Missional Thought of the Day - The Gospel is Spread Through Ordinary Christians

[James Nored]

Michael Green, in his excellent book, Evangelism in the Early Church, discusses who the early evangelists were. "Professionals" such as apostles, traveling evangelists/missionaries, and bishops all played a significant role in the spread of the gospel.

However, Green notes that “the very fact that we are so imperfectly aware of how evangelism was carried out and by whom should make us sensitive to the possibility that the little man, the unknown ordinary man, the man who left no literary remains, was the primary agent in mission.”

I have always been struck by this sentence. And it is so true.

One of our recent converts and her daughters are wonderful evangelists. The daughter, Tyler Anderson, brought 3 friends to our last small group meeting (see picture above). The mother, Haley Smallwood, invited four families from her neighborhood. And just like Green notes, most people do not know about this. You only know about it now because of the Internet era in which we live.

Centuries and centuries ago, there were few people to document, and no one to take pictures or blog about, the evangelistic witness of ordinary Christians. But it happened nonetheless.

Where have you seen "ordinary evangelism" at work?