What
on earth is a Catholic
Evangelist?
By Eddie
Russell FMI
A
foot in the door, Bible in your face
unwelcome visitor, calling at the wrong
time of the day to tell you that you are
in the wrong church and going to hell
unless you get a full immersion baptism as
an adult, is what the word evangelist
seems to conjure up in most people's
minds.
Also,
the words evangelisation, evangelism,
evangeliser, evangelist all sound the same
to many people who might think they are
all different expressions of the same
thing and, not very Catholic to say the
least.
Another
commonly held belief is that anyone who
gives witness to and about Jesus is an
evangelist. That is a truism of
course, but it is not an accurate
understanding of the work and ministry of
an evangelist. So what in the world do we
mean by the term, Catholic Evangelist and
what in the world do they do?
An
evangelist is a specific office and charism within
the Church.
In
Ephesians 4: 11-12. Saint Paul says, “And he
gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others
as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to
equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for
building up the body of Christ.”(NAB). We can see from Saint Paul’s
teaching that the work of an evangelist is a
specific ministry within the Church that also
includes the ministry of the preacher and teacher.
In it he says that the function of the fivefold
ministries is to equip the holy ones for the work
of ministry which builds up the Church.
This of course includes conversions which add to
its numbers. Anyone not doing these two functions
is not an Evangelist although they may well be
involved in the work of evangelisation and
functioning as an evangeliser. In addition, the
ministry of the Evangelist is an office, a specific
calling and a charism which should be recognised
and commissioned by the Church.
Effective
evangelisation: We must be convinced of
our own salvation first.
Before
we can be successful in our evangelisation
we need to be knowledgeable of the Bible
and convinced of our own salvation in
order to give an effective witness to the
saving grace of Jesus Christ to
unbelievers. If we have any doubts at
all people will pick it up and reject our
witness as empty doctrine. If we are not
properly informed we will be tempted to
give our own opinions or personal
theologies and both will invalidate our
witness. This will be especially so if the
one we are evangelising is fundamentalist
bible believing Christian, a cultist or
one who simply asks the difficult
questions.
Those involved in pagan and New-age Movement are
usually aware of the Bible, Jesus, the Christ or
god. If we lack in our definitive understanding
of what the true God of the bible has revealed
about Jesus, we will fail to convince even the most
ignorant new-ager or skeptic. To this end, the work
of an evangelist has two major functions:
Instructing Christians in the Word of God in line
with the teachings of the Church and bringing
unbelievers and nominal Christians to
conversion.
In the area of instruction and
evangelisation, Flame Ministries International
was founded in 1990 under Archbishop Foley to meet
the specific needs of the New Evangelisation in
line with the spirit of Ad Gentes, Dei Verbum,
Christafidelis Laici and Evangelii Nuntiandi which
also included bringing disenfranchised Catholics
back to the Mass and the Sacraments.
In 1996 Flame Ministries International was
granted canonical recognition as an
‘association of Christ’s faithful’
(Canon 301) entitled to use the name
“Catholic” (Canon 300).
Commissioned by Archbishop Hickey as
"Catholic Evangelists", Eddie Russell and David
Harp are the only Officially Recognised Evangelists
in FMI. The other twenty members assist in the
ministry by performing many practical and
ministerial functions including Intercessory
Prayer, Music Ministry, film editing, sound
recording, theatre arts, administration, and
general helps. [About
FMI]
A
formal recognition needed.
Unless
formally commissioned by a Bishop, it is likely
that many speakers using the title of Catholic
evangelist, are not in reality Evangelists in terms
of the office or ecclesial appointment: They use
the title because they evangelize either by
personal testimony, or they do the work of an
evangelist in the area of preaching, or, as many
would say, give talks.
The title 'Evangelist" is both functionary as
well as an "office." To function as an
Evangelist or to use the title does not mean that
the person is an Evangelists in regards to the
ministerial office that is officially recognized,
appointed or commissioned by the Church whether lay
or otherwise.
In the case of Flame Ministries International, the
Evangelists were Appointed and Commissioned by
Archbishop Barry James Hickey through the Laying on
of Hands. This was later repeated with vows of
obedience in a public ceremony for that purpose by
Bishop Healy and this is universally recognized by
all Catholic Bishops.
Flame:
Equipping the saints for the work of the
ministry.
In
the area of ‘equipping the
saints’ as Saint Paul puts it, the
Set
My People On
Fire
seminars which have been conducted in
Perth twice a year since 1990 as well as
in England, have been the major ongoing
outreach of FMI in the formation and
re-evangelisation of Catholics as well as
achieving many conversions to the Catholic
Faith in Australia, Singapore,
Malaysia,Indonesia, Uganda, Mexico,
England, Portugal and the USA. Many parish
missions, revival rallies and evangelistic
outreach missions have also been
successfully conducted in these
countries.
