Empowering Tentmakers to Reach the World

 Tentmaking Briefs is a FREE short monthly e-Journal. It will teach, inform, inspire, support, challenge and equip you for tentmaking.
 In a broader sense integrating work and faith in all areas of your life. 

 If you are unsure, feel free to try it. You can unsubscribe at any time. Read the current issue here

  Reader comments

 "Thank you for your hard work in putting together this newsletter! I look forward to each issue"

 "TMB is one of the best newsletters I've seen. Lots of practical information"

 "As a tentmaker serving in a very difficult place, it is very encouraging to read about what is going on in other places."

 "I am not able to read tentmaking briefs online due to security issues, but am able to enjoy the collection of 
 articles downloaded to my kindle when on short breaks outside the country"

 "Thanks for the reminders that there is ongoing training in many places, we hope to one day attend the training. 
 We see the need for it every day as we feel ill equipped to keep focused on the reason we came here"

 " I use stories and articles from this publication in my missions class - thank you for making them available"

 Tentmaking Briefs eBook - 58 pages!
 a collection of short articles from the world of tentmaking business as mission

 TMB eBook.pdf 
 TMB eBook Kindle Format.pdf

Dear visitor, I am excited by your desire to investigate tentmaking! Tentmaking is a strategic and powerful missions strategy. It allows you to use your vocation to reach the nations. Tentmaking is a real alternative and indispensible complement to vocational missions. It is much more than an access strategy for closed countries. Apostle Paul chose it over donor support because of its great benefits. Read why in Tentmaking 101 articles linked below.  The vision of GLOBAL Opportunities is to introduce Christians to tentmaking, to equip them, and then help them get overseas as effective tentmakers. As challenging as  finding a job can be, the bigger challenge by far is being effective in reaching people after you arrive.   GO helps potential tentmakers through the whole process by providing advice, mentoring, training materials, intensive two week curriculum tentmaking courses run in just  over 4 days and covering a weekend, in USA, Canada & Europe.  Tentmaking is powerful because it invites regular, everyday Christians, all Christians, back into full engagement in reaching the world. It can transform the  Church, when we re-inject its DNA into the lifeblood of the Church.    We have designed this section as your first stop on your way to the nations! Though you can read these articles online, they are quite substantial and designed for  thoughtful study. I suggest that you download them and print them out. May the Lord lead you and speak to you as you study this material.  Once you have absorbed the information here, please connect with us with any questions. We want to help you get to the next step.  Thanks for stopping by today and I hope to see you at one of our tentmaking courses soon!  Dave English  Executive Director  Click here to connect with Dave
Download  45 K	Why did Paul make tents? Click here to read online
Download  75 K
Download  58 K	New Millennium Missions Click here to read online
Download  155 K
Download  16 K	Workplace evangelism Click here to read online
Download  66 K
Download  23 K	The international job market Click here to read online
Download  34 K

 These short stories give glimpses into the lives of real tentmakers, past or present, to illustrate various facets of tentmaking, like how Christians became tentmakers, their
 employment, their spiritual ministry, cultural adjustment, other problems, etc. We do not usually reveal their actual names nor their host country, at least not both together. 
 We would love to hear your story as well! Feel free to send it to us.

 - Ruth Siemens Story - Founder of Global Opportunities

 - TESOL Teacher in China

 - Engineers in the Middle East 

 - A Teacher in the Arab World

 - The Accidental Tentmakers - an ESL adventure that started a house church

 - Two years as an ESL teacher in Taiwan

 Starting a Business Abroad

 Business Tentmaking - Dave English

 Business Tentmaking - Business as Mission - Dave English

 Doing Business in Israel - Ken Crowell - Galtronics

 Mats Tunehag examines what factors determine the success or failure of business as mission. 
 He argues that it’s important to remember our objective and refuse to compromise on professionalism, 
 excellence and integrity.

 Mats Tunehag's Blog on Business as Mission (BAM)

 What are tentmakers?

 Missions-motivated Christians who support themselves in secular work, yet do full-time, cross-cultural evangelism on the job and elsewhere. Most Christians who go to work in
 a foreign country are not tentmakers since they do little or nothing to win local people. True tentmakers work steadily to reach the local people.

