Many today say that evangelism is the job of the evangelist alone. What does the Scripture say?

The gift of the evangelist is given (Eph 4:11,12) for the equipping of the saints for the works of service. I have often heard the idea that the evangelist is to do all the work of evangelism himself as he is specially gifted for it. The rest of the saints don't have that gift. Therefore they do not have the responsibility to do evangelism. This is simply not true.

For a start there is no gift of "evangelism" in the Scripture. This is a false doctrine made up to make some saints feel good about their guilt in the area of evangelism. In Scripture there is only the gift of the evangelist. The gift of the evangelist is quite clearly given to the church to equip and challenge them to preach the gospel.

So, an evangelist is a teacher and exhorter. He is also a preacher of the gospel just as every saint is to be a preacher of the gospel -- Acts 8:1,4. (A preacher of the gospel is someone whose priority is to tell the gospel, as often as possible in any kind of setting, to one or more people at a time.) Without the ministry of the evangelist the church will not be brought to unity and maturity but will be blown around by every false doctrine that comes along.