Holistic ministry is the great rallying cry in missions today—the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world. This is a powerful statement. It zeroes in on the three major components of holistic mission. First, Jesus has commanded the whole church, not just an elite few, to make disciples of all peoples. Second, he directed the church to declare the whole gospel—everything he commanded, not just salvation. So we must exhibit the gospel in all aspects of life—the physical, emotional, social, and economic, as well as the spiritual. And we must lead believers into obedience in all areas of life. Third, the church must take Jesus’ message to the whole world, to all people groups.

But how does the missions enterprise carry out this dictum? It runs programs—programs to feed, clothe, build, rescue, train, provide medical care, run micro-finance programs, do business development, evangelize, disciple, etc. I saw this over and over at Lausanne 04, the mission movement’s primary global consultation.

Programs provide very real help, but suffer limitations. The work often becomes a job and the people become projects. Have you ever seen a program treat people impersonally or unlovingly? We all have. Programs don’t love people; people do. Everything hangs on workers walking with God.

And who does this missions work? A small, select few, not “the whole church.” These are largely professional, paid workers, not everyday Christians who simply follow Jesus and love people. Ministry is their job. Many are deeply committed, caring Christians. But they cannot demonstrate everyday discipleship under all the pressures of everyday life simply because they don’t live there. They cannot demonstrate how to handle the tension between discipleship and working full-time or how to integrate work and witness or how to live for God in every aspect of life.

The “full-time” model also communicates a negative story. Only full-timers have the time, the training, and the special call to do much ministry. Everyday Christians cannot do that much. Worse, since doing ministry is the primary source of value, their work is devalued as “secular.” Most Christians have no idea of how their work is supposed to serve God. This implies that the gospel doesn’t really work in everyday life; it doesn’t speak to all of life. It only works for full-time Christians. This thinking has traded the whole gospel taken by the whole church for a shriveled gospel taken by the select few.

But, great news! The apostle Paul and his co-workers proved that the whole gospel works for the whole church in all of life. Paul integrated work and discipleship in all of life as an everyday Christian. He worked full-time to support himself while taking the gospel to the ancient world. So did his co-workers.*

So did real tentmakers throughout history and so they do today.

Christianity traveled through businessmen, soldiers, students, teachers, refugees, pilgrims, doctors, lawyers, prisoners, slaves and hostages, Christian lay people of all kinds: bearers of the Christian message as they traveled. So largely, expansion was not the work of pastors, but of Christian men and women in their ordinary routines of life.                           — David Wright (condensed)

Gladys Aylward won Chinese to Christ by how she served, loved, and shared the gospel in her inn. She won the respect of the local Mandarin so that he made her the area foot-inspector to enforce the new law ending foot-binding. This gave her great influence for good as well as opportunity for witness.

Today, tentmakers model the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world. “Rob” has been negotiating contracts with local headmen for a company in a Muslim country. His character, his work and his care for people including children led his driver to tell him one day that he had figured out that Rob was a “man of God.” Rob asked him to keep this quiet. But when they met with the next headman, he introduced Rob as “a man of God.” Surrounded by his entourage and local villagers, the head man told Rob, “Tell us a story about God.” Really frightened, he figured he might as well go for it. So beginning in Genesis, he told about God’s working in history and about Jesus. When he finished, the headman said, “Now that was a story! I want you to tell this to all my people whenever you come.” As a result, people began coming to Christ and churches have developed and spread throughout this unreached people group.

Biblical tentmaking makes it normative for all Christians to make disciples, live devout lives, serve God in all of life, and reach out to those different from themselves. Tentmakers fill a gaping hole in present day missions demonstrating the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world. Many thousands more are needed to rebuild this primary pattern in the church. It is hard to overstate the impact everyday Christians can have by becoming effective tentmakers.

*See 2 Th. 3:6-10 where Paul refers to Silvanus, Timothy and himself twelve times as “we,” “us,” and “our.”