DEFINITIONS

BAM - Business as Mission – Workers who utilize business as a platform for ministry.

CAN - Creative Access Network countries that restrict missionary access. For a list of countries click here.

Client – A client is anyone who has been screened and approved by the OPEN Network committee to attend Huddles and receive OPEN communications.

Consultants - Men and women who meet the Biblical criteria of a deacon, who serve as coaches for clients who request help. We have a variety of Consultants each specializing in an area of expertise. For security reasons we do not release names to the public. If requested, these experienced coaches will pay a visit to the field to give on-site recommendations. The coach may continue involvement with the tentmaker or team via email, or a long-term coaching accountability relationship.

Huddle - (International Huddle) our term for our annual meeting of tentmakers from around the world. This is a time of sharpening and encouragement. Those attending are actual tentmakers. Meeting together allows us (the practitioners) to share our good and bad experiences and glean new ideas. Help in a variety of areas and general business is also conducted. Experienced tentmaking speakers are invited to challenge and encourage, while others lead workshops in such pertinent topics related to the operation of Language Schools, Import-Export Business, Operating Small Businesses, Operating NGO's, etc. These workshops provide proven methodologies on how to better witness and work, while on the job.

Overseers - Consultants who have a Covenant with an individual or team to mentor and hold them accountable in all areas of life, work and ministry.

Tentmakers - The word "tentmaker" comes from Acts 18:3, where it describes the Apostle Paul who made and sold tents. There five categories of Tentmakers. Please see "Defining Tentmaking" to gain a better understanding of the five categories of tentmakers.

TENTMAKING
IN SEARCH OF A WORKABLE DEFINITION

By: Patrick Lai

Tentmakers tentmaking tents! Sound confusing? You ought to try being one. Or better/worse yet (you choose) attend a conference on "Workers in the 10/40 Window", "Tentmaking", "Bussionaries", "God's Envoys," "Bi-Vocational Missionaries" or "Lay Ministries". What's all the talk about anyway? Sending sojourners off to some surreal situation to reach the unreachable - or is that simply the unreached? Does anybody know who we are? Clearly I have added an identity crisis to my mid life crisis.

By grace, the Father has allowed me to have a part in the planting of two churches among Muslims in a 10/40 Window country. In the process of planting these churches, God has also permitted me to start several small businesses. These businesses have provided some foreign friends and myself a legal long-term entry into the country, as well as jobs for some of our local friends. Knowing the days of open missionary endeavors are decreasing and knowing God's command is for all peoples, including the unreached, it does not take the gift of prophecy to foresee there will be an increasing need for tentmakers to plant churches among the least reached people groups. As I have traveled around the world, I have met many missiologists and mission leaders. In my work, ministry and travels, I have realized few understand the scope of tentmaking, its options and possibilities. Many are locked into one limiting viewpoint that not only affects how tentmaking is viewed, but also restricts our willingness to be creative in trying new entry strategies for placing bi-vocational missionaries among the unreached. The possibilities and opportunities for church planting via tentmaking entry strategies and work are limitless. Yet we need to bring clarity and reality into our views of tentmaking.

As I reviewed my notes of differing opinions on the definition of a tentmaker I did find some common ground upon which to build. At the Lausanne Congress in Manila in 1989, I was invited to observe the meetings of the Lausanne Tentmaking Task Force. During these meetings the Task Force listed nine major factors which consistently affected people's definition of a tentmaker. Those criteria may be broken down into three categories. The first are those groupings that everyone on the Task Force agreed are essential to a person's identity before they could be defined as a "tentmaker". The second category includes criteria that were essential to a few, important to most, but non-essential to a hand-full. The third stands alone as the most divisive criterion.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR DEFINING A TENTMAKER

1. Commonly Agreed Upon Criteria for being considered a tentmaker:
   • live and work in a cross-cultural situation. (E-2 or E-3)
   • have a secular job or identity
   • have a religious ministry
2. Important But Not Essential Criteria:
   • have missiological and secular training
   • have defined ministry goals
   • be living in a closed country (RAN, CAN)
   • reside among the people in the country where you are ministering
   • have a legal resident visa
   • be sent out by a church and/or mission organization
   • be accountable to experienced field personnel
3. Divisive Criteria:
   • source of salary

The divisive issue was this; must the tentmaker be fully supported by his secular job? Or is it acceptable to receive part of his support from his job, and part from churches at home? Or can the tentmaker be fully supported by churches at home and work for no financial gain while having a non-missionary visa?

In consideration of these categories I propose that we put aside our differences and recognize even as there are many types of missionaries, there are also many types of tentmakers. Having surveyed nearly 400 tentmakers and having visited with hundreds personally, every corner of the 10-40 Window, I believe all tentmakers can identify themselves in one of the 5 following ways. To sound missiological may we call them; T-1, T-2, T-3, T-4, T-5. (The "T" is for tentmaker.)

