The early church grew exponentially, not because of salaried professional preachers starting churches, but because of ordinary people working at jobs and starting home fellowships. To get back to where the apostolic church started will require a real reformation as we approach earth’s final days. A significant impact of tentmaking is in helping to bring God’s end-time movement back to the simple, natural mission method of the apostolic era, when people’s secular work and spiritual witness were aligned.
GoTential, AFM’s tentmaking ministry, is real people doing real work and sharing how Jesus Christ has impacted their lives. Like Luther pulling down the facade created by centuries of abuse of clerical and ecclesiastical power, GoTential is a ministry that puts gospel power and the joy of mission back in the hands of born-again laity. Nurses and nannies, English teachers and engineers—they are the evangelists. Ordinary people pointing to an extraordinary Person, Jesus Christ, in the context of their daily lives and professional skills.
Since January 2015 when we began this ministry, by God’s grace 10 professional tentmakers have mobilized and are now serving God joyfully among the unreached! Our goal is to mobilize 100 Tentmakers in the next two years. As all these tentmakers are professionally employed and require no other financial support, this represents a ten-fold return on my own salary for 2015, and if 100 mobilize, this will represent a miraculous 100-fold return!
Had Martin Luther not received help from the German princes, perhaps the Reformation would have failed. But, praise God, Luther had his princes! They saw and understood his vision and gave him the help he needed to succeed. God gave wisdom to Frederick of Saxony to devise a plan for Luther’s preservation, and with that aid Luther translated the Bible, and the world was forever changed.
GoTential is also in need of modern-day “German princes.” We need men and women of means who can see the wisdom of tentmaking and who will use their power and influence to nurture our ministry and carry it through its early stages. Perhaps you can be to GoTential what Fredrick of Saxony was for Luther. Through your God-given means, you can guarantee that this noble enterprise has the resources to multiply front-line workers. Please pray about this important matter, about what an honor it would be to assist this modern reformation through your gifts and help position GoTential to raise up many tentmakers who will be faithful and winsome witnesses for Jesus Christ among every people group on earth.
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