New evangelists urged to "uncover Jesus"

News Release: 15 July 2010

The last two Church Army Evangelists to complete the traditional model of residential training were Admitted and Commissioned at Lambeth Palace yesterday.

Jill Hancock and Phil Morrow will soon take up posts in Sheffield and Northern Ireland, respectively, having been admitted into the Office of Evangelist by Archbishop Rowan Williams. The Archbishop used the example of Victorian priest and poet John Keble in his Admitting service. He highlighted Keble's faithfulness to the people of the, small country parish he served for so many years, and his call for the Church to retain its independence from government.

Archbishop Rowan encouraged all evangelists to follow those examples of faithfulness and independence, wherever their ministries took them. He also said that an evangelist's job in many cases was to go into a community and "uncover a Jesus who is already there". The fact that Church Army Evangelists have been doing just that for 128 years makes the organisation "a gift to the Church", said the Archbishop.

In his Commissioning sermon, Church Army's Chief Executive - Mark Russell - emphasised the need for Christians to understand people's individual questions about life and faith before proclaiming that "Jesus is the answer."

Mark said: "The questions people ask differ based upon their own status in life. The one whose life has been destroyed by sin is asking if there is any forgiveness. The man dying of cancer wants to know if there is life after death. The person who has failed God is wondering if there is a second chance. The one who has lost a loved one stands beside the grave and wonders if there is any hope. The sceptic asks if one can really know God. The parent of the rebellious child asks if God can do anything to change their son or daughter."

He prayed that Jill, Phil and the Church as a whole "will, like Jesus, be found with the marginalised, the poor, the broken, the lonely, the misunderstood. I pray that you will be agents of God’s amazing love with those whom you meet."

Mark the used the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector, from chapter 19 of Luke, to illustrate Christians' need to draw alongside and love "the alienated" people in our society. "We'd better not treat with contempt people that Jesus treats with love. We'd better not reject people that Christ accepts. We'd better be careful, lest we wake up and find out that we are the Pharisees saying, “What is He doing going to eat in the home of a sinner like that!” Sometimes we are critical, and cutting toward other people. We run folks down for the way they look, the way they talk, the colour of their skin, their sexual orientation - and these are people created in the image of God. As evangelists, draw alongside people, live lives that show God’s love and be ready to answer questions."

Church Army has replaced the traditional model of training with Mission-based Training. Centres of Mission are being developed throughout the UK & Ireland where experienced evangelists can nurture trainees over four years by supporting them in the daily, hands-on life of the community to which Church Army commits itself.

Go to Church Army Online to find out more about Church Army's Mission-based Training model.