FIVE TYPES OF "TENTMAKERS"

T-1 = The T-1 tentmaker is hired by a company in their home country to do a job they are uniquely qualified for in another country. The company pays their salary and often provides numerous other benefits to entice the employee to work overseas. T-1 tentmakers are sincere Christians who are active witnesses for the Lord at home as well as abroad. Note, a T-1 fulfills all of the criteria in category A and is fully supported through his job. However, T-1s are overseas not out of any special calling or desire to minister, but because they have been sent there by their company. Of course the Lord may use the company to send them out, but for seeking definition and distinction this makes them different from other tentmakers. At least initially, the T-1's primary motivation for being overseas is their employment, and not to be a witness. Usually T-1s have no special ministry training and have not thought through how they will witness, disciple, or plant a church in their adopted country. Rarely do they become fluent in the local language. T-1s take things as they come. Most work 45 to 60 hours a week for their company and minister both on and off the job as opportunities arise. In other words their life and outreach is much the same as it was in their home country. The majority of T-1s work and witness in an E-2 (near cultural) situation, though some may have an E-3 (distant cross-cultural) ministry. Note a T-1 is lacking most, if not all of the "Important But Not Essential Criteria" in category B.

T-2 = The T-2 tentmaker is similar to the T-1 in that the T-2 also fulfills the criteria of category A and is fully supported through their job. However, a T-2 differs from a T-1 in that they do have a calling from the Lord to reach out to a specific people group. A person may chose to work and minister as a T-2 because the country of the people group they are targeting restricts traditional missionary activity or they desire to minister among a group of people that is less reached than others. Their job would provide a unique entry into this segment of society. The T-2 seeks out training, which will qualify them to work for some foreign or national firm, in or near their target people. T-2s have some practical ministry experience and have learned some cross-cultural ministry skills. They have a plan for evangelizing, and discipling their converts and possibly even church planting goals. T-2s may be associated with a traditional mission for emotional support and guidance. Thus, in addition to fulfilling all the criteria in category A, a T-2 also meets all or most of the criteria in category B. A T-2 takes a job primarily, if not solely, to facilitate their getting into the country to plant a church among their target people. Within their hearts, the ministry comes first and the job second. Ideally a T-2 strives to have a balanced and integrated mix of ministry and work. Most T-2s do learn some of the national language, but are rarely fluent. Usually their jobs provide unique access to nationals, with natural witnessing opportunities.

T-3 = The T-3 differs greatly from the T-1, though they are similar to the T-2. Like the T-2, the T-3 meets all the criteria of category A and all or most category B. However, the T-3 is partially or fully supported by the church at home. Thus, back home a T-3 is considered by at least some people to be a missionary, while overseas the T-3 has a non-religious identity. The T-3 has received missiological training and has a strategy for doing evangelism, discipleship and church planting among a specific people group. T-3s also have acquired a skill that is sought after by some company, school or group within the foreign country they seek access to. This skill makes them "desirable", providing long term access into the country. In addition to a university degree, T-3s frequently have missiological and business/secular training, often investing three or more years preparing for God's service overseas. Most T-3s serve under or have a relationship with a mission or a team of like-minded people. The primary difference between a T-2 and T-3 concerns the importance of being able to manage one's own time. T-3s work part-time or operate their own business. By working part-time or for themselves, T-3s can control their own schedule, enabling them to have more discretionary time for ministry. T-3s often start their own business and recruit others with the same job skills and ministry goals to come and work and minister with them. Often the T-3 or a team member is their boss, giving them greater flexibility and control of their time. Working part-time obviously affects the T-3's salary. As a result T-3s usually supplement their salary by raising partial or full support as would a traditional missionary. The T-3 sees their job as a vehicle to enter the country first, a way for reaching out to people second, and a means of financial support last.

T-4 = The T-4 tentmaker is not a tentmaker in the sense of working a regular 9 to 5 job for a company, but they are not a traditional missionary either. A T-4 is someone like a missionary dentist/doctor or a social worker. T-4s have real jobs and do real work, but it is usually in the line of charity and often among the poor. T-4s may even be students studying in a local university. T-4s are fully missionary at home and are supported as missionaries, but due to their job, they are recognized as something other than a religious professional on their field of service. The hours they work in their job may vary from as little as a few hours a month, to 50 hours a week. T-4s fulfill all the criteria for categories A and B, but they receive no salary from their job. They raise their salary support like a regular missionary. Thus, their source of income is the major criterion separating them from other tentmakers. T-4s are normally connected to a mission organization through which they raise financial support, receive guidance and are held accountable to accomplishing their ministry goals. T-4s seek to minister full-time through their predetermined strategies and methodologies.

T-5 = The T-5 tentmaker is more of a regular missionary than a tentmaker. However, as the place or people they are ministering to is in a country that does not grant "missionary" visas, T-5s have created an identity for themselves which is something other than being a missionary. T-5s may have a job with a business, but by prior agreement they really do not work for their company. Some T-5s create shell companies to enable them to reside in the country. The company, whether functioning or not, simply provides a "cover" visa by which the T-5 may enter and reside in their target country. T-5s fulfill all the criteria for categories A and B, and like a T-4 raise their salary support like a regular missionary. T-5s are normally connected to a mission sending organization and they have clear ministry objectives.

The point of this article is to bring some clarity to the issue of defining a tentmaker in workable and understandable terms. Using the T-1, T-2, T-3, T-4, T-5 definitions solves many of the questions and problems in the same way the E-1, E-2, E-3 and the M-1, M-2, M-3 definitions clarify the role of an evangelist and a traditional missionary. Obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to being either a T-1, T-2, T-3, T-4 or T-5 tentmaker. I am not proposing that one is better, or one more spiritual than the other. Each has it advantages and disadvantages. For some, one role may be more desired than another, or one role more comfortable than another. Nonetheless all are needed.

Now that we know who we are, let's get on with what God has commanded us to do.

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