In popular usage throughout Christendom, an evangelist is one who proclaims the gospel. The idea of traveling to preach is also associated with current usage. In the popular sense, the writers of the four Gospel records are called evangelists, as also are Philip (Acts 21: 8) and Timothy (2 Tim. 4: 5). Paul lists the office of evangelist in the organizational structure of the Church (Eph. 4: 11).

However, in latter-day revelation an evangelist is defined as a patriarch (D&C 107: 39-53). Joseph Smith taught that “an Evangelist is a Patriarch, even the oldest man of the blood of Joseph or of the seed of Abraham. Wherever the Church of Christ is established in the earth, there should be a Patriarch for the benefit of the posterity of the Saints” (HC 3: 381).