“Christians are better than other people”

/ Steinar Opheim

http://globalopps.org/tmbriefs/TM%20group.jpg

After three years of hard work and Bible teaching, a tentmaker serving in Asia was speaking at a house church meeting. – It is true that Christians are better than other people, isn’t it? the tentmaker asked.

The tentmaker was surprised to see people in the congregation starting to nod their heads in agreement. After a few clarifying questions, he realized that what he had tried to teach people throughout the last years had been in vain. The believers in this mid-sized Central Asian city really believed that they were morally superior to others in the society.

“If I could have done it over again and retrained the believers, I would have done things in a very different way,” the tentmaker stated a few years after finishing his job in the former Soviet republic. With a lack of knowledge on how to train disciples, the tentmaker focused on Bible teaching and systematic theology.

“For all Christians it is valuable to have a profound knowledge of the Bible, but I understood too late that many of the people I taught did not apply the Biblical message to their own lives. As a result, their lives were not changed,” states the tentmaker.

What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ in my life, at my workplace and in my neighborhood? This is one of the most central questions when it comes to discipleship training. Unfortunately the Biblical message remains head knowledge for many of us, and thus our lives are not changed according to the Scripture. Theological issues, and not the transformation of lives, also remain the focus in many churches.

Jesus called us to make disciples of all nations. In the four Gospels we read how he trained his disciples, concentrating on the few people he knew would be able to teach others. And he focused much of his teaching on everyday challenges and principles in the Kingdom of God.

There is no doubt that a tentmaker can be a good disciple-maker. A tentmaker works and lives under the same conditions as the people he or she has come to train. In this way a tentmaker, like Paul, the tentmaker from Tarsus, can model what it means to follow Jesus in everyday life. 

It is said that when we we aim at nothing, we hit it every time. If we don’t know what the aim of our discipleship training is, we will probably fail. Dawson Trotman, the founder of Navigators, has given us the following guideline that can be of help: “A person is mature physiologically when he or she can reproduce physically; so too, a person is mature spiritually when he or she can reproduce spiritually.”

Why training for ministry skills is so important.

/ Ari Rocklin

Business as mission (BAM) is a fast growing component of missions to unreached areas of the world, and so it should be. It is a wonderful way to enable people to help themselves instead of being supported by well intended organizations or individuals. On the other hand are people who start Kingdom businesses that have a for profit purpose. I am excited at this trend and am seeing great changes in many countries where I am in contact with tentmakers.

Here is the problem as I see it.

When I look at BAM events around the world, and look at the schedules and outlines of topics that will be addressed, I seldom see a ministry component or how to do ministry  in tandem with the business.

I once wrote the BAM seminar coordinators of an upcoming event and asked why there was 
no ministry training included in their wonderful program? They told me that it simply had not crossed their minds, as they were busy lining up people with much to offer in developing a business plan, dealing with bureaucracy, raising funds etc. In their defence, they immediately asked me if I could teach such a session.

Many Christian professionals take jobs overseas or are assigned to a foreign posting by their company, often to so called closed countries. Unfortunately many leave without any specific ministry training and thus miss out on intentional sharing of their faith in meaningful ways.

“Christian professionals with overseas jobs are not tentmakers unless they intentionally seek to make Jesus known to the local people of the host country”          Ruth Siemens

GO trains tentmakers, business as mission people for critical ministry  skills in difficult countries, many of which are hostile to Christianity, not only to thrive in new cultures but to have effective ministry within the constraints of local laws and regulations. This may sound overwhelmingly difficult, but it does not have to be.

As a high level security official of a closed country once told me in a brash way, “Not even in Slamistan (his country) is it against the law to answer questions.” This simple statement tells us that renting a building for church services and then inviting people to come to a meeting is not permitted, but having relational conversations, replying to people’s questions, is not only accepted, but legal.

When you seek out training for tentmaking, business as mission, make sure you will also learn about doing ministry. Integrate your ministry plan with your business plan, and let God do the rest.

Ari Rocklin
GO Mobilizer

Do You Need a “Special Call?”

/ Guest Contributor

Back in college, I was greatly moved by a small InterVarsity Press booklet titled “Called, But Not Going.” 
It confronted the issue of Christians who sensed God calling them into missions or ministry, but then over the years, allowed “the cares of this world” to kill the call of God so that they never went. The booklet sought to turn them back to God’s call.

It was very compelling, but as I understood more of the Bible, I became troubled by one major implication of this booklet—that it only applied to a special group who had received a “special” call to “the ministry,” i.e., to full-timeservice. It did not apply to the vast majority of regular Christians who never received such a call. They were not called to the same level of commitment, godliness, and ministry. With no “special call,” everyday Christians are mostly off the hook for the Great Commission and relegated to a secondary role to pay, pray, and obey.

