Go and make disciples of all nations!

- Matt 28:19 NIV -

                                                                                                                                                                                       ∴ Date : 2020-03-01 

 ▶ TI Editorial

​Pre-evangelism, Evangelism & Post evangelism

Johnny Chun / Executive Secretary of TI

Evangelism and discipleship through Tentmaking!

   It sounds cool but it is not easy. To make people know Christ, and make them as the true disciples of Christ, we Christian

workers should be equipped with some effective methods for pre-evangelism, sharing the gospel and making disciples in our

workplaces.

   Without a clear blueprint on ministry, many tentmakers go abroad and begin their ministry. As the result, many of them fail to get converts and make

disciples. Why do they fail? It’s because they do not know how to start their ministry. Actually, many of them have no ideas or materials on pre-evangelism.

   Mission field abroad is not a local church where we tentmakers used to attend at home but a battle ground. Most people whom tentmakers meet at their

mission fields are hostile or reluctant to Christian faith. Therefore, Christian workers abroad need a clear cut plan , a blueprint and materials for pre-evangelism ,evangelism and discipleship as well as ministry training before they go abroad or after they arrived at mission field. Otherwise, they might face a lot of

difficulties to win the lost souls and make His disciples.

   Recently, I was invited by some Christian Professors’ Association to speak on evangelism at universities. More than one hundred professors whom I met in

two groups acknowledged that they don’t have many tools to share the gospel to their students at school.

   The problem is that they usually use their life-style evangelism but it takes a long time and it does not work well today. For a long time, they have been

trained to share the gospel directly but it does not work well today especially to Millennials or Generation Z in many countries.( Most undergraduate students

are Gen. Z) They needed skills on pre-evangelism but they were not well equipped or with pre-evangelism skills.

   Tentmakers and Christian Professionals especially need these pre-evangelism skills and materials.

   TI leaders still try to develop some materials/contents for pre-evangelism. When we finish these materials and programs, we will let you know. We are

going to send these materials and ideas to tentmakers around the world if they want.

   May God continue to strengthen you with His wisdom and power!

​

 ▶ Tentmaker's Story

​

The Making of a Tentmaker

​

By  Wayne Shabaz
 
   My wife Cindy and I were ill-prepared, intentional tentmakers headed off to the Middle East

just two months after our wedding.

The reality is that we were a couple of wide-eyed Midwestern kids eager to see the world

and hopeful to contribute to God’s eternal Kingdom. We ended up in Tehran, Iran three

months after boarding the freighter in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

  Our time in Iran awakened us to the need and marvelous opportunities to do exactly what

Global Intent is doing today – inspire, mobilize, & equip tentmakers. It was about the same

 time that Christy Wilson published his book, “Today’s Tentmakers” from his experiences in

Afghanistan. That wonderful confluence shaped our lives and has given us adventures that

are in keeping with His promise to do “exceeding, abundantly above all” we could have ever

expected or anticipated!

   Our calling came via my aunt and uncle who were ministering to university students in Beirut, Lebanon, many from “closed countries”. Two years out of

college, Aunt Esther encouraged me to pursue employment in Beirut where we could assist them in their ministry. After Cindy (then my fiancé) agreed to

the venture, we contacted over 100 potential employers in Beirut and received 90 “no-thank-you” rejections. Not a single offer. We boarded the ship anyway.

   We were confident that God would open doors! He did, but not in Beirut. After six weeks of futile Beirut street-beating with no job offers, we decided to visit

Iran while in the “neighborhood” before returning to the U.S. (I wanted to visit my Dad’s birthplace from where he fled with his parents due to the Armenian/

Assyrian holocaust 50 years earlier.) Visiting the homeland turned out to be all part of God’s plan, surprisingly complete with job offers for both of us.  

I was hired to train telecommunications professionals and Cindy taught at an international school.

< Ill Prepared >

   We were in an ideal “tentmaker” scenario, but we were ill prepared.  Cindy was in a totally new culture, a culture that was often a mystery to me even

though my father’s roots were there.  The two of us had barely been out of the Midwest United States let alone outside the U.S.  In many ways we were in

over our heads.

   Some of us learn more from our mistakes and faux pas than from our successes. Thanks to the One who works all things together for our good, our learning

was indeed life-changing and career-setting. Our ministry in Iran turned out to be more with expat American teens at Community Church than with anyone

else. Why would we come over 5,000 miles to minister to North American teens? We could have done that in the U.S. But little did we know that it was all part

of God’s master plan.

< Mobilizing More Tentmakers >

   After an enriching and stretching two years, we returned to the States, secured positions in Detroit’s auto industry, and became actively involved in a local

church. But we couldn’t put the Iranian expat experience behind us – nor did we want to. We were gripped with the Kingdom-building possibilities for

dispatching North American Christ-bearers especially into “closed countries.” Thousands of positions available worldwide were being filled by godless, hedonistic

“missionaries.” Somehow the Church needed to become aware of the vast potential in their pews for everyday believers to be answers to Jesus’ prayer for

harvest-field laborers. Thankfully the Holy Spirit was already at work.  He had anointed Christy Wilson to write, Ruth Siemens to inspire, and many others to

passionately communicate the tentmaker message.

< Equipping Tentmakers to Cross Cultures Effectively >

   Meanwhile, He was preparing Cindy and me for another role. Our missionary friends who knew of our tentmaker mobilization passion warned us not to send

 out culturally unprepared troops. So, we began partnering with cross-cultural curriculum developers at Missionary Internship, now Missionary Training

International of Palmer, CO. Our contribution to the tentmaker process was to deliver cross-cultural education and consulting. Ironically, we got our start

providing cross-cultural consulting and workshops to major U.S. firms. Our role was to BE tentmakers.

   We prepare North American expats and their families for service worldwide. Thanks to colleague/mentors like Duane & Muriel Elmer, Glenn & Ann Deckert

and others, we provide generic cross-cultural skills for clients headed anywhere in the world. We began to see years later why God had directed us to minister

to North American families in Iran instead of to Muslim students in Beirut. Since Cindy I had no children while living in Iran, we needed to understand what

family life was like for expats abroad. God is amazingly thorough and timely!