The dictionary says that a generic person is “a person who is normal, who fits into the mainstream”.

Sometimes we are guilty of highlighting the superheroes of tentmaking, you know, the ones who start multiple churches, win dozens to Jesus, start disciple making movements, build God honoring companies that also disciple their employees and communities.

Stephanus, one of our mobilizer team members once asked me to share stories that were not about these superheroes and talk more about the common tentmaker. My response at the time was that sharing these common, i.e. generic stories would not inspire people to become tentmakers. Since that time, I have also shared stories of the average tentmaker.

The average tentmaker

What about the average tentmaker? The one who does not dare to share their story because they firmly believe they don’t have a WOW story?

At the GO Equipped tentmaking courses, which we have been running since 1997 in over a dozen countries, our focus has been to train Christian businesspeople, professionals, and students in the steps of planting house churches, especially where the name of Jesus is not yet known. All of our teaching sessions were designed to point to this end result.

However, about a decade later, we had heard back from returned tentmakers that planting house churches was hit-and-miss; mostly, it just wasn’t happening. This led to personal discouragement and a feeling that they had failed. 

We Christians are also known as Followers of Jesus. Of course, our faith is important to us, and we love to share it with others, but what else do we bring to the nations? Something tangible, perhaps something that will make life easier for someone? 

Appropriate Technology Solution

I  once visited a missionary high up on a mountain where she had started and built a church. Propane had to be brought up by motorcycle and it was expensive. Hot water was a luxury for dishes and for showers. 

I quickly noticed that it was hot and sunny most days, so I went for a walk to the village shops. There was a man selling all kinds of irrigation hoses for the farms and individual gardens. I bought 200 feet of two-inch black hose, laid it on the flat roof in a circle and ran the cold water into one end and the other end to the sink and bathroom area of the building. Apparently, there was never a shortage of hot water again in that building during daylight hours – a simple two-hour solution that was soon copied by others in the village. 

We have helped hundreds of tentmakers get ready, equipped, and launched to unreached, and often unsafe countries. As we track with them, we have come to realize where tentmakers are in the most danger, but you would be surprised to learn that it is not out there among unstable nations and hostile people. I’ve been doing this ministry full-time since 1998, and since then four tentmakers have died in car accidents upon returning to their home countries. 

Why do you think this is? We are not sure, but one reason could be simply that they are used to vastly different road rules, or no rules at all, and have mastered driving in those conditions. However, upon coming home there are strict rules – like red lights, which actually do not mean “slow down and look”, but that you must come to a full stop. Driving on the left side of the road for a few years and then coming home to drive on the right side and hitting another car head-on was one of the accidents that claimed a tentmaker’s life only a few days after returning home. He was on his way to his church to share his story.