The Forgotten Officer – A Book Review

Why does the church feel so ill-equipped to share the gospel?  Why are the laity, and even the leadership overcome with fear to share their faith? Why is it so difficult to get people motivated to fulfill the great commission in Mark 16:15 to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature? This book, The Forgotten Officer: Restoring the Fullness of God’s Design by Joe Kohler, brings to the forefront one of the greatest tools that the church has forgotten about, the evangelist. The modern church has pushed out the evangelist and replaced him with tent revivals, traveling preachers, and parachurch ministries. This book biblically shows how the evangelist is to work in and with the local church, alongside the pastor and teacher to grow the church, not shifting believers around from fellowship to fellowship.

The Problem

The main premise of this book is that the officers of Ephesians 4:11-13 (Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) were given by Christ to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, not for reaching the lost themselves. But he doesn’t stop there. He also insists that the local church leadership / eldership should be made up of the pastor, teacher, AND the evangelist. So, what is the model the modern church has taken on instead of the biblical one? The evangelist has been replaced with Youth Pastor, Maintenance Ministry, or Worship Leader.

Whether forgotten or neglected, the result is the same – evangelists are excluded from their proper place in their leadership roles for the church as they were given by Jesus, which will hinder the church from attaining unity of the faith, knowledge of he Son of God, maturity, and the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ according to Ephesians 4:13.

The Solution

The solution that Mr. Kohler offers is that the office of Evangelist needs to be recognized and emphasized as an important part of the leadership structure in the local church in order for the church to grow outside the walls of the community it is in. We have inherited a church culture that does not rightly understand, appreciate, value, or recognize evangelists in the local church. At best, we recognize the ministry of evangelists as a parachurch ministry. We have nullified the word of God with our traditions and therefore lacking an important officer whose job is to help us speak the truth in love, which is critical for us growing up in all aspects into Christ. Pastors and teachers dominate the leadership structures, not evangelists. Sadly, the presupposition that evangelists equal those with the spiritual gift of evangelism has caused pastors to ignore the evangelists all together in the final assessment of local church governance. “Spiritual gift of evangelism” is nowhere found in the bible.

The local church needs evangelists to train the people of God to do the work Jesus commanded believers to do. Without the outward focus of a church being maintained through the leadership of the evangelist, it will naturally become inwardly focused. This is natural because the pastor exists to care for the body by teaching, preaching, counseling, and loving with a focus on the people the Lord has brought to the congregation. Churches are inwardly focused because if only pastors and teachers are present in the leadership and pastors/teachers focus on the health of the body inwardly. We will not become mature when we don’t adhere to all the leadership designed by Christ in Ephesians 4:11-13.
One has to have the recognition of the church as well as the gift and doing the work to be a bishop, evangelist, or deacon in the church. Without some formal recognition and establishment as an official leader, the ability to equip and edify is greatly hindered. Why does the evangelist require a leadership position in the local church? Because why should the congregation adhere to the demands of the evangelist if there is no accountability to the evangelist. We must recognize Christ’s gifting and publicly establish and recognize them in some form in the leadership. Otherwise, the encouragement to obey the evangelist is laughable. We must know who the leaders are if we are to submit ourselves to them.

But this doesn’t stop here. Once an evangelist is publicly established as a leader and recognized as one, many will want to still go to the pastor for guidance in the area of outreach, treating the evangelist as a second-class leader. This practice needs to be corrected thoroughly and quickly. Outreach issues concerning the church should be directed to the evangelist when appropriate. The pastor must clearly communicate that the evangelist’s vision and plans for the body are just as important as his own in order for everyone to work as a team.

Personal Thoughts

I thought this was an excellent book stating the most obvious problem and a solution in the church today. As I started reading the introduction to this book, I was overcome with a feeling equivalent to my team winning the Superbowl. I was overjoyed knowing that many of the questions I had regarding my calling were going to be answered throughout the pages of this book, and indeed they were. I had joy reading the testimonies of Evangelists who are leaders of their local church, teaching members to share their faith, and doing the work they were called by Christ personally to do. I wasn’t jealous or envious or them. I was genuinely happy for them and praised God that they found their place in their calling. That’s awesome.

