Evangelism

I remember the polite, quizzical looks on my audience's face when the Summit Old Guard welcomed me as a guest speaker in 2004. My introductory speech presented me as the "evangelist" for my church, and they weren't quite sure what that meant.

I felt more comfortable saying that I was an "evangelist" in that context than that I "marketed" my church. "Marketing" has an air of manipulation. Who wants to be manipulated into a house of worship?

Now, with social networking, "evangelists" are a dime a dozen. I just hope they don't give the original evangelism an unsavory name.