 Why is self-support called tentmaking? 

 Because the Apostle Paul literally made tents to support his cross-cultural mission. Today, "tentmaking" is a missiological term for Paul's model of missionary finance and strategy.

 Doesn't a job leave too little time and energy for spiritual ministry? 

 The question assumes you serve God only in free time. But tentmakers integrate work and witness. Their ministry is full-time. Every day they live out the Gospel and share it
 every chance they get. Their work provides the platform for natural contacts. Their integrity, quality work, caring relationships and well chosen comments about God cause
 seekers to ask questions without arousing hostility in others.

 Is it fair to employers to evangelize at work?

 Employers benefit from godly Christians. Tentmakers' first concern is personal integrity, quality work and caring relationships. Paul taught converts that we are to serve our
 employer as the Lord Himself (Eph. 6:5-8, Col. 3:23-25). What pleases God usually pleases the boss. A contract with him is a contract with God. Godly tentmakers work to make
 the organization and the boss successful. Tentmakers are the kind of employee that employers want more of.

 Tentmakers fish out seekers, by their attractive, wholesome, non-judgmental conduct and casual, fitting comments about the Lord. Seekers' questions are more fully answered
 in free time with Investigative Bible Studies.

 Can't evangelism jeopardize tentmakers and their employers in sensitive countries? 

 The danger is reduced by this discreet and non-confrontational fishing evangelism described above. (Jesus, in his hostile environment fished out seekers using parables.)
 Genuine seekers rarely cause trouble. But tentmakers must trust God to protect them and the employer. See Fishing Evangelism

 What makes fishing evangelism effective?

 It is non-intrusive, and seekers can pace the conversations--ask questions when ready for more. Their questions reveal what Gospel facts they lack or misunderstand, their felt
 needs, their fears and obstacles to faith. Both Paul and Peter speak of evangelism as answering questions (1 Peter 3:14-16, Col. 4:5,6), but few people ask unless they see the
 Gospel lived out. The job is no optional inconvenience, but the God-given context for evangelism.

 Is on-the-job evangelism mandatory?

 To spend daily time with non-believers implies spiritual responsibility. Silence is never an option. Our secular work itself glorifies God, but is no substitute for sharing the Good
 News. To avoid witness at work (to minimize risk), in order to evangelize elsewhere, will backfire. Lifestyle evangelism cannot be switched on and off.

 Does tentmaking permit church planting? 

 It is ideal! Evangelism leads to home Bible studies, which lead to house churches. Stan started two in Brazil while working as a plant pathologist. 
 Many are doing this in restricted areas where only tentmakers can go. Sometimes they find secret believers won through satellite TV and radio!

 What other ministry can tentmakers do?

 Dan taught in an Arab university and did a Bible translation for five million Muslims! Ruth taught school and started university fellowships in South America. A physicist, an
 accountant and others helped. Ken taught high school science and preached every third Sunday in Kenya. Doug did grad studies and taught seminary in India. Literature
 teacher Nel wrote Christian radio scripts in Liberia. ESL instructor Greg started a Christian bookstore and a publishing venture in the Middle East. Rose did teacher education
 in Brazil and trained Sunday school teachers. Violinist Nan played in Portugal's national symphony orchestra and trained church musicians. Sociologist Marcia taught Christian
 journalism in Asia. Tentmakers have started Christian schools, orphanages--even hospitals.

 Why work if you can get donor support?

 Some practical reasons:

 1) Personnel. We will never have enough regular missionaries--an average couple needs 2 1/2 to 3 years to raise support!
 2) Cost. Mission budgets must grow with rising living costs, but tentmakers can work at little or no expense to the church.
 3) Closed countries. About 8O% of all people live under governments that restrict missionaries, but seek vocational expertise.
 4) Open countries. Many people are best reached by professional and trade associates who understand their milieu, their mentality and jargon. (Japan is only one percent
     evangelized and Western Europe is as needy as the former Soviet Union.)
 5) The growing global job market is God's provision for world evangelization!

 But more important than practical reasons are Paul's biblical reasons for tentmaking. See Why Did Paul Make Tents?

 But did Paul really do much tentmaking?

