Author: Guest Contributor

Five years of tentmaking in China

/ Guest Contributor

reflections on a rich journey
 – a story from Scandinavia

My husband and I spent five years in China, with the purpose of serving God there. Of course, China is a place where traditional mission work is not possible and where limitations are many. So before we went, we read as much as we could and followed a one-year course focused on tentmaking.

And yet, when we reached China, we felt totally unprepared for what would lay ahead. Armed with only a few words of Chinese, we felt like we were diving straight into the deep-end of the ocean.

Fortunately, we were not totally on our own. Once we arrived at our final destination, a large city in the heart of the country, we were met by an enthusiastic group of other tentmakers originated from different Western countries. This small group was to become like a second family through fellowship: people that we would work with, pray with, and support one another through the ups and downs of life in China.

What on earth are we doing here?

I remember that one morning, a few weeks after settling into our small flat and life as language students, my husband was gazing through the window, watching the endless stream of cars, buses, bicycles and people. He suddenly turned to me and said in a sigh: “What on earth are we doing here? Who am I, just one limited man from a small European country, to pretend to do God‘s work here and ‘save’ any of those millions of people? What was God thinking when He sent us here?…” I could not answer anything then, beside a feeble: “Let‘s just take one day at a time. God knows what He is doing.” In truth, I had been asking myself this same question. But eight years on, we can see that this question has been answered many times and in different ways.

In a way, the biggest blessing of following God‘s call and become a tentmaker in China has been our own growth. There hasn‘t been a day when we have not felt God‘s presence with us, and in a strong way.

As any Caucasian Westerner who has been in China knows, it is easy to feel like a complete “alien” in the Chinese world. You look different, you behave different and people often point to you like you are a kind of “circus wonder“. It is partly because of that feeling that God‘s presence has felt so strong. We felt strangers but never abandoned. Again and again, God has shown us that He did not make a mistake in sending us to China. We were right where we should be.

During our experience of tentmaking in China, God has truly worked in us and through us. We had the privilege to see Chinese friends putting their trust in Jesus Christ. Others have walked with us on their journey of faith and we were able to bring support and encouragement. Numbers don‘t really matter, neither is it crucial whether we started “churches” or not. Every opportunity that we had to explain the Gospel to a Chinese person has been very precious, because it was God-given.

Of course, there have been some steep learning curves. One challenge was particularly having to be extra flexible with circumstance around us. When you do ministry in China, you can never allow yourself to be too attached to a strategy. Of course it helps to have a vision, but allow this vision to be molded by the unfolding events around you. This is what we experienced again and again.

From day one we needed an open heart and mind. Humility and flexibility are key ingredients to any successful cross-cultural experience, but you need an extra-dose of it when serving God in a country with limitations. There are many things that we wished we could do, especially related to the local Chinese Church. But there was no point focusing only on what we could not do and become increasingly frustrated about it. Instead, we tried to look towards what we could do and with time, the opportunities were many.  

Many Chinese have a great hunger for God

With patience and understanding, you can go a long way in Chinese culture. Some fantastic doors were open to us, such as the time when my husband was asked by a representative of the Communist Party at his workplace to explain more about the Bible. Or when I was able to share Biblical principles for love and relationships to several hundreds of students, many of them coming to me afterwards to hear more. We never tried to keep secret that we were Christians and tried to model our faith the best we could, through our daily lives. The result was often that people wanted to know more. Many Chinese have a great hunger for God, for truth and purpose in their lives. In fact, we saw how much more open than in the West Chinese people are. Almost every week, someone asked either one of us about our faith, God or the Bible, and why we believed. The key was to be ready and to allow God to speak through us.

This is a precious lesson not just for tentmaking, but for every day of our lives as Christians, wherever we are. Since coming back to our home country, we have tried not to go out off our tentmaking lifestyle. There was nothing so extraordinary about our Christian work in China and this is a calling for every believer whether at home or on the mission field. We are all called to put God first into our lives and to reach out to the people around us. Jesus said: “Be ready for service and keep your lamps burning.” (Luke 12: 35).  And His disciple Peter wrote: “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (1 Pet. 3: 15) 

Do tentmakers really plant churches?

