Evangelist

Julieanne Kost was interviewed on the podcast Photofocus this month.  She has worked for Adobe since 1992 and now has the job of being a Principal Digital Imaging Evangelist for Lightroom and Photoshop.

The interviewer asked her to define what it means to be an evangelist.  Julieanne replied, "I think evangelism means that you are really excited, you are passionate, and you want to help other people and tell other people what you know."  She went on to say that she has access to the engineers who design Photoshop, and because of that has an understanding of how the system works, what the intention is -- she is an "insider" who then translates her knowledge to the rest of us.

It's interesting to me to see the word evangelist used by a non-faith based company, such as Adobe.  It's ironic (is it ironic?) that Julieanne gives such a great definition of the word, and I think we as Christians can learn about what it means to be an evangelist from her definition.

We are all called to the role of an evangelist.  What does that mean?  What are we called to do?  Are we really excited about Christianity?  I believe Julieanne has the opinion that Photoshop can change how one processes images -- how one brings them to life, and that Lightroom and Photoshop can transform the work that photographers do.  Do we feel the same way about Christianity?

Are we passionate?  Do we have a really passionate need to be an evangelist?

Do we <em>want</em> to tell other people about what we know?   Like Julieanne, we are insiders -- we have been taught about Christ, about the love of God.  Are we willing to share that?  Are we eager to translate it into a language that a non-believer would understand?

Are we convincing?