Andrew: First Called

Andrew: First Called

The feast of St. Andrew falls on November 30. Andrew was the first disciple called and the first evangelist: his first act after meeting Jesus was to find his brother Peter and bring him to Christ. Peter would become the rock on which the church was built. The entire trajectory of Peter's ministry began with Andrew's simple first act. Andrew himself is a minor figure in the Gospels — he appears in the feeding of the five thousand, bringing the boy with loaves and fish (John 6:8-9), and in John 12:22, bringing Greeks to Jesus. He is consistently the one who brings people to Christ. He never headlines the story; he enables others who do.

John 1:41 describes the most natural form of evangelism: a person finds something wonderful and immediately finds the person they most love to share it with. 'The first thing Andrew did' — there was no deliberation, no evangelism training, no program. He met Jesus and ran to get his brother. The result: Peter. If you removed Andrew's act from the first chapter of John, there is no Peter. The seemingly minor act of bringing one person to Christ is never minor. Andrew's whole ministry was bringing people who would do larger things than Andrew himself. The greatest ministry may be the people you bring to Jesus rather than what you do yourself.