/ Guest Contributor

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Many think that tentmakers only play a complimentary role of assisting “real” missionaries as if tentmakers are not full-fledged mission workers. As a result, many tentmakers don’t plant churches because they don’t aim to. Paul, the apostle, and his co-workers, proved this by planting many churches as self-supporting, everyday Christians.

In fact, Paul deliberately chose “lay” strategy of working for his living to set a pattern of every Christian being a disciple-maker and of everyday Christians giving leadership and planting churches. This is why the early church spread so fast. This was no super feat of a spiritual superman.

Tentmaking in Scripture

“Paul, Silas, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians…You yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow.” – 2 Th 1:1;3:7-9

The Ultimate Goal of Missions

When “Robert” first went to the “Yanyin” region of China in 1991, he found 3 house churches and 85 Han Chinese Christians in a region of among 7 million people and 5 people groups. After surveying the region, he began mobilizing Chinese co-laborers and planting churches with them in 1994. Just three year later, the number of churches had grown to 195 in number and spread throughout the region, taking root in all five people groups. Robert describes his church planting strategy as POUCH: Participative Bible study/worship groups; Obedience to God’s word as a the measure of success; Unpaid and multiple lay or bi-vocational church leaders; Cell churches rarely exceeding 15 members before starting new groups; and Homes or store-fronts as primary meeting places for these cell churches. Robert would first model “doing church” with new believers using the POUCH approach. Then he would assist them to plant a daughter church. Third, he’d watch to see that they started a third-generation church without his involvement. Then he would leave–the crucial final step to ensure an indigenous, self-propagating movement.

The ultimate goal of missions is to plant self-multiplying, self-nurturing, self-led, self-supporting (Great Commission) churches of genuine disciples capable of evangelizing their own people and also reaching other peoples. Where an indigenous church already exists, our task is to integrate new believers into it, and to help it be the kind of church just described. Why is this the ultimate goal? Because Jesus commands us to “make disciples…[who] obey everything I have commanded.” As soon as two or more turn to Christ, they are transformed and called to love each other as Christ has loved them. (Jn. 15:12) God is building a new family. This means simple house churches, not complex, organizational churches. This is something that committed, everyday, workplace Christians can do, with a little preparation.

Everyday, workplace Christians (tentmakers) did it then; they are doing it today! The full Commission belongs to every Christian, not just to “full-time” missionaries. God does not relegate any Christian to second-class status, nor to any reduction of their God-given role! As Jesus left for heaven, he said, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given unto me. Go therefore…” With the command, he promised his power. Tentmakers can! They just need training and experience to develop skill. This is a core component of Global Opportunities’ GO Equipped! Course.

Sources: Church Planting Movements by David Garrison (published by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention). Pages 16-19. Order for free or copy from http://www.imb.org/globalresearch/CPM/what_is_a_cpm.htm.

The Ultimate Goal of Tentmaking. GO World, Volume 9, No. 2-1999.

The Wheaton Declaration

/ Guest Contributor

In October 2009 we organized a global consultation on Business as Mission, BAM, under the theme ‘Business as Integral Calling’. The Consultation, held in Wheaton, Illinois USA, was a significant contribution to equip many on the journey towards a better understanding and praxis of BAM.

We came from sixteen countries and five global regions “to explore the place of business in God’s purposes, together with the sacred calling of a life in business. 
We began with an acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty and Lordship over all aspects of human life, including our work, our business, our money, our profit, our economy, and our working relationships.”

Our conversations were organized around topics like:

  • What challenges and opportunities confront business seeking to 
    implement Kingdom values?
  • How does an understanding of the Kingdom of God re-center and 
    anchor business?
  • From a Kingdom of God perspective, how should business, in conjunction 
    with non-governmental organizations and government agencies, address poverty?
  • How do businesses with Kingdom values operate within environmental and 
    natural resource constraints?

