Thank you for your invitation and your welcome. It's good to be with you.

My purpose this evening is to offer you some thoughts on the changing role of the evangelist in Britain in the 21 st Century. I do that, as has been said, from the perspective of over 20 years of ordained ministry spent partly in parishes and partly in theological education and from my current position in which I am privileged to travel and listen and attend to what is happening across our society and across the churches.

My contention is that the role and ministry of the evangelist is changing significantly as our society changes and evolves. I want to define the nature of those changes as I see them and also to argue that the change is actually a recovery of a more complete and rounded New Testament picture of this vital ministry.

To that end, I would like to begin by quoting probably the greatest of all Christian evangelists, Paul, reflecting on the principles which shaped his ministry:

"For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as   a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9.19-22.

You may know the ancient story about the pastor and the evangelist who go to stay in a log cabin together in Yellowstone National Park. They arrive and unload and while the pastor prepares dinner, the evangelist goes to explore the forest.

Half an hour later the pastor is just chopping the onions when he hears a roar and a commotion outside. He looks out of the window. The evangelist is running towards him, carrying a young grizzly bear which is struggling and kicking to be free. "Open the door", he calls. "Open the door!" The pastor does as he is told.

The evangelist runs right up to the door of the cabin, throws in the grizzly bear, slams the door shut and calls through the window to the pastor: "You look after that one. I'll go and find some more".

I suppose the burden of what I want to say this evening is that as our society and context change, so the role of the evangelist changes. And as the role of the evangelist changes, so the traditional distinctions between the evangelist and the pastor will begin to blur not to the point of the merging of these ministries but to the point where they share many of the same gifts and characteristics.