Like a lot of things in the world of computing, I think it may have been Apple who did it first.
At least, they were the first to be well-known for it.
I’m talking, of course, about product evangelists. Evangelism is a word borrowed from Christianity, who got it from the Greeks, to whom it simply meant a bearer of good news. Of course, after centuries of this word being associated with The Good News, using it in any other context is bound to grab someone’s attention. Even now, close to two decades after the original "Mac evangelists", people still chuckle a little at the phrase "product evangelist."
I think that incongruity is why it continues to be used….
Many, many, companies have product evangelists. Microsoft has them. Macromedia has them. A quick search on Google returns about 777,000 results in a search for product or technology evangelist or evangelism. Many of them are job postings, or volunteer recruitments (Evangelists will usually evangelize for free; in fact, they’ll do it without you even asking them to — that’s part of what makes them evangelists).
So why even talk about this?
Well I got to thinking of the term and its origins, and something struck me about these product evangelists, in relation to the Church, in general.
They’re better at it than we are.
Now, that’s a generalization; naturally there will be exceptions. More often than not, I think it’s true, though, because it seems that business people and marketers are not afraid to apply all the principles of evangelism, and too often it seems that the chuch is.
What are these principles, for products or preaching? Well, here’s my list; yours may be different. Comments are welcome:
1. Passionate and persistent conviction that the subject of the evangelism is Good… no, GREAT… News.
Not good only, but great; "insanely great" is the phrase forever associated with Steve Jobs. Evangelists, good ones, believe with all their heart and souls that whatever it is they are trying to spread the news of is Fantastic. Amazing. Incredible. And not just for them, but for you, and everyone you know, and everyone, probably, in the whole world. They can’t shut up about it — not won’t , can’t.
2. They aren’t ashamed to tell you about it.
Paul the Apostle wrote, "I am not ashamed of the gosple [good news] of Christ…." Evangelists are not ashamed to tell you about the object of their enthusiasm. Whether it’s Jesus, the Macintosh, Microsoft products, detergent, a movie — whatever, they have no qualms whatsoever in telling you all about it. It doesn’t really matter to an evangelist what you think of him or her; what matters is spreading the good news (whatever that happens to be).
3. They’ll use Any Means Necessary to get the word out.
Any means necessary might even be putting it too mildly — any means available, any means WHATSOEVER, is fair game as a vehicle for The Message. Books? By all means. Television? Certainly. Tracts, brochures, web pages, business cards, CDs, billboards, radio, sky-writing, graffiti — if you can think of a means of communicating, it’s been used by someone to spread their Good News. Evangelists are on the lookout for avenues the Message can travel, and nothing is ruled out.
There may be more that you can think of, but right now everything else I’m considering adding to the list is just an extension of one of these three. How about you?
