Tag Archives: Tent Making

Chapter-a-Day

Paul’s Pissing Match

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Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory.
2 Corinthians 10:15-16 (NIV)

I began my vocational journey back in the 1980s in full-time vocational church ministry. I shifted for a short time to full-time “para-church” ministry (a non-profit ministry organization outside of a church). I eventually was led in my vocational journey to the business world which is definitely a ministry, but my experience is that it is commonly not regarded as such within the ministry world of institutional churches. Nor was it regarded as such by my own mother who would have always preferred that I got my paycheck from a church rather than a corporation, God rest her soul.

For over 30 years I’ve served various roles in the institutional church as someone who is not a paid staff member, while spending the vast majority of my time and earning the vast majority of my income in the business world. What I’ve experienced as a result is occasional misunderstanding and mistrust. I don’t fit inside the normal paradigm, which I have learned makes people uncomfortable and/or there is confusion about motives, needs, paradigms, and boundaries. I’ve observed that human beings tend to like things operating within simple, well-defined boxes that fit their own comfortable expectations. When you factor in that we’re operating within an institution of faith it can take on all sorts of religious overtones.

Occasionally, the consequence is that I have found myself in an old-fashioned pissing contest prompted by individuals who have questioned my motives, credentials, authority, and sincerity.

I’ve equally observed that most people fail to understand that Paul was constantly experiencing identical struggles.

  • Paul was not part of The Twelve, so he constantly faced opposition from some who felt he didn’t measure up because he wasn’t part of the Movement from the beginning. He didn’t hang out with Jesus by the Sea of Galilee.
  • Before Jesus appeared to him and called him, Paul had been an enemy of the Jesus Movement. He imprisoned Jesus’ followers and oversaw their executions. For some individuals, no amount of repentance or evidence of Paul’s sincere faith were good enough to overcome their nagging mistrust.
  • Wherever he went, Paul didn’t behave like The Twelve and other leaders within the emerging church who were paid staff members vocationally focused on the Jesus Movement. Rather, Paul spent most of his day earning his income by plying his family’s tent-making trade. He learned the trade growing up. He became a full-time religious lawyer in the institutional Jewish establishment. After becoming a follower of Jesus, he went back to his childhood trade and made a living daily at “Paul’s Quality Tent & Awning, Inc.” while still serving the church ministry as an Apostle. Paul did this because 1) he believed and taught that everyone should work and earn their own way and 2) he didn’t want to be a financial burden on the church. People didn’t like this, however. It was strange and made him suspect. It wasn’t the normal way that Peter and the others “real” Apostles do it. I can hear it now: “If he was a real Apostle, he’d be on paid staff. I don’t know. There’s just something weird about it.”
  • Even within the broader circles of leaders within the Jesus Movement, there was a sense of those who were more acceptable, more polished, and more gifted at this or that than Paul. Paul confesses that he wasn’t much to look at, nor was he a particularly gifted speaker. At one point, a kid fell asleep listening to him, fell out a window, and died. Paul had to miraculously raise the boy from the dead (you can find the story in Acts 20). People seem to have perpetually remembered the bad sermon and forgot the miracle.

Today’s chapter is rife with an undercurrent of all these conflicts. Two, make that three, quick observations:

First, three times Paul references “some people.” He’s pointing at those who are questioning and criticizing him. Without naming names, he’s addressing the pissing match that he finds himself in that was not of his own making. It was “some people” within the Corinthian church who were promoting the authority and credentials of people like Peter, Apollos, and others while being mistrusting, critical, and dismissive of Paul. He didn’t ask for this, but he felt he needed to address it. Reading between the lines, Paul seems to have won the support and confidence of most of the Corinthian believers. That said, I’ve learned along my own life journey that there will always be “some people” we must deal with.

Second, Paul speaks of not wanting to boast “about work already done in someone else’s territory.” The implication here is that different individuals had taken responsibility for different “territories.” Even when Paul was sent out by The Twelve in Jerusalem there was a distinctive territorial element. Paul was to go to the Gentiles outside of Israel and focused on Greece and Italy. Jesus’ brother, James, took leadership of the Jerusalem territory. Even around Corinth, there appears to have been some territorial designations of those sent to proclaim Jesus’ message and start churches. Even back in the early days of the Jesus Movement there were issues of boundaries, territory, and egos. People are people. There is nothing new under the sun.

Third, I couldn’t help notice that Paul continually uses the plural when referencing himself…

“We do not dare to…” (vs. 12)
“We, however, will not boast…” (vs. 13)
“We are not going too far…” (vs. 14)
“Neither do we go beyond our limits…” (vs. 15)
“so that we can preach the gospel…” (vs. 16)

Paul has become a “we” that includes his colleagues Titus, Timothy, Luke, Barnabas, and others. This is subtle, but I also think it significant. Paul is not just representing himself in his letter, but an entire team of people dedicated to the spiritual well-being of the Corinthian believers. Today’s chapter begins with Paul referencing “the humility of Christ.” It strikes me that he exemplifies it in continually referencing that “he” is a “we.”

