ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE NEW ERA OF TENTMAKING MISSIONS 

by Dr. J. Christy Wilson, Jr.

   We are in a new and very special era. Midst the turmoil and gloom, these are fresh, vibrant and very hopeful times for world missions. But as more people take on the role of tentmaker as an act of ministry to exercise the Great Commission, we become more aware of problems inherent in that call. The self-supported, independent variety of tentmakers, by the very nature of their work in creative access areas, has lacked a structure of accountability. All too often,

this has resulted in them being lone rangers. The effect on tentmaker ministries, in fact and in perception, has often left them without fruit and they have

become discouraged with the whole concept. Just as ‘we march better to music’, so scripturally we are to be accountable if our service is to be viable. The

Tentmaker Track at the Lausanne II International Congress on World Evangelization at Manila in July of 1989 brought this out in their statement on the

subject. Tentmakers need structures of accountability provided by churches (Acts 13:1-3), mission agencies and local fellowships on the field

( I & II Timothy and Titus).

Accountability to God, the church and the mission

   It is more than merely interesting that when the Holy Spirit acted through the Church to call out from them 

their first missionaries, it had to be two who sometimes made their living directly from their labor. The first 

missionaries were tentmaking evangelists, disciple-makers, and church planters. And they were also a team, 

a very small team. When they returned from their first missionary journey, ‘they gathered the church (in Antioch)

together and reported all that God had done through them and how He had opened the door of faith to the 

Gentiles’ (Acts 14:27). Tentmakers, like other missionaries today, need to be accountable to a local church.

   But keep in mind the other implication from this passage. The congregation also had a responsibility toward 

this mission team as they sent them out. Just as they laid hands on them and prayed in their sending, (Acts 13:3)

prayer backing by Christians in a local congregation was applied to the spiritual warfare. This mutual account-tability

is essential if tentmaking ser-vice is to be successful.

   “The mission society is the only kind of organization which 2,000 years of Christian experience assures us is able effectively to go beyond normal

mono-cultural evangelism and reach cross-culturally to the vast proportion of those who do not yet know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,” writes Dr.

Ralph Winter of the U.S. Center for World Mission. He points out that 85% of the non-Christians in the world today are behind cultural barriers, which

mean that they can be reached only by bridging these. He therefore concludes that mission agencies are essential if the unreached people of the world

are to be evangelized.

   He goes on to underscore his position by saying: “The great bulk of people on this planet are concentrated in Africa and Asia; the three largest blocks

 of mankind (the Chinese, the Hindus, and the Muslims) have only tiny Christian communities, if any at all, related to them. Only a very small proportio

n of the non-Christians are within normal evangelistic striking range of existing Christians. The only effective answer to the major part of this need can

come from specialized cross-cultural organizations of the type represented by a standard mission society, either local or 

foreign.”

   Convictions like Winter’s form the main reason independent and culturally unprepared tentmakers have not been more successful in the past. This is

 also among the main reasons many missions have been overly enthusiastic for self-supporting witnesses. Early-on there has been a hesitation, feeling

 that the association between regular mission and tentmaker would be a mutual hindrance to the two kinds of work. This is the reason it is so encouragi

ng to see more and more mission societies becoming involved with tentmaking branches.

   The bulk of those who study the evidence of history seem to conclude that if tentmakers are to be effective in reaching the unreached cross-

culturally for Christ, they too must be associated with some sort of mission agency.

   As tentmakers in Afghanistan, the Lord not only led us to establish a house church but also a united evangelical mission. This was made up of

workers from various agencies. In 1973 there were 135 in this fellowship from thirteen different nations and representing over twenty organizations.

These workers were assigned from agencies abroad to the International Afghan Mission or ‘IAM’. This is an instance where tentmakers, professionals

employed in strategic secular situations, were able to bring a regular mission into being, following their pioneering efforts.

   Both the church and the mission have provided accountability for the Christian workers, whether they have been tentmakers or regular missionaries.

 This agency continues today as the International Assistance Mission in spite of the Russian occupation for almost ten years and the following civil war.

 Thus we see an instance where there has been great blessing from tentmakers and mission agencies working together. This gave us a supportive

relationship of mutual assistance as well as accountability. It was as if we were all on the same ‘team’. Were we ministering 

today, we certainly would have thought in those terms.

Tentmakers need help from churches and missions

   Considering the largely untapped reservoir of potential evangelistic opportunities generated by such a wide spec-trum of employment, William Danker has written, ‘The Church of the twentieth century on the whole has failed significantly

to train most Christian business people going overseas for personal missionary vocation.’ 

Andrew Dymond of InterServe links this failure to missionary agencies when he writes, ‘Many tentmakers could 

be far more effective if they had received more informed advice from experienced missions’. Could this be the 

reason why so many tentmaking schemes have failed in the past?

What some mission agencies have been doing

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   The Mission Handbook, published by World Vision’s MARC, states that 84 mission agencies reported having persons related to them who are serving

in a lay or self-support type of ministry. More and more boards are starting their own tentmaking branches. For example, InterServe established

‘International Service Associates’. Though they are financially self-supporting, they do subscribe to the basis of faith of the mission and enter into bonds

of prayer fellowship and cooperation, being invited to participate in regional conferences and other fellowship meetings.

   Dr. Raymond Windsor, the former General Director, has written, ‘Self-supporting Christian witness may outstrip traditional missionary witness in 

the future. I am disappointed at the slow growth. This may well be because we have not sent tentmakers for deputation ministry in churches and

amongst university student groups or people in professions. Most missionaries are inspired to offer for service mainly as a result of face-to-face contact

with missionary deputationists. This could be a reason for the slow increase in self-supporting witness.’

   The Navigators have initiated a program for missionary associates. Dr. William Threlkeld, director of this work wrote, ‘We are excited to see what God

is doing in the area of self-supporting missionaries in the world. Our two key requirements are that: 1) an individual be an experienced disciple maker,

and 2) an individual have a profession or skill which is marketable overseas in order to be self-supporting. This is a pioneering thrust with us and we are

trusting God to show us a step at a time how to develop it. Our experience to date indicates that this is an effective way for individuals 

to minister for Christ.’

   The southern Baptist Mission Board now has a new program to reach unreached peoples in areas of restricted access to missionaries. It is called 

the Nonresident Missionary (NRM) program. They target a group of those who have never heard the Gospel. Then they place an experienced missionary

in a free area from which he or she can make trips in and out to seek by all means possible to establish a witness among these unevangelized people.

The goal is to plant an evangelical church among them which in turn can reach out to its own people. This is a new type of tentmaker which has great

possibilities in forwarding the completion of Christ’s commission while at the same time having accountability to the Board.  Phill Butler, the President of

InterDev, observing the way more and more mission agencies are becoming involved with tentmakers, has written, ‘It seems there is a ground swell

emerging here at long last!’

*** Late Dr. J. Christy Wilson, Jr., worked as professor of Missions and Evangelism at Gordon-Conwell Theological    Seminary. He and his wife, 

Betty, worked in Afghanistan for twenty-two    years as teachers – real twentieth-century tentmakers. ***