So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. -Ephesians 4:11-13

This passage has been used to describe the five-fold ministries of the church, or 5 offices. But when one looks into it more one finds a lot of controversies.

–One has to do with whether pastors and teachers constitute one ministry (or office) or two. The grammar suggests one, but everywhere else, teachers and pastors are not linked in this way. Paul, however, does note that an overseer (often understood as synonymous with pastor) must be competent to teach. All pastors (poimen) must be competent to teach, but it does not mean that all teachers are pastors.

–Another issue is that deacons are not included. They, however, have a prominent role in the early church, and especially emphasized in the pastoral epistles. I don’t think this list is meant to demean or ignore deacons. Perhaps the list was meant to include roles that mentor the church; and deacons, as ministry leaders, are not really seen to have such a mentoring role.

–A common question is whether apostles and prophets are for today. Of course, this depends a bit on how one defines these roles. If following the Didache, apostles seem to be church planters while prophets are traveling preachers. As such, these roles very much are with us today. They are external to the local church, but part of the broader church society. If one chooses to expand the prestige or power of these roles as some do today, there must be more uncertainty.

However, I think a really good question was whether there was the “role” of Evangelist in the early church. One reason to doubt this is that there was only one person in all of the New Testament who seems to have been given the title of Evangelist, and that was Philip the Evangelist. He is spoken of in Acts 8. However, he was also one of the Seven, in Acts 6. The Seven are commonly viewed as the first Deacons. Did Philip the Evangelist, a Deacon, truly serve in a church office of Evangelist? It is hard to say. His work in Samaria especially seems more apostolic— literally carrying out the work God gave the Apostles in Acts 1:8. Considering that the term “apostle” was used for a broad variety of people in the 1st century church, it would seem quite natural to call him Philip the Apostle. However, there was already a Philip the Apostle— in fact, one of the Twelve. The title Evangelist was likely given not as an office, but to make it clear that the writer was not referring to one of the Twelve. (In truth, the early centuries of the church had a number of writers who conflated the two Philips.)

The other use of the term Evangelist was in the Pastoral Epistles where Timothy, an overseer of the church in Ephesus was to accomplish the work of an evangelist (II Timothy 4:5). By the second century, the authors of the Gospels were called Evangelists. Eusebius of Caesarea (Eusebius, Church History, Book 5, Chapter 10) used the term Evangelist for those who serve in a role that is akin to the Apostles established by Jesus.

Who then are described by Evangelists in the early church?

-A Deacon (Philip)

-An Overseer or Pastor (Timothy)

-Authors of the Gospels (if tradition is correct, all four fit the 1st century understanding of Apostle)

-Apostles (following the usage by Eusebius of Cesarea)

The term “Evangelist” seems to be more of a term of honor, rather than a clear office, or even a well-defined role. As such, I don’t think we need to look for people who have the title Evangelist.

But I think we can take it further. Looking at the other concerns, I think there is a lot of reason to question the Five-fold roles in the church. After all, this section of Ephesians does not appear to be trying to establish some Ecclesiological understanding of the operation of the church. Rather, the passage is about how Jesus helps the church be unified and mature (or unifying and maturing). Part of the maturing process is that Jesus gave people who are outside of the local church (such as Apostles and Prophets) and those inside of the local church (such as Pastors and (other) Teachers). Evangelists are found both inside the church and outside. The passage does not inform us much about roles in the church or even functions, but the work of Jesus in building His church.