“Through tentmaking, I could do my profession and be a missionary and take Jesus to people. . . . It’s the biggest mission that we can ever do. You don’t need to be a nurse or pastor or a teacher. You can be anything.”
I
stood among the ruins of ancient Corinth in Peloponnese, Greece. This large and influential city was a major center for religion, culture, and trade.
When the apostle Paul arrived in Corinth around 50 AD, he worked as a tentmaker with a husband-and-wife business team, Aquila and Priscilla. They were tentmakers, but they also had a heart for mission. And these mission-minded people faced a formidable mission challenge in this pagan city.
Tentmaking may have been Paul’s trade, but mission was his calling. The Bible tells us he reasoned in the temple every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.
Today, there are modern-day tentmakers. These mission-minded people don’t necessarily make tents, but like Paul, they use their trade or profession to support their mission. Tentmakers are missionaries, but they don’t get a salary from the church. These missionaries find their own jobs in the marketplace, and their employers pay their salary.
Tentmakers usually work in countries and areas where regular mission work is difficult or impossible. They can work in places where missionaries aren’t allowed. To reach the people around them, tentmakers follow Christ’s method of ministry—mingling, showing sympathy, ministering to needs, and winning confidence so that they can then bid people to follow Jesus.
Adventist Mission’s Global Mission initiative helps local mission fields support tentmakers by providing training and materials. Global Mission also helps by organizing spiritual retreats where tentmakers can meet, share experiences, get training, and most importantly, fellowship and be spiritually refreshed. Tentmakers often work in isolation, and these retreats connect them with others facing similar experiences.
“Through tentmaking, I could do my profession and be a missionary and take Jesus to people. . . . It’s the biggest mission that we can ever do. You don’t need to be a nurse or pastor or a teacher. You can be anything.”
Current Tentmaker
Location: Veiled Country
We don’t need anyone to call us except for Jesus. . . . If God calls you to reach the unreached in the 10/40 Window in the Middle East North Africa region, go for it. God will take care of you.
Former Tentmaker
Location: Veiled Country
If you feel God’s call to become a tentmaker and have a skill that can get you work in a veiled country or city, visit TotalEmployment.org for more information.
lobal Mission is about reaching the unreached for Jesus in the 10/40 Window, including the Middle East and North Africa. We do this in various ways, including through the service of Global Mission pioneers, urban centers of influence, Waldensian students, and tentmakers who use their careers to share Christ.
Please support Global Mission in this region with your prayers and financial gifts at
Global-Mission.org/giving.
View this story at m360.tv/s2329.