In the quiet this morning, I find in Paul a comrade who understands some of my own life experiences, like finding myself in pissing matches not of my own making. I also find in him an example to follow in how he handled them with humility and deference to the Lordship of Christ.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Work as Spiritual Discipline

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Work as Spiritual Discipline (CaD 2 Thess 3) – Wayfarer

For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.
2 Thessalonians 3:7-9 (NIV)

Growing up, work was an expectation as soon as I was old enough to do so. I had a newspaper route when I was twelve, which was sort of a brilliant way to learn business at that age. Not only did I have to deliver the newspapers, but I also had to collect the money from my customers and fill out a sales ledger each month. At thirteen I was a bus boy at a local restaurant, and then took advantage of the Iowa caucuses to get hired on with a Presidential campaign. I pollinated corn and mowed lawns in the summer. I shoveled driveways in the winter. I was a babysitter. I was a lifeguard. Basically, I did just about anything to make a buck.

A year or so ago, I was giving the message among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers and was explaining that I wasn’t a staff member of the church. I mentioned that I had a “tent-making” operation during the week. I had more than one person who didn’t get the reference and thought my business was manufacturing tents.

“Tent-making” is a metaphor that comes from Paul. He was raised in his family’s tent-making business in Tarsus. Tarsus was a key post for the Roman army in Greece and Paul’s family was likely a supplier to the Roman legions. While we’ll never know for sure, it’s possible that their tent-making service to Rome may have earned his family their Roman citizenship.

While taking Jesus’ Message to the Roman world, Paul continued to make tents. Wherever he traveled he would hang out his shingle and work. In fact, Paul felt passionately about it, which is abundantly clear in today’s chapter. Paul saw work as a form of spiritual discipline. He didn’t want to be dependent on anyone’s gifts, donations, or financial support. He believed that hard work was part of his daily witness to others, and in today’s chapter writes that he has heard reports of individuals who are “idle” among them. He bluntly admonishes the believers in Thessalonica: “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”

In the quiet this morning, I am whispering prayers of gratitude for growing up in a time when work was a part of both childhood and adolescence. I have been blessed to have had so many different jobs and had such diverse experiences. I learned a lot along the way.

Along my life journey, I have rarely, if ever, heard anyone teach about Paul’s teaching on work as a witness or the trap that living in financial dependence on others can become. I find it an important lesson in the development of personal and spiritual maturity. Paul repeatedly writes that he was a living example with his tent-making. I pray that my life, and my work, is an example as well.

Note: Tomorrow, our chapter-a-day journey begins Ezekiel!

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Vocation and Ministry

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Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living?
1 Corinthians 9:6 (NIV)

Work has been a little crazy for me in recent weeks. I’m in the midst of my 25th year with our company and completing my first year at the helm, leading the operation. Year-end means wrapping up current year business for clients, writing and managing proposals for the coming year, Board meetings, year-end financials, and all of the administrative work that comes with all of it. Beyond that there is the vision casting and strategic planning for where I hope to lead the company in the year(s) ahead.

When I was hired back in 1994 I left 6 years of working in full-time pastoral and para-church ministry. At the time, my mother was a bit disappointed in my vocational change. For several years she would occasionally ask “Are you ever going to go back into the ministry?” My response was always, “I never left ministry.” She would roll her eyes and say, “I know. But, you know what I mean.”

What she meant was that “ministry” means working full-time for a church; That “real ministry” is a higher spiritual status reserved for those employed in an institutional church organization. I have found this to be a very common belief, especially in previous generations. I still, on occasion, have someone approach me after I teach on a Sunday morning and ask, “Why aren’t you in ministry?” Once again, I always respond with, “I am in ministry.” I always would like to add: “And, so are you!”

I love an appreciate the incredibly gifted and driven full-time staff members of our local church community. The operation couldn’t function without them, and because of them it functions remarkably well. Because of them, the operation accomplishes abundantly more than most of our community’s members even realize. I’m quite certain, however,  that even they would agree with me that “ministry” is not confined to those individuals on the organization’s payroll.

I find it a dangerous notion to place a label of “ministry” on those in full-time employment by a church or non-profit para-church ministry. The implication is that any believer who is not in one of those two vocational silos is not in ministry. This means that those of us not in full-time church or ministry employment are not in ministry (and comfortably off the hook from having to think about all that it might otherwise mean).

