TENTMAKING AND MISSIONS

Pastor Simon Eng was born in Kajang, Selangor. He graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia and come back to Kuala Lumpur to work in a construction engineering company. He married sister Lai Eng in 1981 and they moved to Kuching in 1987. Together with a team, they pioneered Hope Kuching in 1992.

After working in the corporate world for 20 years, he went full time in 1999. In December 2001, Pastor Simon and family moved back to Kuala Lumpur to be the senior pastor of Hope Kuala Lumpur. Pastor Simon is also on the board of the Hope of God Eldership and is in charge of pastoral care.

Pastor Simon and sister Lai Eng have 3 children, Sue Ee, Jhung Ee and Poh Ee. In his free time, he likes to try all sorts of food and meet people.

Tent-making and Missions can work!

The phrase was made popular through the Apostle Paul’s example in ministry (see our Mission news article). While he was focused on reaching out to the Gentiles, he worked as a tentmaker to support himself. In this way, he was not a burden to anyone, but he was able to look after his own needs.

The only way to gain entry into certain countries is through our professional skills and training.

Our skills open doors that would have otherwise remained shut. Hence, we say that “tent-making” is an important missions strategy, and a very viable one too.

Tent-making also enables us to defray the cost of living in certain countries. In tent-making, our companies can pay for our housing and schoolings to help pay for living expenses, which can be very high in some countries. Hence, it allows living in those countries to be affordable.

We need to explore many different ways to do missions.

The Apostle Paul was unconventional in many ways but he was effective nevertheless. He left for us the example about the need to explore various avenues.

Finally, let us pray that God will continually lead, guide and speak to us regarding the right “door” to use to gain entry.

Pastor Simon Eng
Chairman of Hope Malaysia Churches

What is a Tentmaker?

The apostle Paul carried on his trade as a tent-maker (Acts 18:3) on some of his missionary journeys.

Since then, many people have followed his good example, taking their professions and businesses to other cultures and continents. Thus we call them “Tentmakers”.

A tentmaker simply is a disciple of Jesus Christ who is called by God to a cross-cultural ministry using their marketable skills as an entry vehicle. It is recognised as a valid and important aspect of world mission and is, in no way, inferior to any other type of service.

For example, those who go overseas today might be teachers of English, administrators, bankers, water engineers, medical professionals, business people or students in overseas universities.

According to a study, there are about 81 countries in the 10/40 window where the least evangelised people live. There are 1739 ethno-linguistic groups of more than 10,000 that do not have a Gospel witness.

These are mostly located in the most restricted areas where we cannot obtain missionary visas. The only way to gain access into these countries and serve the people is to go there as tentmakers. Under such circumstances, it's inevitable that a lot of tentmakers have to experience persecution, dangers and difficulties because they have to work and minister behind closed doors.

Work and witness: Do they really mix?

Paul is a good role model that work and witness can complement each other. His primary motive as an apostle was to preach the Gospel, but his workbench was also a “platform”, as he was able to demonstrate his faith through hard work, integrity and business ethics.

At the same time he could avoid being a financial burden to the infant churches (Acts 20:32-35). We may or may not share Paul’s specific apostolic call, but a calling to use our God-given skills and experiences in an overseas setting is no less worthy than a missionary call to a specific country.

In view of this, tent-makers need to have a clear understanding of the nature of a Christian witness. We should see our entire lives as ministry, 24/7. We can honour God in our workplace through our behaviour and attitudes, the quality of the products and services we provide, our integrity and morality. A tentmaker is not a “cover” for gospel-preaching; therefore he or she should have no ethical dilemmas about being a first-class professional and first-class witness for the Lord and should be confident with holding and explaining that identity.

What other qualities do we need?

Here are some of the qualities that we need in a ‘tent-maker’:

• A marketable skill with several years of experience
• A good relationship with God
• A growing ability to witness for Christ with ministry skills in evangelism, teaching and discipleship
• A concern for lost souls & a sense of calling
• Growing self-acceptance, love for others and a servant heart
• A flexible and adaptable approach to others from different cultures
• Good physical and psychological health
• Ability to thrive under stress from the culture, the family and isolation.

Reported by: Erin Tang, Mission Department Hope KL

(Information taken from OpportuniTIes, June 2008, For more details, visit www.tentmakernet.com/resources)