I receive letters from an Adventist tentmaker who is a professional airline mechanic. I am always impressed with his zeal. I will share a piece of his letter so you can understand a successful tentmaker’s mindset, methods and intentionality.

“I seem to spend a lot of time in mosques. There is a simple reason for that. If I am to reach Muslims with the everlasting gospel, I need to be where Muslims can be found. I go to their food shops, markets, book shops, clothes shops, restaurants and special events. It is amazing how many people I meet and the conversations we have. I spend time in their homes with their families. I laugh with them, I cry with them. I eat with them and help carry their shopping. I help them with their English learning and with filling out forms. And I share Jesus and the Bible.”

Adventist tentmakers put in all that work and time and intentionality because they are compelled by Christ to love people for the Father. It isn’t fast work. Friendships take time. The tentmaker method of evangelism is discipleship-based, centered in real life and not theory. As unreached people observe tentmakers’ choices, character traits, integrity, hope and joy in the context of daily life, the Holy Spirit gives them “Aha!” moments: You marvel, but see? This is what Jesus does in their life!

Another Adventist tentmaker who was a doctor in the Middle East wrote to GoTential last week, “Frankly speaking, I don’t know if my Muslim friend will cross the barriers of prejudice of Eastern and Western mindsets and change his religious package for a completely different one, but man alive, have we had deep conversations that took entire nights as he drove me through town, or standing on his balcony after the fast had finished and the sun had set. God gave me a friend who many times told me that God had sent me into his life, to which I immediately responded that I felt the same. When I was empty of my own lofty ambitions, God could finally make my vulnerable state as a lost foreigner into something useful for His purposes. I came to understand that it is not my strategic tools that make me useful but my character traits under the working of God’s sweet and precious Spirit.”

Are you a professional? How are you being intentional in your friendships and conversations in the workplace and elsewhere? How can you fully submit your work and character to Christ to help others choose His way? Pray this simple tentmaker’s prayer and see where God leads you!

God I want to be useful today. I give You my time and ask that You multiply it for Your glory. I give You my full attention for you to direct toward those in need. I give you my heart, that you will make it flow with heavenly love. I pray in Jesus’ name for wisdom, tact and courage. Let me speak of my hope if speaking will help; let me remain silent if silence will help. By Your Holy Spirit, Jesus, I submit to do that which You would do for those I meet today. I choose to die again today, Jesus, so that You alone may live through all of my activities. Amen.

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