PROPHECY TEACHING: "Your Role In Evangelism" -Todd Strandberg

Apr 8, 2013
Your Role In Evangelism

 by Todd Strandberg 

Back in my Air Force days, one of my duties as a supervisor was to give out mid-point assessments of the airmen under my authority. If someone was doing poorly in his job, my grading on the worksheet would let him know that he needed to show improvement to avoid receiving a negative grade for his annual evaluation.

Sometimes I wish God would give out mid-point assessments. It would save a lot of Christians from realizing that their final reward is not what they imagined for themselves. Even though I've been slaving away at Rapture Ready for 25 years, I would like to know what God's personal view of my work is. I just don't trust my sin-stained mind to judge the quality of my own work.
Unfortunately, the Lord has determined that the judgment seat of Christ will be the first time we get an unbiased view of our earthly deeds. Romans 14:10-12 warns, “For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat…so then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.” Second Corinthians 5:10 tells us, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

Being an active Christian in evangelism is not just an option. It is part of what defines us as believers. You are either going down into the well to retrieve lost souls or you are holding the rope.

I once researched the great revivals of the 1700s and 1800s to see why the ones of today don't measure up. It didn't take me long to notice a huge difference. Back then, everyone was involved in spreading the gospel message. Once you got saved, you were given marching orders to reach out to your friends and family.

The church has become so inefficient at reaching out to people that we waste huge amounts on money on evangelism. Some of the largest organizations in this nation spend over a million dollars for each decision of Christ. The Billy Graham Evangelical Association recently admitted that whenever it holds a crusade in the US, 88 percent of the people in attendance are already believers.

The body of Christ is dying out in America and other Western nations because Christians refuse to get their hands dirty. Whenever Terry and I speak at a church, I have made a habit of asking people about contributing content to Rapture Ready. Recently, we spoke at a very wealthy church. When I asked members in a class about their involvement in evangelism, my sales pitch was met with laughter. The arrangement that they had agreed to for their Sunday schedule was an entertaining Bible class, a feel-good message in the main service, and then it was off to the golf course.

I'm sure most of you folks know that last month, we lost two dear friends in prophecy: Jack Kinsella and Ron Graham. Both of these men have submitted numerous articles to the site. What you probably don't know is the level of commitment both of these men had right up to the end of their lives. Jack had liver cancer that put him in the hospital. He spent the last three weeks of his life sending out his daily updates literally from his death bed. Ron suffered from pancreatic cancer, but it was complications from the medicine he was taking that did him in. Ron managed to work around blurry vision and various other side effects right up to the day he died.

One of the reasons I make a regular habit of reminding people of their need to be active in evangelism is because I don't want people to be able to says, "Todd never told me." What keeps RR at the top of the Internet rankings is one simple fact: In the end, the kingdom of God is the only thing that matters.

The day is coming when we will all be asked what we did with our lives. If you can't answer the question now, you won't be able to answer it then. What helps me stay focused is living each day with a last-days perspective. Since everything in this world is headed for destruction, nothing should be able to distract us from endeavors that would please our Lord.
"I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work" (John 9:4).
--Todd