The result of this theology is a huge gap between clergy (those in full-time ministry) and lay people. I saw this gap profoundly illustrated when I helped our church host its annual regional pastor’s conference. I met some wonderful pastors. But their statements showed the size of the clergy/laity gap. Pastors spoke repeatedly about how “God called me into the ministry,” “before (and after) I was called into the ministry,” “those of us in the ministry,” etc. By implication, the rest of the church was not in the ministry.

While this was one of the strongest clergy/laity divisions I’ve witnessed, this thinking permeates the church. Lay Christians are considered a separate class from those in the ministry. Since they do not have the training, the time, or the special call, the church cannot expect that much from them. They are reduced to a secondary support role and largely relieved of the full calling of God in the New Testament.

The late Pete Hammond of Ministry in Daily Life (www.urbana.org/whole-life-stewardship) said, “We have established a two tier community of faith with the exaltation of pastors, missionaries and ‘full-time workers’ as the elite strike force of the kingdom. Everyone else is quietly, but terribly effectively relegated to a ‘pray, pay and obey’ passivity. Lord, forgive our blindness!”  (October 1998)

While the Bible tells how God called people to specific tasks, it says nothing of a special call which elevates some Christians to a special class with a higher calling and level of discipleship than other Christians who live at a lower level. This terrible theology has deeply harmed the church.

God’s call is primarily to himself. This is the innate meaning of calling—that someone, in this case God, summons another person to himself. God calls all Christians to submit all of their lives to him as Lord. As Lord, he owns us, and in salvation, we return our lives to him and receive his incredible pardon for our rebellion. As Paul says, Christians are“called to belong to Jesus Christ” (Rm. 1:5-7)

And this means all their lives so that “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Co 10:31) If Christians are called to honor God in such basic habits as eating and drinking, then they are certainly called to do so in all other parts of their lives. Depending on where God has placed them, God has a calling for Christians as workers, as bosses, as spouses, as children, as parents, as neighbors, as landlords, as citizens, and so forth.

In all these callings, Christians are to think, live and speak Christianly, demonstrating the divine difference the gospel makes in their lives. The implications of these callings are innumerable. Let me mention one important one. Christians are called to stand quietly, but firmly for what is good and right in the workplace, community, and nation, even in the face of social, political, and legal pressure.

Joined with God’s call to submit all of life to him is his call to bring others to him as Lord to receive his extravagant, undeserved pardon and love—in other words, to make disciples. Every Christian is called to seek for Jesus’ kingdom (his reign) to come, for his will to be done, and for every knee to bow to him. (Mt. 6:10; Php. 2:10; Rm. 14:11) One of the great insights of the Reformation was the rediscovery that all Christians are called to be priests who reconcile others to God. Sadly, this has yet to be fully implemented.

As Christians follow Christ, they internalize his heart and long to see people become disciples from every people and nation. (Mt. 28:19) They cannot be satisfied reaching only their own people. And Christians are called to do this primarily through living and speaking for God in all areas of their lives.

This is God’s call to all Christians. There is no lesser calling!

Biblically, this is why tentmakers and everyday disciples are so important. Full-time Christians cannot impact society alone. Only workplace Christians can demonstrate the gospel in all of life and make disciples in all sectors of society. And it is they who have regular contact with nonbelievers in all walks of life.

Many people see Christianity as irrelevant. The church is losing influence in society. Most people are Biblically illiterate. Despite mega-churches, the church is shrinking. It is rapidly losing young people—75% during college years.

This cannot be remedied by better worship services and programs. People need to see the power of the gospel in the nitty-gritty of life—that it works for everyday people under the demands, pressures, and joys of everyday life, not just for full-time workers who get paid to be spiritual and talk about God. They must see supernaturally transformed, ordinary Christians. Unless the church transforms people rather than programs, it will fade away, though it may look good for awhile longer. And we will continue to export the same weaknesses overseas through our missions work.

Only workplace Christians can live out the gospel under the demands of everyday life. Only they can steadily influence co-workers and neighbors through their godly example and moral insight. It was this diffusion of Christian thinking and morals which made America so successful. And only this can transform nations today. Everyday Christians fulfilling God’s calling are absolutely indispensable for God’s purposes.

Imagine the impact if everyday Christians recovered their high calling before the watching world. Imagine the reaction if all Christians showed up at work next Monday and served their boss as if they were serving the Lord himself (Eph 6:5-8, Col 3:22-23). And imagine this happening in all areas of Christians’ lives! It would astonish the world!