 Yes. 1 Cor. 9 make this crystal clear. First Paul argues for church and donor support, and establishes his right to have it, as an apostle. But then he says three times that he
 has never made any use of it. His team has always supported itself--and not mere token employment. They often worked two shifts and lacked adequate food and clothing.
 We know this was a career-long pattern because this statement comes near the end of his third missionary journey.

 But doesn't Paul say he had "robbed" churches?

 "Robbed" is an exaggeration to shame the Corinthians. Years later, when the Philippians send money to Paul in prison, he says only they had ever given to him--and that, only
 once or twice. (Phil. 4:14-16) His detractors charge that he regularly receives money on the sly. But he denies it. He even pays for hospitality! He owes no favors, and was
 beholden to no factions.

 Why does Paul spend hours at manual labor when there is a world to win? 

 He knows his hours in the workplace will speed up his mission. Paul's three main biblical reasonsare in 1 Cor. 9 and 2 Thess. 3.

 1) The job gives Paul and his message credibility. That he preaches the Gospel tirelessly, under severe persecution, and for no financial gain, convinces even enemies that
     he is sincere and his message is true.
 2) The job aids Paul's identification with the working classes who make up the bulk of the Roman Empire. Only they can take the Gospel to their own non-Greek speaking
     villages in the hinterlands. Consequently, whole regions were quickly won!
 3) The job permits Paul's modeling for converts: discipleship; godly living in an immoral, idolatrous society; a biblical work ethic, essential for strong families and churches;
     and unpaid lay evangelism, for exponential church growth!

 Every convert must spread the Gospel without pay! Tentmaking is a non-negotiable principle in Paul's strategy "as a skilled master builder." Even pastors work in the pioneer
 stage, until unpaid lay ministry is established as the dominant pattern. Initially, Paul's churches never saw a paid, professional, religious worker. Unpaid lay evangelism is
 the norm in the early church. This is how Paul could say that he had preached the gospel throughout the Greek-speaking eastern half of the Mediterranean so he no longer
 has any room in these regions. He planted self-propagating, self-multiplying churches which were penetrating the whole region with the gospel.

 Why was Paul's model abandoned?
 
 It was the main model through most of history, according to Yale historian K. S. Latourette. The Gospel was spread mainly by merchants, soldiers, captives and refugees.
 Even later, when Europe colonized the other continents in the 17OO and 18OO's, all the early missionaries were tentmakers, including William Carey, "the father of modern
 missions." They opened the way for our church and donor supported agencies, and these last 2OO years of amazing expansion of the Church around the world!

 But in the post-colonial period many new nations closed doors and in today's post-post-colonial period, anti-missionary laws already threaten newly opened doors into former
 Soviet Union world. But most countries want development help. Since the fall of Communism, virtually all are working toward free market economies, creating a global job market
 unprecedented in history! (English is its language!) western export of "services" (especially, technical expertise), is now several timesthe trade in manufactured goods!

 Where are these job opportunities? 

 No country is off-limits. Many jobs are in the least evangelized 1O-4O window--North Africa, southern Europe, Middle East and Asia to the Pacific. Add sub-Sahara Africa,
 Latin America, Oceania. Most jobs are in urban settings - some are in rural or tribal areas. See Tentmaking and the Global Job Market.

 What skills, qualifications are needed?

 Every country protects jobs for its own people but imports foreigners with needed expertise. Whiledegrees and experience are sometimes essential, the need for all kinds of
 trades/skills are increasing. Not all jobs require degrees from universities, teaching English for example, often requires only a certificate from a respected ESL school. About forty
 kinds of employers hire--U.N., governments, firms, voluntary agencies, cultural institutions, etc. The biggest vocational areas areeducation (all levels), health care, computers,
 science and technology, business and finance, agriculture and many other industries. Openings can sometimes be found in the social sciences, fine arts, athletics--even scuba
 diving! Other tentmaker options are study abroad (under-graduate to post-doctoral), modestly paid internships, jobs for retirees and vacation service.

 Is it necessary to learn a foreign language?

 Most jobs are done in English, but learning the host country language helps your cultural adjustment, wins the respect of local people and lets you share the Gospel sensitively.
 Some employers pay for lessons. Learning the language in country is an excellent way to build friendships with nationals.