Saint Jerome said that, “Ignorance
of the Bible is ignorance of
Christ”. These in-depth Bible seminars
therefore have a threefold function for
effective evangelisation.
Firstly,
they introduce people to a fuller knowledge of the
Trinity through the Word of
God,encouraging
participants to accept Jesus Christ as their
personalLord
and to be open to the direct action of the Holy
Spirit as it was experienced at the first
Pentecost. (The consequence of which was the
conversion of thousands and the birth of the
Church).
Secondly, they instruct participants in
subjects that give a solid formation in the Word of
God that builds their personal esteem and
scriptural knowledge. Thirdly, they equip
participants in the practical work of
evangelisation wherever they are called to be a
witness to their faith. Each five week segment is
joined by three full weekends that allow key bible
subjects to be examined and understood in greater
depth.
The seminars follow a simple threefold formula;
they equip, build and send forth. With a balanced
enthusiasm to set God’s people on fire for the
Gospel and a greater ability to combat
fundamentalist errors, the participants can become
more effective evangelisers in the parishes and
groups to which they belong.
There
are many ministries involved in the work of
evangelisation.
However, many of them evangelise into
themselves and seek to make people members of their
own group. Unlike those ministries FMI does not
evangelise into itself, but into the Church. The
role of the evangelist is to make people members of
the local Church and not members of their own
ministry. Therefore, like Jesus, we are small in
numbers.
Jesus
and his disciples is the model we
follow.
To
understand the different roles of the
evangeliser and the evangelist; preacher,
and teacher we could take our model from
Jesus and his disciples. It was Jesus
practice to send his disciples ahead of
him when he was planning to minister in a
particular place.
The disciples would arrive some days
earlier and tell the people what Jesus had
said and done in the other towns and area
he had visited. They would testify that he
was the messiah by the works and messages
that they had witnessed. They told the
people when and where Jesus would be when
he arrived and encouraged them to be there
to hear his message. When Jesus arrived
the people were gathered in
anticipation. When the time was right
Jesus would.proclaim the
Kingdom
to themand
invite them in. Jesus didn't try to be popular but
effective and this gained acceptance as well as
rejection, especially from the priests.
In
these two roles we see that the disciples were the
evangelisers and Jesus was the
evangelist:
The role of the evangeliser was to bring the people
to the evangelist. The evangelist’s role was
to proclaim the Gospel and bring the people into
the Kingdom. Jesus as the evangelist was also
the preacher and teacher. He then sent the people
to the priests (pastors) for their ongoing
nurture and then he moved on to gather more sheep
into the fold.
Evangelists
can seem to be irresponsible
people.
The
priests of Jesus day (pastors) didn't like
the way he stirred up the people and then moved on
to somewhere else, and so they considered him an
irresponsible and dangerous upstart. Nothing much
has changed today. Many leaders still consider
evangelists to be irresponsible people because they
come into the church, parish or the group, stir up
the people's faith and leave them to deal with
it.
In the past we have been asked by Charismatic
Renewal leaders, “What are you doing about
follow-up?” Our answer is usually a polite,
somewhat cheeky, “Nothing”. Why? Because
it is the role of leaders and pastors to provide
ongoing follow-up, not the evangelist. If anyone
leaves the Church or the group after the evangelist
has called them to a commitment to Christ, then it
is not the fault of the evangelist who brought them
in, but rather those responsible for their ongoing
formation, growth and participation in the
community.
The
ministry and role of the evangelist is itinerant by
its nature.
The
ministry and role of the evangelist is to proclaim
the Gospel, bring the people to accept their
salvation through Jesus Christ, empower them by the
Holy Spirit and hand them on the pastor for their
ongoing nurture and instruction in the believing
community where they live. Therefore, the
evangelist’s ministry is itinerant by its
nature and so he moves on to bring in more of the
harvest. Thus the process of evangelisation,
equipping and growth continues for the building up
of the body of Christ.
Of course, the evangelist will return as many
times as they are welcomed. When they do
return, they will inspire the people again by
encouraging and teaching them to stay committed to
their community and faith in Jesus Christ. One
particular example is the Five Nights of Fire (5NF)
at the St. Louis Catholic Church in Pinecrest,
Miami, Florida. The annual event has seen people
attend from distances as far apart as Argentina and
Alaska. Over this time, parish attendance has grown
significantly. To assist in this, FMI also have
around sixteen seminars
and follow up programs which can also be adapted to
suit the specific needs of the people, parish,
group or church.
