The Minister as Evangelist

The work of the Minister, according to the teaching of the New Testament, is threefold.First, he is to feed the church of God--the babes, with the sincere milk of the Word; and those who are more advanced with the strong meat of its doctrines.Second, he is to care for those over whom he has been placed as an overseer or under-shepherd. This twofold aspect of the work was very clearly brought out by our Savior, on that early morning when He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret and commanded Peter to feed the sheep and the lambs and to shepherd them. We are all agreed as to the importance of these two departments in connection with the minister's work; in fact, we can hardly overestimate the importance of building up Christian people in faith and in knowledge, and also in caring for them as the shepherd cares for the sheep, by leading them to the green pastures and the quiet waters.Third, he is commanded to do the work of an Evangelist; in other words, to reach out after the unsaved and to bring into the fold those who are outside. This part of the work was surely referred to when Christ called the disciples and told them that, if they would follow Him, He would make them "fishers of men;" that as they had in the past drawn the fish out of the sea by the net, they would in the future draw men from the sea of iniquity to the rock of safety.