 What about remuneration and benefits?

 Salaries range from modest to high. Most jobs pay round trip travel for the family, paid vacations, health insurance, sometimes schooling and housing. However, some countries
 are so poor that tentmakers must raise supplemental donor support.

 Aren't contracts too short to have value?

 Contracts are often renewed. Some tentmakers do much in 2-3 years. All can witness and acquire some language and culture. It is short-termers who make life-time
 commitments, as God provides jobs. Realistically, tentmakers often have to move on before reaching their goals. But we can trust God to bring others. In fact, we can work to
 recruit other tentmakers to come and continue and even expand the work. Running a business can provide long-term access if a person has gifts for it.

 Should you start your own business?

 Chemical engineer Bob started a cafe, a job agency and a miniature golf course in the Gulf! But you need capital, experience, the language and culture. You will also want to
 choose a business that gives ongoing contact with the people. Running a business is harder than working for one. However, business as mission is a fast growing strategy for
 reaching the nations while also considering the whole person.

 What preparation do tentmakers need?

 They need Bible knowledge and Bible study and discussion skills. These are building blocks for church planting. Campus fellowships provide excellent in-service training in secular
 universities, which are microcosms of multicultural, hostile world-mission fields. ALPHA leadership training is widely available and will be helpful in starting studies on the basics of
 the Christian faith. A new and exciting version of this excellent program is "Alpha in the Workplace", designed to fit into a lunch hour and run in the workplace.

 Is tentmaking better? Or donor support?  

 Neither. It depends on the situation and how God leads you! Both have advantages and disadvantages. Both are needed overseas. The church is weakened without strong
 tentmakers to model unpaid lay evangelism and godly work patterns. Consider both options, and combinations of them. 
 God cares about where and how you serve him!

 How Can Global Opportunities help you?  

 GO helps you find where God wants you to serve through their intensive two week curriculum tentmaker courses, personal mentoring, training materials and resources.

  Perspectives Course
 Mission Frontiers Magazine - USCWM - Chronicled articles since 1987
 AZTEM - Australia
 Global Careers South Africa
 Intent - - a membership organization seeking to network Christian professionals and agencies for global impact.
 TI (formerly Tentmakers International Exchange)
 Tentmakers' Ministry, YWAM  (Canada) English & Korean
 TENT Norway
 Global Connections UK
 Christian Vocations

 BPN - Business Professional Network - Seeks ways to encourage and support others in the task of missions through business.
 CBMC International - is a worldwide network of business and professional people and organizations seeking to take the truths of Jesus Christ to the marketplace.

 The Mission of GLOBAL Opportunities is:

 To help the church to understand and engage the Biblical model of tentmaking by sending committed, everyday, workplace Christians as mission workers,
 and to mobilize and equip these Christians to serve abroad as effective tentmakers, primarily to least-reached peoples.

 GLOBAL Opportunities:

 1. Educates about and promotes tentmaking through its website, writing, speaking, tentmaking seminars, and advertising.
 2. Assists churches in developing tentmaking and sending tentmakers.
 3. Provides training materials to equip tentmakers.
 4. Publishes GO World, a free mini-journal and Tentmaking  Briefs, a free enewsletter on tentmaking to teach, motivate, and equip for effective ministry.
 5. Provides training for tentmaker effectiveness through courses.
 6. Mentors and coaches tentmakers to help them succeed and be effective.
 7. Connects tentmakers with colleagues on the field for team support and accountability, whenever possible.

 Note: No tentmaker becomes a GO missionary. Tentmakers merely commit to Global Opportunities on a personal, fellowship basis, not on any legal or employment basis.
 They are fully self-supporting if at all possible, though sometimes require supplemental support. We counsel them to partner with the other missions workers and agencies
 and with the indigenous church. All tentmakers must be a members in good standing in a local sending church.

 Statement of Faith

 The unique divine inspiration, entire trustworthiness, and authority of the Bible.
 The deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 The necessity and efficacy of the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for the redemption of the world, and the historic fact of His bodily resurrection.
 The presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the work of regeneration.
 The expectation of the personal return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

  Global Opportunities
  8400 Cypress Lake Drive
  Fort Myers  FL
  33919
  USA