A
visiting evangelist can be a breath of fresh air
for the pastor and his
flock.
The
pastor spends a lot of time with the people often
giving homilies every week. After a while the
people become too familiar with him and close off.
The evangelist can be a breath of fresh air for the
people and can usually say things and cover topics
that the pastor dare not lest he be rejected.
Pastors that understand the value of a visiting
evangelist will use them to attract new members and
inspire their congregations.
To this end, Flame Ministries International write,
conduct and preach various bible seminars,
evangelistic revival rallies, parish missions,
youth ministry, family concerts, theatre arts,
school missions and conferences in and for, both
Catholic and non-Catholic churches. So far these
missions have been to Uganda, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Singpore, Portugal, England, Scotland, Mexico, USA,
and around Australia.
3 young Buddhist accept Jesus as Lord
at St. Michael's Church, Singapore.
Flame
Media Evangelisation: FMI have
published books, a magazine, newsletter,
music Cds and videos. Articles published
and distributed in over fourteen countries
as part of a vision for a wider form of
evangelisation.
During 2003 FMI began FMITV & Video
Productions and began filming our
Congresses and Seminars. These productions
are produced for Television and suitable
for Wide Screen Digital TV. Each
production is also available to purchase
in Video and DVD.
What effect can an evangelist have for
the local Church?
Considering the enormity of some mission
outreaches it is difficult to estimate the
numbers of people that have received
salvation through the work of FMI and its
evangelists.
However an example would be a preaching
mission to Singapore which saw over 150
youth return to the Church at a youth
rally where around 2000 youths came to
hear Catholic evangelist Eddie Russell
preach a message. During that week alone
several Buddhist youths accepted Jesus
Christ and approximately 8,000 people
attended Eddie’s rallies where many
conversions and healing were reported.
In Malaysia the following year thousands
attended Eddie’s rallies in Kuala
Lumpur and Penang where hundreds also
received healing, conversion and a renewed
faith. In Australia FMI have conducted
interdenominational evangelistic missions
in Mandurah, Northampton, Port Hedland,
Perenjori, Dardanup, Esperance and
Pemberton as well Perth and Melbourne.
Kuala
Lumpur and Penang, Malaysia.
Archdiocese
of Mexico
During
August/September 2002 Flame Ministries'
Evangelist Eddie Russell was invited to
Mexico to conduct a national
evangelisation mission. Invited by Fr.
Dan Gagnon OMI, Director of the Commission
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archdiocese
of Mexico, Eddie and FMI's Moderator for
Youth And Music, Patrick Carre were
Officially Welcomed to Mexico by Norberto
Card. Rivera Carrera, Arzobispo Primada de
Mexico who gave his blessing for the
mission which reached millions of people.
Eddie preached in many Catholic Churches
and Charismatic Conferences around Mexico
including Guadalajara, Tonola Jalisco, Los
Remedios, Quaratero, Coyoacan, Coacalco
State of Mexico, Predicadores de Pueblo:
Martin Rivera, Mexico City and many other
places where thousands attended to hear
him speak.
While in Mexico City, he was also
invited to do two, two hour shows on
Claravision Catholic TV which has a live
audience of 25 million people throughout
Latin South America, USA, Canada and
Alaska. These shows were very
successful and gained a positive feedback
to the station. Following on from Mexico
to Miami in Florida USA, the effect of a
visiting evangelist had a very positive
effect on St. Louis Catholic Church. The
effect was such that after the first
night's experience, parishioners were
phoning friends all over Florida
encouraging them to attend the rest of the
mission. As mentioned previously, the
result of this became an annual event
called 5 Nights of Fire.
Mexico
Nuevo. crowds press in for healing and
prayer.
An
evangelist can address
governments:
Shire President Mr. Brian Baxter -
Left.
WA
Rural Summit
2001. Convened by the Perenjori Shire
Council and sponsored by the Minister for
Agriculture, Hon. Kim Chance MLC, the
National Civic Council, Elders, Midwest
Development Corporation and Agriculture
W.A, Eddie was invited by the Shire
President, Mr. Brian Baxter to be part of
a panel of experts to address the plight
of Australian farmers in today’s
troubled rural economy. After his address,
which was later reported in the rural
press, a non Christian farmer commented.
“That message was exactly what we
needed. I’ve never heard religion put
that way before. It wasn't what I
expected. It was very practical and easy
to understand - Excellent!”
An
evangelist can affect the morals of a whole Shire.
The impact of his message at the Rural Summit
not only inspired farmers to a new vision but it
also had an effect on the morals of the whole
community. "Eddie, you've done a great job." Shire
President Mr. Brian Baxter said afterwards. "The
people of Perenjori are now reassessing their moral
values thanks to you and FMI. People are still
talking about your session. You’ve made a big
impact. A lot is going to come from this." He
said.
