Some evangelists - Jonathan Carswell talks to Nick Howard

Over the last few years there has been a fresh passion for evangelism and a start made to employ full-time evangelists.

EN grabbed a few minutes with Nick Howard, the son of a former Tory Party leader, Michael Howard. He recently started working as an itinerant evangelist, partnering with the Association of Evangelists.

EN: For those who have never heard of the Association of Evangelists, who and what exactly are they?

NH: The Association of Evangelists is an umbrella organisation for evangelistic speakers. At the moment there are seven full members, and five affiliates. I guess each of the seven full members would carry on working as evangelists if the Association didn’t exist, but it gives us a lot of great benefits which make a real difference. For example, we meet up every month for prayer and fellowship and have an annual weekend with our wonderful group of prayer supporters. Now and again we work together on a project, like a training conference for people in evangelistic ministry. We share a treasurer and have an excellent group of trustees who meet regularly to advise us.

EN: Who are the people involved in the A of E and are they all doing the same job?

NH: The other full members are Roger Carswell, Vinny Commons, Gus Eyre, Paul Hinton, Jem Hudson and John Newton Webb. The common theme is giving evangelistic talks, but we do that in lots of different contexts. Gus often visits prisons, Jem and John are experts with primary school age children, Roger mainly works with churches and university CUs, and Vinny sometimes has a sporting angle to his ministry. I love speaking evangelistically to Jewish people. We have a website (associationof evangelists.org) which sets out our different specialities — if that’s the right word.

Funding?

EN: How are you funded?

NH: People always ask that! The A of E doesn’t pay salaries and so we depend on a mixture of monthly standing orders from supporters and gifts received during the course of our ministry. It means that we never quite know what’s going to happen from one month to the next financially. I suppose it mirrors our unpredictable working pattern. It certainly keeps life interesting. One benefit of this approach to funding is that it brings me to my knees before God and shows me my need for his provision and care. Another is that it makes the Association extremely flexible — if a suitable evangelist wants to join us and is confident that friends and supporters will provide sufficient financial support, we can open up our doors pretty much straight away.

EN: The A of E has just started an affiliates group. What is the aim of that and who are your affiliates?

NH: I’m very excited about this new development. We were aware of like-minded evangelists outside our organisation who didn’t need everything the Association offers — perhaps they were employed by a local church, for example. But they lacked fellowship with other people carrying out the same task. So we have started up a quarterly meeting where we all gather together to share prayer points, look at the Bible, and listen to a presentation by a visiting speaker or someone in-house. A missionary called Daniel Moore spoke at our first Affiliates Day about his work in Papua New Guinea. I felt I could have listened to him for about three days non-stop — it was so thrilling and there were many relevant lessons for our work in the UK.

Oliver Barclay talked to us in September about the changing face of evangelicalism over the last few decades.

Another feature of these Affiliates Days is the feedback slot — in the week or so beforehand we’re all supposed to listen to an MP3 of a gospel talk given by one of the evangelists present and then we supply our unvarnished verdicts. I’m still licking my wounds from the time when it was one of my talks being discussed! No, being serious, it was an extremely helpful exercise. There’s an affiliates page on our website with all the details of our current affiliates, and anyone who might want to become an affiliate should get in touch.

EN: How would you answer someone who questioned the need for ‘another’ group ‘doing their own thing’?

NH: I would point out that that the evangelistic work of several of our evangelists predated the founding of the Association of Evangelists. The Association came into being to support people who were already working as evangelists and who would have carried on working as evangelists without the Association. So it was a very organic development. If anyone wants to query the role of an evangelist I would ask them what exactly they think Philip is up to in Acts 8. I would also ask them to explain Ephesians 4.11.

EN: Why and when did you join the A of E?

NH: It was only two-and-a-half years ago, in June 2006, so I don’t know why I’m the one being asked all these questions — the other guys could give you much better-informed answers! I had completed three years at an Anglican theological college in preparation for ministry in the Church of England, but I received a ‘non-recommendation’ for ordination from my college. I was not persuaded by the reasons the college gave me for this non-recommendation and so I was still very keen to pursue Bible-teaching ministry of some sort. When I asked Roger Carswell how someone becomes an evangelist he invited me to go out with him for an all-you-can-eat Chinese, and after several trips to the buffet I agreed to meet the A of E trustees. I had always wanted to work as a full-time evangelist but I had never seen how it might be possible in practice until I spoke with Roger and heard about the Association. I’m so grateful to him, and to everyone involved in the Association.

Average day?

EN: What’s the average day like for an evangelist?

NH: Well, I can only speak for myself... it depends on whether I’ve got a speaking engagement that day. If I do, there will probably be a long car trip to get there and a battle to be on time (the nearest I came to giving up on a journey was on my way to South Sheffield Evangelical Church when one of my car wheels almost came off as I was approaching the Dartford Tunnel — quite scary). On arrival I will pray with the hosts of the event and then give the talk. I’m increasingly aware of the importance of preparing my own heart beforehand — I am ashamed to say it is possible to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ on autopilot and, when that happens, at least some of the guests will perceive that the speaker’s heart is not in it and they’ll be put off. A speaker whose heart is full of eternity will be much more effective in communicating the words of eternal life than a speaker whose mind is on earthly things. After the formal part of the event I would hope to have personal conversations about spiritual things with some of the guests. Days without speaking engagements give me an opportunity to prepare for talks coming up.

Church evangelists?

EN: Nearly ten years ago Roger Carswell wrote a book, And Some Evangelists, that addressed the issue of the evangelist and what seemed their imminent extinction. He argued that churches had pastors, children’s workers, etc., but not evangelists. Has that changed and why do you think the role of evangelists is back on the agenda?

NH: I certainly hope it is. In Ephesians 4 we are told that Christ raises up apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers to equip God’s people for works of service. I believe, on the basis of Ephesians 2.20, that the first two of those roles were foundational and no longer apply today. But that leaves evangelists and pastor-teachers, doesn’t it, so the biblical mandate for full-time evangelistic workers is black and white. Paul says that evangelists are needed for the equipping of God’s people — the Greek word could be translated ‘furnishing’ — in other words, there are times when God’s people need an evangelist in the room if they are to serve Christ properly. I am often conscious of this in university settings. You can have a group of very gospel-minded and eager students but they can’t put their desire to spread the gospel into practice effectively until they get hold of a reliable evangelistic speaker. My concern is that there are many men and women who are willing and able to be full-time evangelistic workers who are not being released into that role by their churches. When a Christ-given evangelist gets going, the result is more evangelism and better evangelism. So for the sake of the millions of unreached let us pray for evangelists to be identified, supported and let loose.