TMB

Let God use your profession overseas – free seminar shows how

/ Guest Contributor

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Free Tentmaking Seminars are coming to North Bay, Ontario (Aug. 4), and to Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pasadena, California (Sept. 18 & 19 – Friday evening at 7:00 pm or Saturday morning 8:30 am).

Alan” and “Rachel” opened their home to people they met in China and invited new friends to an English language Bible study. They sang Christian songs, discussed a specific passage of the Bible, mostly about Jesus, prayed together, ate refreshments, and enjoyed each other. Within a few months a couple of people became Christians. Friend brought friends, the group grew, and more came to Jesus. They baptized the new believers and discipled them as they grew, working together with and mentoring leaders within the group. Even before they left, the group sent one member to Tibet to reach people. After two years, “Alan” and “Rachel” left the group as a small house church in the hands of the leaders they had been developing. That church reproduced at least six more house churches over the next five years!

        Were “Alan” and “Rachel” full-time missionaries? No! They were everyday working Christians. They both worked as teachers. But they were determined to call Chinese people to Christ. The people in their Bible study came mostly from people they met at work. They simply integrated work and witness, and God used them powerfully.

        Ruth Siemens did the same thing while teaching in international schools in Peru and Brazil. She reached colleagues, students, and school service staff through natural on-the-job contact. As her life and words awakened spiritual hunger, she invited them into her home and into Bible studies. She geared these studies just for them to investigate Jesus. In her spare time she did similar things at the nearby university, and started the Christian university student movements in Peru and Brazil. These were student-run, and Ruth coached the students in reaching other and discipling them.

        This story is being repeated over and over by Christians who are dedicating their professional skills to work overseas in order to reach the local people. “Mark” worked with a company in Central Asia to arrange for new sites to operate their business. He quietly demonstrated his faith and shared when people asked. And they did ask. He repeatedly met Muslim warlords and tribal leaders. One of them demanded that he tell a religious story as a “holy man.” With trembling, he told the story of Jesus. It moved the leader and his men and he invited him to tell more about Jesus every time he returned. Out of this a new church sprang up among this unreached people group.

        God is using workplace Christians willing to give their professional skills and their hearts to reaching lost people around the world. He can use you, and he will, if you are willing.

        Have you wondered if you could do more for Christ’s global mission? Longed to see more people come to Jesus? And be transformed into his image? Wondered if God could use you more powerfully without switching to full-time ministry?

        Do you want to know more? To find out how you might do the things these Christians did? Then Global Opportunities’ free Tentmaking Seminar is designed especially for you. In three to four fast-moving hours you can learn all you need to know to start down this path:

  • Why tentmaking is so powerful Biblically and globally
  • How to integrate work and witness naturally
  • How to find a job in the global job market
  • What steps to take to pursue tentmaking

Light in the Darkness

/ Guest Contributor

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” ~Matthew 5:14-16

In the 1960s, Jackie Pullinger, a young British woman, felt called by God to the Far East. With a degree in music, she wrote the Hong Kong government seeking a teaching post. They replied that they had no positions. So she tried a mission agency, but they said she was “too young.” Acting in faith, with no job, Jackie boarded a ship for Hong Kong.  

Upon arriving, she met Auntie Donnie, who showed her a primary school she ran in “The Walled City,” an area overrun by every imaginable crime. Also named “Hak Nam,” meaning darkness, Jackie learned it was “a place of terrible darkness, both physical and spiritual.” On that first visit, Auntie Donnie asked her to teach there. “Before I had fully realized what I was letting myself in for, I had agreed to teach percussion band, singing, and English conversation three afternoons a week.” Jackie also picked up another “regular job teaching in a primary school in the mornings.”


Through her work, Jackie started a youth club, especially because of the influence of one of her young male students. Teaching gave her natural contact with young people, out of which her ministry grew. Her work gained credibility and identification with the people. One student dialoged with her like this:


“Poon Siu Jeh (Jackie’s name “Pullinger” in Chinese), I haven’t got a job and I’ve run out of money.”
“But I’m afraid I haven’t got any money.”
“Oh, but you have–you’re terribly rich.”
“No, no, really I haven’t got any money.”
“Oh yes you have, because you’ve got a church in America like the rest of them.”
“No really I haven’t got a church in America. Actually I am from England, but no church sent me.”
A plane flew over head. “Huh, one day I expect you’ll get into one of those and fly back to where you came from.”
“No, there’s no danger of that because I haven’t got enough money to get on one,” I replied honestly.
“Well, your parents can send you the money anyway–there is plenty of money where you came from–we’ve seen how all those English people live up the peak.”
“No,” I said, “you’re wrong about that. My parents haven’t got any money either.”

Pullinger wrote, “This kind of conversation took place many times; it was an indictment of those evangelists who flew into Hong Kong, sang sweet songs about the love of Jesus on stage and on Hong Kong TV, then jumped back into their planes and flew away again.”

Slowly Jackie gained credibility because she lived and worked like the people did, and stayed long term. It took years. In fact, for years, as hard as she tried, nobody paid any attention because they had heard it before–from people who never stayed or lived like they did. But as Jackie continued to work among the people year after year, they began to trust the Jesus she told them about both on and off the job.

Jackie shined Christ’s light into the darkness by working for her living among the people. Through her persevering work, they saw “her good deeds and praised [her] Father in heaven.” God enlarged her ministry far beyond anything she had ever imagined. Without working, the light would never have shown so clearly. Will you use your profession to bring the Light to a dark part of the world?

The Ultimate Goal of Tentmaking

/ Guest Contributor

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.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. 

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’