Despite suffering and chaos, spiritual revival spread among young people across China during WWII and the Civil War that followed.  Brave bands of evangelists felt called to reach the poverty-stricken Northwest. Without knowledge of each other, they went out from Shanghai, Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong and Shaanxi.

China’s Back To Jerusalem (BTJ) missionaries in the 1940s were tentmakers by necessity, unaware perhaps of the legacy of tentmakers before them.

At the 2010 Lausanne III, Tim Keller of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church made a case that if Christians want to reach the world, they must reach the cities. Christianity won the 1st century Greco-Roman world because it won the cities. Today, half the world’s population is urban. 

In the old days, “going overseas to save the lost” might simply mean putting our careers “on the altar” and going to seminary to study the Bible so we could preach to the heathens.

If career is an integral part of a tentmaker’s life and witness, and not just a “passport” to get to the field or a “platform” for ministry, then getting the right job is important. But what constitutes the right job? How do you find that job overseas?

The current global economic malaise has made it more challenging for donor-dependent missionaries and job-dependent tentmakers to stay on the field.  While there is a place for short-termers, the work of missions to impact lives and transform culture requires long-term investment.  There is no short cut to building relationships and gaining influence.  So it is important to consider what it would take for workers to serve on the field beyond a few short years.