Flame in Kasese, Uganda
The
Gospel is in fact practical and easy to
understand.
The
messages preached and taught by the
evangelist are delivered in a language and
in such a way that those without faith,
knowledge or belief can accept them. This
can easily irk the intellectual and
religious-minded because it is the message
of Christ expressed in the simple
colloquial language of the people.
An evangelist does not give
‘talks.’ Although many
practical and personal examples are given
in the messages, the evangelist preaches
and teaches from the texts in the Bible
and explains them in a manner
that can be understood by the listeners.
Flame in Masaka, Uganda
This
is not so much that the listener can be
educated, but that they can accept it in a
personal life-changing experiential
way: The evangelist, preacher and
teacher, is not so much interested in what
they think the text means to themselves,
but rather what God
intended it to mean.
Therefore, the messages are all based on
the Word of God and what it means for us
in today’s context. In addition, the
evangelist will always give the people an
opportunity to make a personal decision to
accept Jesus and their salvation. This is
often referred to as an altar-call and
people will be invited to step forward as
a sign of conscious acceptance.
An
evangelist meets the challenge of today’s
rejection of
Christ.
If
we do not feed our children good food they
will go to their friend’s house to
eat. If not there, they will certainly be
attracted to junk food. No one with ears
to hear and eyes to see can deny the ever
increasing numbers of Catholics that leave
the Church each year either to join
fundamentalist sects or give up
altogether. Neither can we ignore the
denial of Christ and the disintegration of
morality in today’s world. The occult
and antichrist New Age Movement is gaining
a major control and influence in all areas
of society, media and governments
throughout the world including the Church.
The FMI evangelists and members are
ready and willing to meet these things
head on.
Catholics
are not impervious to these influences and many
have adopted New
Age
practices and many attend non-Catholic churches
seeking to be fed with the “Word.”
Flame Ministries International is a Catholic
ministry of the Word and can meet this need which
it proclaims in season or out of season. Catholics
are well imbued with the sacraments but many are in
poverty when it comes to an experiential knowledge
of the Bible which is a living and active Word of
God.
Protestant Pentecostals want to attend Flame
meetings. Invitations to preach come from many areas such
as America, India, Africa and other countries, many
from Pentecostal churches who are hungry for the
Gospel. This is a phenomenon that cannot be
dismissed out of hand since these churches are
inviting a Catholic ministry to preach to their
pastors and revival crusades.
In Perth a Pentecostal pastor who invited Eddie to
preach at his church, was so impressed that he
asked permission to attend Flame’s Sunday
evening services with his congregation when FMI
finally gets a building in which to hold them. FMI
have begun a Building Fund as a way to reach this
goal. Our readers are encouraged to become Partners
with us by joining Friends
of Flame
and receiving an associate membership.
What
on earth is a Catholic Evangelist? The
Evangelist is the one who is serious about
preaching the Gospel of salvation and proclaiming
the truth that Jesus is Lord for the conversion of
nations.
Set
My People on
FireA
small movie with a big
vision.
Produced
by Eddie Russell FMI and all
about Flame Ministries Gospel
Missions in Indonesia, Malaysia,
Singapore, England, Scotland,
USA, Mexico, Uganda, Portugal and
Australia.
It contains an audio voice over
of the Set My People on Fire
prophecy; The vision that
began it all. Music Track; The
Rest of My Life by Patrick Carre
FMI from
the My Word the Message
Album.
The
Evangelist does not compromise the Word of
God no matter the cost to himself. He
preaches in season and out of season, and
considers the value of one soul with the
same value as millions, and counts his own
life as already dead in order that others
might live. His whole life is, the whole
work of the Evangelist.
Jesus didn't offer the Gospel of
salvation as an optional extra and neither
does a Catholic evangelist. Rather he
seeks out the lost sheep and brings in the
harvest of souls without compromising the
truth. The world is the field of great
price and the evangelist is prepared to go
into it and pay the price to gain it for
Jesus and the Kingdom God.
Hearing the message preached in their own
colloquial language people understand,
respond and accept Jesus as their Lord and
savior. The Church exists to evangelise
and when she fails to do so, she fails to
be Church.
While there are evangelists in the
Church and ministries involved in
evangelisation, the Church cannot fail to
be Church. It therefore fulfills the Great
Commission and builds up the body of
Christ to its full stature.
That’s
what a Catholic evangelist is on the earth and in
the Church.
Article
published with commentary:
February 6th 2002
A FREE Online Newsletter reporting the
international and local Australian Revival Missions
of Flame Ministries
International.
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