Christians must understand peoples questions about life and faith, says Church Army chief

The head of Church Army commissioned two new evangelists yesterday with a call to proclaim that Jesus is the answer to all the questions that people may have about life and faith.

Jill Hancock and Phil Morrow are the last two evangelists to be trained under Church Army’s traditional residential training model. They will be posted to Sheffield and Northern Ireland respectively.

Church Army Chief Executive Mark Russell prayed for the evangelists and the Church as a whole to be like Jesus by being with the marginalised and poor.

He 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."

Using the story of Zaccaeus the tax collector from Luke 19, Russell said it was the role of Christians to draw alongside and love the “alienated” people in 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."

The commissioning was joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who told the evangelists that their main task was to go out into the community and “uncover a Jesus who is already there”.

Church Army has replaced the residential model of training with mission-based training in which trainees are placed in communities where experienced Church Army evangelists are on hand to support them.