The Chicken Egg Farm That Planted Churches

When David took his family to a Muslim country, they settled in a village without running water. Their neighbors wondered why these Americans neither farmed nor raised goats. How did they make a living? Suspecting they were missionaries or spies, people kept their distance.

Finally, David started a chicken-egg farm. It provided a visible livelihood and everyday opportunities to build relationships in the community. As the business grew, those relationships gave rise to a faith community.

David observed that a major stumbling block to the gospel among Muslims is the perception that local pastors live well without working because they are paid by foreigners to spread a Western religion, thereby betraying their culture. His business hired a few pastors as chicken feed distributors, giving them a respectable status as they traveled to different villages to plant churches.

The Urgent Call For Bi-vocational Workers

Today, the 10/40 Window is home to 2/3 of the world’s population and 90% of the world’s unreached peoples. For political and religious reasons, traditional missionaries are denied access to these countries. Sending bi-vocational or tentmaking workers is an urgent call for the global church. Local pastors among the unreached also need to be bi-vocational.

Rooted in Scripture and Church History

Bi-vocational mission, aka tentmaking, is not a 21st-century idea. The Apostle Paul made tents to support himself in Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus throughout his missionary journeys.

In the 18th century, the Moravians who pioneered Protestant missions went out as artisans and tradespeople. They preached the gospel and taught their crafts to local people, bringing both spiritual and economic transformation to the communities they reached.

William Carey, the Father of Modern Missions, taught Bengali to British officers at Fort William College for over 30 years. His income supported his family and funded Bible translation, church planting, and educational and social reform initiatives.

Why is Tentmaking not Mainstream Thinking?

Despite these exemplary trailblazers, Protestant missionaries over the past 300 years have largely been full-time workers with doors wide open all over the world, which was dominated by Western powers. So tentmaking is unfamiliar to most Christians, who ask: “Is tentmaking ‘real missions’? If someone works 40-50 hours a week, is there time left for ‘real’ ministry? Aren’t tentmakers at best part-time and therefore second-class missionaries?”

To address these questions, we must first consider the more fundamental issues: Is work a divine calling? What is incarnation? Can our work help people see the Good News? Can work be missions?

Temporary vs Eternal Value & Inherent vs Instrumental Value

This pyramid illustrates how many Christians see a hierarchy of roles in God’s Kingdom. This misguided view stems from a dichotomized worldview and the sacred/secular divide many people hold. Laypeople are at the bottom of the pyramid. Those called to ministry are one step up. Missionaries going overseas sit higher in the hierarchy. Martyrs for the gospel are at the top. Spiritual worth is measured by how much one sacrifices. Everything outside the four walls of the church is worldly and insignificant compared to the sacred vocations to preach the gospel, whether locally or in faraway places because their work has eternal significance.

The key questions are: What work has temporal or eternal value? Work involving products and technology may have only temporal value, as they become obsolete over time. Work that involves human relationships has greater potential for eternal value because we can witness to and disciple people, restore broken relationships, and enrich family lives.

But not everyone can be a minister, a counselor, a teacher, or a social worker. In fact, work with products and technology can still have eternal value because all work involves human relationships. Wherever there is human contact, there are opportunities to bless others. Work challenges can also build character and make us more Christlike.

Joseph and Daniel served gentile governments in “secular” roles. Yet their exemplary lives made the name of Yahweh great in the ancient world of Egypt and Babylon. The inherent value of different types of work may vary, but all work can have eternal value depending on how and why we do it.

The Mandate & Mission of Work

The inherent value of work is grounded in the Great Assignment of Genesis 2, where God commissioned humanity to subdue and manage the earth for human flourishing. By exercising his creativity, rationality and responsibility in caring for God’s creation, man could express his God-given abilities and realize his identity as God's image.

Eccl 5:18-19 tells us that the satisfaction of work well done is itself a divine gift. Prov 31 praises the woman who is not only a homemaker but also a businesswoman engaged in agriculture, textiles, trading, and real estate, all affirmed by Scripture. Both Calvin and Luther taught that work is a sacred calling from God. Through work, we fulfill our Great Assignment to promote human flourishing and glorify God.

Where missionaries are not allowed, bi-vocational tentmakers can bless the unreached through their work in business, education, medicine, technology and other fields, and fulfill the Great Commandment to love and serve our neighbors.

Finally, when our Christian witness shines through our work and work relationships, producing gospel impact, we fulfill the Great Commission.

Bi-vocational Work Is Incarnational Mission

The gospel must be grounded in family and work because they are central to life, and where most people face stress and struggle, especially in the emerging economies of the 10/40 Window.

Beyond adopting the local language, diet, and attire, incarnational living means sharing the sweat and toil of the local people as we work alongside them. That was what the Son of Man did when He came into the world. The gospel is visible when, under the same pressures of daily life and work, God’s people, by His grace, respond differently. We have hope in all situations because we are assured of God’s sovereignty. We also have God’s grace and wisdom to help us in difficult relationships.

Do bi-vocational workers have time for ministry? While traditional missionaries need to create opportunities to spend time with locals, bi-vocational workers are in contact with them 40 hours a week, offering many natural opportunities to demonstrate their faith in action. Their life is an open book. People need to see the gospel in action before they can appreciate the message in words.

In most unreached countries, tentmaking is the only entry. But tentmakers do not replace traditional missionaries. Bi-vocational and donor-supported missionaries (even early retirees) should work as a team, just as elders and deacons work alongside their pastors in churches. Over 30 years of BVM, we have seen these partnerships effectively advancing the Kingdom.

Bi-vocational Missions & the Holistic Gospel

Systemic poverty and institutionalized corruption are rampant in many 10/40 Window countries and are the primary cause of suffering among the general population. In some African countries, even where the population is a Christian majority, poverty and corruption persist. Christians and non-Christians alike suffer injustice, oppression, and other forms of socioeconomic malaise. The church resembles a river that is a mile wide and an inch deep.

The solution to this well-known phenomenon of “shallow Christianity” goes beyond evangelism and personal discipleship. The gospel must not be narrowly concerned with saving souls and changing individual lives; it should also care about societal transformation. This was powerfully illustrated by the life and work of William Carey in India and Timothy Richard in China. Today’s missional professionals need to work alongside local believers to impact business, government, media, education, the arts and entertainment, bringing redemption to each sector.

21st-century mission must integrate the Great Assignment, the Great Commandment, and the Great Commission. God is glorified when people’s lives and society are transformed by the holistic gospel for the whole person.

Choosing Between Mission and Your Career?