God has called us to such a high calling that we need no “special call.” We just need to grab hold of his calling with all our being, willing to go wherever he leads, whether to our local workplace or to another country. If we do this, Jesus will surely be with us, lead us and empower us “with all authority in heaven and on earth.” (Mt. 28:18-20) And he will make a difference through us

Ten Steps to Going as a Tentmaker

/ Guest Contributor

Don’t worry if you are not good in all these areas. No one is. These are key steps to preparing to be an effective tentmaker. Many can be pursued simultaneously. .

1.    Build your relationship with God.  Everything flows from the strength of your relationship with God. How are you doing at being filled and renewed daily through time alone with God in devotional reading and in prayer? What else do you need to do? Develop your strength in spiritual warfare. Sin and temptation assault us through the evil world system and our own sinful vulnerability. Strengthen your ability to maintain spiritual vitality under pressure in an alien culture with minimal support.

2.    Build inductive Bible study skills & Biblical understanding. Aim to know that you are seeing what the original author was doing in a passage, not just what you’ve been told, or have always thought because of your background. Steadily study whole sections of Scripture, learning better how to observe what the passage really says, interpret what the writer meant, and apply it to your life today. Keep building your understanding of Biblical truth and principles to gain more and more of God’s mind about all areas of life. Memorize key passages for personal use, evangelism, and discipling.

3.    Cultivate healthy family relationships. You will face great stress in a new culture. Work proactively on your family life. Build family patterns of eating, talking, working, and having fun together. Read, attend seminars, and seek counsel from sharp, godly couples. How ready are you for the stress of cross-cultural work and witness? What else can you do to prepare?

4.    Develop workplace discipleship. Work is central to humans created in the image of God. God is the great worker and we were designed to be co-workers with him and rulers under him to manage and care for the world. Thus legitimate work is a sacred, God-honoring activity through which we “feel God’s pleasure.” We are called to servanthood toward bosses, customers, co-workers, and the larger community. Excellence, godly ethics, genuine caring, Kingdom values, and natural, meaningful witness should define us. We are also called to influence the thought world of our vocation. Where can you grow in these areas and what specific steps will you take?

5.    Learn to do workplace evangelism.  Tentmakers answer questions from seekers made hungry for God by observing them—their integrity, quality work, caring relationships and words about God. They integrate work and witness and share Christ naturally by fitting comments about God in normal conversation followed by thoughtful responses to co-workers’ questions. Deliberately work on developing workplace evangelism.

6.    Learn to lead Bible study discussions, whether evangelistic or discipleship. Ask questions to lead participants to discover the truth in the text for themselves versus telling them what it says. Lead the group to respond to the truth of the passage. Find opportunities to lead or participate in seeker Bible studies. Learn how to make seekers really comfortable.

7.    Help start a simple church. Self-reproducing, indigenous churches are the end goal in making disciples. Develop your understanding of what moves a discipleship group into becoming a simple house church—issues like baptism, communion, church leadership. Look for opportunity to be involved in starting or helping a simple house church. Ask God to give you opportunity to lead people to Christ, disciple them in a group, and coach them into becoming a church which is led by leaders from within the group.

8.    Get missions training, especially GO tentmaker training. Read and get training in the biblical basis of missions, history, geography, growth, trends, issues, strategies, cross-cultural living, workplace witness, discipling, church-planting, church multiplication, indigeneity/dependency, etc. Perspectives is the single, best course on missions and covers all these areas. This semester-long evening course is available in many locations around the US and Canada. Take it at the college level for greatest value. For training in tentmaking,This unique course is totally focused on the principles and skills you need to be effective overseas. Also, get involved cross-culturally with another ethnic group and church near you. Build friendships. Learn the culture. Share Christ. Even start learning the language.

9.    Research the global job market. Use the Internet to research jobs needed related to your profession, the credentials required, the companies and organizations involved, and how to customize your resume or CV to fit openings. This research can help you determine where you might need additional training and experience.
10. Get needed degrees & experience. Most positions require at least a bachelor’s degree. However, we’ve helped a number of tentmakers go without a college degree. Sometimes experience counts more than a degree. While there are entry-level jobs, you generally need two or more years’ experience. TEFL/ESL is an exception even to this. Schools often accept any native English speaker. Always remember that as Christians we want to serve people well and honor Christ. Successful cross-cultural experience enhances desirability to employers. To get such experience, consider work study programs, internships abroad, multinational organizations, Peace Corps, the Mennonite Central Committee, etc.