I rushed into the barber shop at 8:40 a.m. “I have a 9 a.m. appointment. Would you be able to give me a haircut in time for me to make it there?” (Since, I have a whole lot less hair than I used to, I figured the hair/time ratio was in my favor.)

“You bet. Let’s go.” He snapped the apron around my neck and pumped his chair a few times. Over the buzz of the trimmer, he asked me what I do. “I mobilize tentmakers,” I said, “training and coaching professionals to work in their career specialties in distant lands. They work in secular jobs and just talk about their love for Jesus. They use their professional talents and share their faith with people who have never heard the good news of salvation.”

“Oh, so they do what I do,” said the barber, calmly mowing the left side of my head. I looked at him in the mirror. He went on, “I have people in here all the time who have no clue what the Bible says. So I give them Bible lessons. I give them books. I get them talking and then help them think hard about what really matters.”

Glancing around the shop, I noticed Amazing Facts CDs near his brushes and Steps to Christ booklets among his magazines. Prominent next to a poster of haircut styles was a rack offering free packs of Voice of Prophecy Bible lessons. This man obviously was an Adventist living out his faith.

“I figure we all need to minister to people,” he said. “We use what we have. I have a barber’s chair. Sometimes I get non-believers in here waiting, and I have a believer in the chair, so I ask the guy in the chair, “So how did you come to give your life to Christ?” He might talk for the next 15 minutes giving a powerful testimony, and I don’t have to say a thing. But the guy who is waiting hears it all.”

During my 15 minutes in that barber shop, I got much more than a haircut. I got a lesson on using one’s work for Jesus.

Currently, in a Middle Eastern country not far from Mecca, an Adventist woman has opened a beauty salon. Her clientele come in wearing burkas, which they are happy to take off in that women-only environment. In her beauty salon, they get much more than hairdos, facials and foot massages. She counsels them and prays for them. She plays Christian instrumental music, and the women love it. She is a true tentmaker.

You, too, have a barber chair—a space where you have influence. Be creative and use that space for Jesus. What if every Adventist member maximized their barber chair for ministry?

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