherding those who have been bought with the blood of Christ (Acts 20:28). How can this occur if the evangelist refuses to be in submission to a local church?

5. God Commands Christians to Physically Gather

Hebrews 10:25 is a well-known verse that commands Christians not to forsake gathering together. Sadly, some, in an attempt to justify their rebellion against God, have said this verse isn’t speaking of the local church, rather it can be fulfilled with just a couple of Christians gathering for a coffee and chat.

Such an interpretation is in error and ignores the context and the original Hebrew audience being addressed. When it comes to biblical interpretation, we must always ask who was the initial audience. In the case of Hebrews, it was the Jewish people in the first century. Once we know the original audience, we can then ask, ‘How would they have understood this verse?’

As we look at Hebrews 10:25, we notice it mentions ‘assembling together.’ The Jewish reader would have interpreted the word ‘assemble’ through the lens of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, corporate religious gatherings were called ‘assemblies’ (Psalm 89:7, 107:32, 111:1). These gatherings were formal and structured. They were not individuals meeting together to chat about spiritual things. Hebrews 10:25 must be understood in this light.

When we are commanded not to forsake gathering together, we are being commanded not to separate from the gathering of the local church. We know this gathering is to be formal and structured because 1 Corinthians 11-14 explains how we should act when we come together. Every Lord’s Day (Sunday), we are commanded to assemble; to refuse to be part of the local church is to violate Hebrews 10:25.

6. God Uses the Local Church to Correct and Teach Us

All Christians know of the battle with sin. There are times when we war against sin, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we overcome. But then there are occasions when we have blind spots or times when we go off into sin. In those cases, the Lord has chosen to use the local church to bring correction (Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5).

If an evangelist separates himself from the local church, then he is choosing to remove one of the means God has ordained for his sanctification. To be isolated away from the local church is not healthy for the evangelist (or indeed for any Christian).

God has also chosen to use the local church as the means of teaching, fellowship, and the administration of the ordinances – baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34). By refusing to attend church, the evangelist separates himself from the God-ordained means of growth. The church is the pillar of truth (1 Timothy 3:15), so if we want to grow in truth, we need to be in a local church.

I fully understand the frustration of being evangelistic, yet feeling like the local church is restricting. I’ve been there – I understand. But our feelings are irrelevant. What matters is what God says in His Word. God commands us to be in the local church. He has established the local church, not a bunch of lone rangers. To separate yourself from the local church is to be counter-biblical.

Evangelist, love and serve the church. Find a good local church to attend and submit to the leadership God appoints over you. If you refuse to submit to a local church, then you are not qualified for ministry, and you are showing that you’re not currently called to be an evangelist.

Don’t be counter-biblical; instead, make much of Jesus by being in the local church, just as God commanded.