Do you hate losing things? For the Revd. Dr. Quavon Z. Newton, it’s a perennial issue, one that disrupts the routine. He confessed this to the students, faculty and guests at the 2026 Wallace Chappell Lecture, and a glance around The Aymer Auditorium at Hood Theological Seminary confirmed that they could relate. But as much as Dr. Newton hates looking for lost things, he said, “I do admit I love finding what was lost.”
Like the characters in Jesus’ parables from Luke 15 – the widow who finds the lost coin, the shepherd who finds the lost sheep, and the lost son’s return home – we all find joy in recovering things that we thought were lost. Dr. Newton put it like this:
“..the frustration and the search is what gives way to the joy of recovery. And in many ways, that is what evangelism is like. It’s not always convenient. It’s not always comfortable. It may interrupt our routines may require us to move beyond familiar spaces. But if we understand the joy of finding what was lost, then we already are close to understanding the heart of God.”
He went on to say that the beauty of evangelism is that God invites us to participate in that same joy, the redemptive movement of God toward “the lost.” But for many, he admits, evangelism carries “baggage”. He shared the story of being a new pastor and a long-time member coming to him after a service to say they felt evangelism was something only the pastor does. And so the word “ evangelism” had to be reframed.
“Why does evangelism still matter?” Dr. Newton asked? Why is it still relevant? Because evangelism is part of the church’s identity. The church loses something essential when it stops bearing public witness to Jesus Christ. Dr. Newton argues that evangelism is not a program, but a way of being – it is the spiritual act of intentionally communicating the message of Jesus Christ in word, witness, and presence (word, sign, and deed) with the hope that others may come to believe. And he emphasized that it is “spiritual” – led by the Holy Spirit.
“My friends…. Our job is obedience. The Holy Spirit will then bring the transformation…. It means being attentive enough to discern when a moment has happened for us to testify to who Jesus has been in our lives. So evangelism is best when it is relational.”
Too many churches, Dr. Newton says, have given up their evangelistic identity. “The problem, I believe, in many congregations in the 21st century is not simply that evangelism is absent. It is that evangelism has been reduced to occasional invitations, special events or the work of a ministry team instead of being understood as the shared vocation of a people shaped by the gospel.”
Evangelism at its best, he says, is natural, intentional, and relational. “It means being attentive enough to discern when a moment has happened for us to testify to who Jesus has been in our lives.”
Following the lecture, Dr. Newton and a panel of guests from the Hood Theological Seminary community discussed his message and addressed questions from the audience. Watch the video on Hood Theological Seminary’s YouTube page.
