The pastors who became better pastors

More and more pastors are discovering something that sounds backwards at first.

Tentmaking doesn't make you a worse pastor. It can actually make you a better one.

Here's why.

- It makes you more relatable. Your church stops seeing you as someone floating above the ordinary pressures of work, money and family. They see someone doing ministry and juggling the same tensions they juggle. That closes a gap that most of us pastors are unaware of.

- It forces you to build team. You can't carry everything as you used to, so you learn to delegate, trust others, and let go of control. That's a skill most pastors need anyway, tentmaking just makes it non-negotiable!

- It relieves financial pressure. Pastoral ministry is stressful enough without family money worries (either for now or for the future) sitting underneath your mindset. Take that weight off and you often find you have more, not less, to give your congregation.

- It gives you fresh material. Real work in the real world hands you illustrations, insight and empathy no amount of study alone will give you. Your preaching gets sharper because your life got wider.

- It shows people faith isn't confined to Sunday. When your congregation watches you live out your calling in a spreadsheet, a client call or a workshop, it tells them God is present in all of it, not just the pulpit. It helps them see that YOU see that the real 'ministry' is not on a Sunday - but in the Monday to Saturday.

None of this means every pastor should do it - the apostle Paul had seasons where he was full-time in ministry and seasons tentmaking. But for the ones who feel pulled toward it, the title trap, the fear that "pastor" and "business" can't sit in the same sentence, is usually the only thing standing in the way.

Standing with you,

Simon