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.