In the Latter Day Saint movement, an evangelist is an ordained office of the ministry. In some denominations of the movement, an evangelist is referred to as a patriarch (see Patriarch (Latter Day Saints)). However, the latter term was deprecated by the Community of Christ after the church began ordaining women to the priesthood. Other denominations, such as The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), have an evangelist position independent of the original patriarch office instituted by the movement’s founder Joseph Smith, Jr.
The first references to the term evangelist in Latter Day Saint theology were mainly consistent with how the term is used by Protestants and Catholics.
In 1833, Joseph Smith, Jr. introduced the new office of Patriarch, to which he ordained his father. The elder Smith was given the “keys of the patriarchal Priesthood over the kingdom of God on earth”, the same power said to be held by the Biblical Patriarchs, which included the power to give blessings upon one’s…