But being a biblical evangelist that was called by Christ but whose calling is not properly recognized as such by my fellowship and the leadership is a lonely walk. I am active, but dormant. One particular elder numerous times publicly discouraged others in my local church to join me on the streets to reach the lost. No wonder I call it, “Club Frustration”. Ideas get shot down, plans go awry, reminder dates get forgotten in the bulletin. It’s hard to look at an empty outreach signup sheet next to a full one for a pot luck, women’s study, or some fun youth outing.  It’s disheartening. But when things do go well and something happens, it’s short-lived and the excitement doesn’t last. This never was intended to be a pitty-party. But the need for an evangelist leader in the local church is way overdue.

Conclusion

I encourage all Pastors, Teachers, Ministry leaders, and Evangelists who are or are not biblically inserted into local leadership roles to read The Forgotten Officer: Restoring the Fullness of God’s Design by Joe Kohler. Its only $3.99 on Kindle. Think about what is written, what the author is saying. If you are a Pastor, ask yourself why your local fellowship isn’t growing. Shifting believers from one church to another is not growing the church. It may be growing our fellowships, but not the church as a whole. Ask yourself why your programs in the past have died off, or were short lived failing to produce any excitement in the body. Ask yourself why your congregation is timid, fearful, and uninterested in reaching the lost, and what have you done to help guide it. How much consistent quality time have you put in it? Could you as a pastor even do that with your busy schedule as it is? Ask yourself why there is no specific budget for outreach and reaching the lost to which Christ said was our highest calling as children of God.

The only thing that will grow the church, is to preach and evangelize the lost who are outside of it. That is what all Christians are called to do. All Christians. It is the evangelists job to lead them by example, hand in hand with them, teaching them how to do it on their own and make disciples. This is a team effort, and always has been, to work together for the Glory of God.

Updated: 4-Point Case for Christianity

Just an update to a previous post, "4-Point Case for Christianity." I'm adding a You Tube video that was broadcast live last night, of Frank Turek speaking at Eastern Tennessee State University. He covers the 4-point case in more depth in this presentation, plus he takes questions from the audience.

(Original post on 1/14/17) A quick 4-point case for Christianity from Frank Turek that I copied down from "The 5 Minute Apologist." Frank asks and answers the following 4 questions to make his case.
Check it out:

Point 1: Does truth exist?

The Bible cannot be true if there is no truth. (By the way, if there is no truth, neither can any other book be true, including books written by atheists).

Obviously, it pretty easy to say truth does exist: if someone claims “Truth does not exist”, we simply ask, “Is that true?” The Bible claims to be true.

Point 2: Does God exist?

We can’t have a word from God if there is no God. If there’s no God, throw the Bible away, and every other book that talks about God.

But there is much evidence that there is a …

• Spaceless
• Timeless
• Immaterial
• Powerful
• Moral
• Personal
• Intelligent Cause of the universe out there. 

One piece of evidence: the universe exploded into being out nothing. Once there was no space, no matter, and no time, and the entire space-time continuum leapt into existence out of nothing, therefore whatever caused space-time-matter cannot be made out of space, time, or  matter.

• Spaceless-Timeless-Immaterial – we just covered that.
• Powerful – to be able to create the universe out of nothing.
• Moral – absolute, existential morality exists. Is it ever right to molest children for fun? No matter where or when, we know this is wrong. Why? Because God is an absolutely moral being.
• Personal – impersonal forces can’t choose to create anything, only a person can.
• Intelligent – to be able to fine-tune the universe to the degree that it is.

Point 3: Are miracles possible?

Obviously, the Bible can’t be true if miracles are not possible. But there are very good evidences that miracles have occurred, and certainly the greatest miracle in the Bible has already occurred, in the first verse: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” If that verse is true, then every other verse is at least believable.  We just went through an argument for this first verse in the Bible being true. If that verse is true, certainly every other miracle claim in the Bible could be true.

So when people tell me, “I don’t believe in miracles” I tell them, “Look around you – you’re living in one. This universe is a miracle.”

Point 4: Do the New Testament documents tell us the truth about history?

In other words, are they historically reliable? There is a lot of great evidence that they are telling us the truth. One of these evidences, certainly not exhaustive or conclusive in itself, is what is called “Embarrassing Testimony.”

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are full of embarrassing details that no one would include if they were making this up. Moses argued with God to send someone else; Abraham was a liar; David was an adulterer and a murderer; the Israelites consistently refused to believe or trust God after seeing miracle after miracle; the disciples run away at the crucifixion, and who are the brave ones? The women! Is any man going to make that up? The men wrote these documents, and yet they wrote down that they were Mr. Sissy Pants, while the women were the brave one’s who went down to discover the empty tomb.

