On Tentmaking

Recently I recently joined a group of friends, pastors, missionaries and educators in a discussion about tentmaking as missiological strategy. It's a topic I am unversed in and therefore unqualified to teach. So at the start, you might consider taking a detour to several thoughtful and more reputable sources than me:

• "Why Did Paul Make Tents" by Ruth E. Siemens.
• Tentmaking 101 and other informative articles and papers from GO.
  
• Tentmaking: Business as Missions, a book by Patrick Lai.
• Today's Tentmakers, a book by Dr. J. Christy Wilson Jr. (often considered the seminal work).
• www.tentmaking.org, links to tentmaking sites and organizations.

I have much to learn (if I have the need and the time); but I've learned a few things already and am developing some first impressions.

If I were asked to offer a definition it would be any one, or some combination of the following:

1. Tentmaking is when a missionary church planter works to support himself and thereby eliminate or reduce his need for external financial support.
2. Tentmaking is when a missionary church planter takes a job or engages in activity unrelated directly to church planting for the specific purpose of facilitating or enhancing his church planting efforts.
3. Tentmaking is when any Christian takes a job or engages in activity unrelated directly to church planting for the specific purpose of joining a church planting effort.
   

Connected with these definitions, let me explain several assumptions and make clarifications and comments:

• "Tentmaking" appears to be an overused and undefined buzzword. I think we add to its value by restricting it ...
• Tentmaking exists exclusively in the context of missions.  It is a missions strategy.
• Tentmaking should not be considered a "thing" like church planting. I think the idea that "you are a church planter; I am a tentmaker; he is a Bible translator" is fallacious. Paul would've never said that. He was a church planter who made tents for a living. His occupation served his mission. Tentmaking is not mission. It supports mission. It is secondary, not primary, just as every Christian's vocation should support his local church ministry. I don't think this is just semantics, because wording forms mindsets: once we elevate tentmaking as a "thing," it can upstage the main thing--church planting.
  
• The main thing--missions--is biblical church planting. Missions is best defined by George Peters: “the sending forth of authorized persons beyond the borders of the New Testament church and her immediate gospel influence to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in gospel-destitute areas, to win converts from other faiths and non-faiths to Jesus Christ, and to establish functioning, multiplying local congregations who will bear the fruit of Christianity in that community and to that country" (A Biblical Theology of Missions. Chicago: Moody Press, 1972, p. 11). Yes, anyone can "be a missionary every day" in the broad sense of making disciples every day, but we're talking about "sent ones," the ones whom we've propelled from our midst into a "gospel-destitute region." They can have MBAs instead of MDivs, but they must be sent to proclaim and plant and/or water.
  
• Non-"authorized" persons--people who are not God-called, ordained, and commissioned evangelist-preacher-missionaries--can also be involved in church planting teams and efforts--and they should! Businessmen, surgeons, engineers, etc.--many of them female--have all been used in foreign fields even though they were not called and commissioned to plant churches. From their work, churches have sprung forth, praise to God! It is the seed of the Word which is incorruptible and brings fruit. We are all just servants, whether businesspeople or missionaries. And yet there is a Biblical scheme, a "traditional" method which should not be abandoned just because it is old and Pauline. Many of the people we call "tentmakers" were called "fellow laborers" by Paul. Every church planter needs them, so ...
  
• I think every Christian should consider engaging in definition #3! Take a job overseas or in an inner city (the "duress pay" may even be quite nice!), connect with a church planter or church planting team, and serve the Lord together as you would in an area where churches or more plentiful.
• Tentmaking is gaining steam, but I think every God-called, local-church sent evangelist missionary should consider NOT engaging personally in tentmaking (especially if he is already supported). Yes, in many countries you may be required to have a "legitimate" activity for your entry (men with AK-47s at the border will ask you why you are coming into their country!). But many missionaries receiving financial support from churches are doing "business as mission" in places they really don't need to, thereby using time and money inefficiently. I would counsel missionaries to "think inside the box," that is, what is your biblical calling? Can you do your calling without the need to do business as mission? (Business is not the Great Comission, of course.) Many missionaries are struggling, spinning their wheels because they were told they need to do business to achieve cultural legitimacy. But they don't know business--they are square pegs in round holes. They bought into it because it is the new thing and seemed logical for difficult fields; it was the "out of the box" innovation revolutionizing missions, the thing that would make our witness credible. Oh? Where is that in Scripture? I know Scripture teaches that our good works should shine, and we should serve the sick and needy, and we should be wise and ethical in business. And we church planters need and want the help of Christian businessmen and professionals to help show our people a model of that; but we, as evangelists, are authorized by God's Spirit and the agency of the local church to preach the Gospel. The message we bear is credible by itself and the Word we proclaim is powerful when preached by God-soaked, spiritually credible prophets.
• That said, this is no repudiation of tentmaking! Would I support the efforts of a Christian nurse going into Central Asia even though she is not a God-called, church authorized church planter? Yes, especially if her field was closed to traditional foreign "religious workers" and if her dream and desire was to see Biblical churches planted through her witness, and if that was embedded in her long-term strategy. Would I support a brainy Bible translator not endowed with Pauline gifts of evangelism? Yes, insomuch as church planting often explodes on its own when the Bible arrives!
  

In my opinion, tentmaking is an indispensable strategy in some situations and should be utilized and considered. But its value should be scrutinized. As all good business plans, "business as mission" should be evaluated by some objective equation of the value it adds to a church planting effort compared to its costs in time, money, overhead, and workers. If it is necessary for access to a certain field (and it often is) or unquestionably advantageous (and it often is), then go for it!

But in many situations, the traditional Pauline model, with all its difficulties, is the leanest and most efficient missiological strategy after all.