This is, however, contrary to the entire paradigm that God’s Message teaches. Every believer is a part of the body of Christ. Every believer is spiritually gifted by Holy Spirit regardless of age, gender, background, education, or training. Why? Because every believer is part of the ministry of the Body of Christ. We, all who believe, are His hands, feet, eyes, ears, and mouth. There are no exemptions or exceptions. I find this to be a radically different paradigm than what the institutional church has taught and exemplified for centuries. I believe it’s time to rediscover the fullness of meaning in the “priesthood of all believers.” We’re far overdue to rediscover the inherent ministry of every vocation.

I couldn’t help but read today’s chapter in context of yesterday’s chapter, in which Paul urged the Corinthian believers to surrender their right (to eat food sacrificed to idols) in order to lovingly honor fellow believers who think differently. In today’s chapter, Paul explains how he has done the very thing he’s urging them to do. He had a right to be married, to travel with a wife, to receive a full-time income for his preaching and service to the church just like all of the other apostles were doing. Paul, however, chose not to be married. Wherever he was living in the moment he chose to work at his family trade (making and repairing tents) to provide his own income. I can guarantee you that Paul leveraged his day-job of tent making and manual labor into opportunities to meet strangers, build relationships, have conversations, be an example, and extend the reach of his ministry. Tent making wasn’t separate from Paul’s ministry. It was a central and crucial part of it.

This morning I’m thankful for an amazing company I’ve had the privilege of serving for 25 years. I’m thankful for a host of relationships with colleagues, clients, and coworkers that I’d never have had were it not for my vocation. I’m grateful for the honor and privilege to lead and serve in both business and among my local community of Jesus’ followers. This morning in the quiet I find my spirit echoing Paul’s sentiment to the believers in Corinth:

What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.

Chapter-a-Day

The Simple Honor of Labor

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We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.
2 Thessalonians 3:7b-9 (NIV)

As I’ve mentioned in recent weeks, my local gathering of Jesus’ followers has been digging deep into the book of Acts and the history of the Jesus Movement’s early years. As part of that, I have been reading and studying the life of Paul, the brilliant maverick who was transformed from the Jesus Movement’s staunchest enemy into its most powerful and productive advocate and member.

In my study of Paul’s life I’ve come to an appreciation of how Paul lived and labored. My whole life l’ve always pictured Paul as spending most of his time, day-after-day, teaching, preaching, writing letters, and preaching the gospel. I’ve come to learn that nothing could be further from the truth. Most of Paul’s time, day-after-day, was spent making tents.

As most people of his day, Paul was apprenticed into the family business which was the making and repairing of tents (and presumably awnings and other textiles used to block the sun). It was a trade that could be plied anywhere, and Paul carried his tools to ply his trade wherever his missions took him. In today’s chapter, Paul reminds the believers in Thessalonica that he and his companions labored “night and day” to provide for themselves.

Paul reminds the believers of his example because the followers of Jesus were proponents of generosity and giving to those in need, especially the poor and widows. Now, there were individuals who were happy to keep taking from the believers’ fledgling system of charity with no intention of contributing.

I was raised in a family with a strong work ethic. I also come from Dutch heritage, a culture historically known for its work ethic. I’ll spare you the litany of my labor history, which date back to my pre-teenage years. Suffice it to say that I appreciate Paul’s attitude. Other leaders of the Jesus movement had begun to work solely on the contributions of other believers. Paul accepted that this was an appropriate practice. He even helped collect money and deliver it to Jerusalem. Nevertheless, he steadfastly chose to work to pay his own way. Today, he states clearly his intent. He wanted to live as an example to others. His message to the Thessalonian believers was consistent through both of his letters: Work hard. Be productive. Contribute to good of the whole. Be content.

In the quiet this morning I’m thinking about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday that we Americans will celebrate on Thursday. I recognize the blessing of living and laboring in the richest part of the world. I’m grateful. I’m also mindful and thankful for my father whom I watched struggle through multiple vocational setbacks, yet he always worked hard at whatever job he may have needed until he could get to a job that was more of what he wanted. I think of my great-grandfather risking everything to come to America, by himself, to eek out a living for he and his family as an immigrant. I think of one grandparent striving to make his way through college, the first member of his family to do so, and then working into his 90s. “The day I stop working,” he was fond of repeating to anyone who would listen, “will be the day I die!” I’m also remembering another grandparent (that’s him, first from the right in the featured photo of this post) taking the only work he could find in the Great Depression and laboring at that job for 40 years. Daily, he went about the simple task life selling and servicing tires. Not once did I hear him complain.

We live in a rapidly changing, complex world. Yet, along the journey I’ve come to appreciate the simplicity of some things that never change: Work hard. Be productive. Contribute to the good of the whole. Be content.

Oh yeah. And: Give thanks.

Have a great week, my friend.