Now there’s other evidence too:

• Early testimony
• Eye Witness testimony
• Excruciating testimony (these people died for what they said they saw)
• Extra-Biblical testimony (other writers talking about this)
• Expected testimony  (dealing with Old Testament fulfillment of detailed prophecy)

Falling In Place: Paul Harvey's "If I Were The Devil"

I heard this radio message from 1965 on Jan Markell's "Understanding the Times" podcast today. I've heard it before, but it was a good reminder of the days we're living in, where we were all those years ago, and where we're heading. Like Jan states, "...things aren't falling apart, they are falling in place." The Bible tells us of perilous times in the last days: days of great spiritual deception and of a growing darkness & a loss of love in the souls of men. 
All the more reason Christians need to be living the truth of God's word and sharing the hope of the gospel with those all around us.

Here is Paul Harvey's message, and just a couple of my comments at the end.

PAUL HARVEY’S ‘IF I WERE THE DEVIL’ 

 

 
 Here is the transcript:
"If I were the devil … If I were the Prince of Darkness, I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness. And I’d have a third of it’s real estate, and four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree — Thee. So I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States. 

I’d subvert the churches first — I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: ‘Do as you please.’
“To the young, I would whisper that ‘The Bible is a myth.’ I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what’s bad is good, and what’s good is ‘square.’ And the old, I would teach to pray, after me, ‘Our Father, which art in Washington…’

“And then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I’d pedal narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

“If I were the devil I’d soon have families that war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions — just let those run wild, until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

“Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing, I’d have judges promoting pornography — soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money. If I were the devil I’d make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

“If I were the devil I’d take from those, and who have, and give to those wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And what do you bet? I could get whole states to promote gambling as thee way to get rich? I would caution against extremes and hard work, in Patriotism, in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on the TV is the way to be. And thus I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. 

In other words, if I were the devil I’d just keep right on doing on what he’s doing. Paul Harvey, good day.”
  
Friend, if you are without Jesus Christ, please open your ears and your heart to hear the message of God's grace for you, in what Jesus Christ did for you, before it is everlasting too late.

Brother or sister in Christ: let revival begin with you, and pursue God and His purpose for you in this brief, earthly life. Live for Jesus your King, and let your life and your words shine forth for Him as you reach out to the lost. Tell someone what great things God has done for you, while you can (Luke 8:39)

Back of the Napkin Theology: A Problem of the WIll

Sometimes the back of a napkin is the handiest thing to write on. I jotted this down while listening to someone preaching or teaching the word, but I can't remember who it was. Maybe J. Vernon McGee. Anyway, it's been laying around on my desk, or in with my notes, and I thought it was a good nugget of truth to share:

 

It reads:

If you are in unbelief today:

the problem is not with the word of God;

the problem is with you.

The problem is not in the mind;

the problem is in the will.

 "...many infallible proofs,...."

Acts 1:3

 

7 Rules for Pilgrims & Strangers

FRESH BREAD!

I love it when a box of Bibles arrives: I call it a "fresh batch of bread." Can't wait to get these out to hungry souls. 

I look at these and wonder, what impact will the explosive Word of God have in the lives of the people who accept them...their children, and their grandchildren? 

 Jeremiah 23:29  

"Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"

 In Heaven, will we see how God used His word to alter the course of history in peoples lives, for their good and His glory?

Something else to share with you today: 7 Rules for Pilgrims & Strangers, based on 1 Peter 2:11...

"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" 

Here we go:
1. Travel "light"(Colossians 3:2)
-If we don't get to do everything we want in this life, it's not the end
2. Keep moving (1 Peter 1:4)
-we have a guaranteed inheritance in Christ awaiting us
3. Live for the destination (Hebrews 11:10)
-Live in this world like you would if you were sent abroad on "temporary assignment"
4. Live by the values of the Homeland (1 Peter 1:24,25; Romans 12:1,2)
-don't grovel for what the world has to offer
5. Don't expect to be treated like Permanent Residents (John 15:19)
-The Lord Jesus appeared, and was hated by the world. If He is your Master, do you expect better treatment?
6. Live like an Ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20)
-We are representatives of the King of Kings and must conduct ourselves to properly reflect our King
7. Don't try to be what you are not (1 Corinthians 6:10,11; Ephesians 5:8

Remember where you came from, who bought you, where you are headed, and why you are here. LIVE LIKE THAT!