The Wheaton Consultation brought together leaders from the realms of business, non-profit organizations, and Christian ministry with theologians and academic leaders in business, economics, and missions.

The Consultation sought to build upon the Lausanne process and document.**

Our deliberations are summarized in the Wheaton Declaration.

One brief excerpt:

“It is our deep conviction that businesses that function in alignment with the core values of the Kingdom of God are playing and increasingly should play an important role in holistic transformation of individuals, communities and societies.”

Mats Tunehag

Lausanne Senior Associate Business as Mission

Business as Mission: A Threefold Mandate

/ Guest Contributor

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Guest Editor Mats Tunehag
 

Business is more than making money, at least it should be. According to the “father of capitalism” Adam Smith, businesses exist to serve the general welfare.

The computer pioneer Dave Packard said:”Many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company’s existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being. People get together and exist as a company so that they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately – they make a contribution to society.”

In the last 12 – 18 months we have been able to witness the effects of a global economic crisis. Mahatma Gandhi’s list of seven deadly social sins seems to be an accurate diagnosis for some of the causes of this crisis. It has been too much…

 1.  politics without principle
 2.  wealth without work

 3.  commerce without morality

 4.  pleasure without conscience

 5.  education without character

 6.  science without humanity

 7.  worship without sacrifice

The Christian social activist Jim Wallis wrote about the economic crisis: “How will this crisis change us? How will it change the way we think, act, and decide things – how we live, and how we do business? Yes, this is a structural crisis, and one that clearly calls for new social regulation. But it is also a spiritual crisis, and one that calls for new self-regulation. We seem to have lost some things and forgotten some things — such as our values.”

We cannot, and must not, go on assuming and practicing business as usual; neither the extreme Wall Street way, nor the centrally planned socially engineered way.

Business is multi-faceted. It is about profit and values, about wealth creation and social concern, about value added products and services and creation care, about markets and caring for people. But Business as Mission, BAM, is more than just Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), it is more than job creation and entrepreneurship. BAM, is about being a follower of Jesus in the market place. BAM businesses also want to see Christ revealed and God glorified among all peoples and nations.

For Business as Mission rests on three distinct Biblical mandates:

1. The creation mandate is to “till, care for, exercise stewardship, multiply, work, prosper”. This is about being creative; create good things for ourselves and others – also in and through business.  This also means being good stewards of our talents, resources and callings, but also caring for creation and people. It is also acknowledging and affirming the gifts and calling of entrepreneurs.
 

2. The great commandment mandate is to “love your neighbor as yourself”. We know that business can and should serve people and meet various needs. For example: Unemployment is a major underlying cause to malnourishment and starvation, homelessness, disease and limited access to medical treatment, as well as to debt and crime. Providing people with jobs is alleviating and preventing these dire conditions.
 

3. The great commission mandate is to “make disciples of all nations”. As followers of Jesus we have a global mission – to all peoples.  BAM has a missional and global intent. BAM takes B and M seriously: real business and intentional mission, especially to areas with dire spiritual, economical and social needs. BAM businesses want to see Christ revealed and God glorified, in and through business, among all peoples and nations.
 

These three mandates must be at the forefront when we plan and run BAM businesses. It is equally important that these three serve as a context as we continuously evaluate our practical BAM mission. We must be aware of the risk of mission drift. One may start out with high hopes and ambitions regarding all three mandates, but eventually end up just operating a CSR business, only fulfilling the creation mandate and the great commandment mandate. As good as that may be for various stakeholders, it is nevertheless a shortcoming. Our unique contribution and responsibility as BAMers rests on the threefold mandate.

Just doing business for maximization of profit is also a mission drift. That limited understanding and praxis of business contributed towards the global recession. Mahatma Gandhi’s observations are important as we seek the general welfare of society. Finally, as Christians in the market place we strive to do business as unto the Lord, being accountable to Him and to fellow followers of Jesus.

      © Mats Tunehag                 

       February 2010

       Lausanne Senior Associate – Business as Mission

       World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission Associate – Business as Mission