Tentmaking Tips

 I wrote A Reminder to Protest several newsletters back and I wanted to update you on my progress this year.

I got a message this week that made me smile.

Erin is a Bible teacher. A few months ago she was struggling to find a way to turn her knowledge into a tentmaking income. Good knowledge, genuine expertise, real desire to help people. But nothing was converting.

She wanted to use her coaching gift mixed with her Biblical knowledge to make an offer that people would genuinely be happy to pay for but without her feeling like she'd 'sold out' or was 'peddling the word of God for profit.' A tough call! 

We talked and mapped out a way to do so a few months back.

This week she messaged me to say she'd just closed her fifth high ticket client at $3,000 each.

"I'm doing well... just closed my 5th high ticket client today!!!"

What changed?

Not her knowledge. She already had that. Not her passion. She had plenty of that too.

What changed was the way she structured what she offered. The systems around her expertise. The clarity of her offer.

This is something I see again and again with past...

I was working with someone recently who had never sold anything online before.

She had the knowledge. She had the experience. She had years of it, honestly. But every time we got close to actually putting something out there, something pulled her back.

It took a while to get to the root of it.

Then one day she said something that stood out.

"I've given this stuff away for free for so many years, I think I've believed the lie that it's not worth very much."

There it was.

Not a strategy problem. Not a tech problem. Not even a time problem. An identity problem. She had spent so long in a role where her expertise was given freely, expected freely, that somewhere along the way she had internalised a story about what her knowledge was actually worth.

This is one of the most common things I see with pastors and Christian leaders. The very culture that shaped you, the generosity, the service, the giving, can quietly teach you that what you know has no monetary value.

It does. It really...

A few years ago, this was the question that nearly stopped me before I started.

I remember sitting with this idea, that pastors and Christian leaders had genuinely valuable knowledge, hard-won wisdom, real expertise, and thinking: even if I build something, how on earth do I find the people who need it?

Like Matt - a pastor I've been working with who's just launched his first paid online course helping people overcome conflict.

A few months ago Matt and I had never even met - but he signed up for my program and followed the steps and now has his first offer out in the world, coaching his first clients with skills he's gained over 30 years.

But how did Matt find me? It came through having a very clear offer that fit what Matt needed and talking about it in the right spaces.

Here's what I've learned since then: traction is usually the last problem, not the first.

When you're clear on who you help and what problem you solve, and then start talking about it in the right places, peopl...

 It’s about that time of year again.

I wrote in a newsletter a few years ago about possibilities for health insurance as a tentmaker. You can read that here.

If you’re a tentmaking pastor, it can feel like you’re constantly split in two.

Work over here. Ministry over there.

Always slightly behind in both.

But what if that’s the wrong way to see it?

You’re not doing two jobs.

You’re living one calling in two places.

Your workplace isn’t a distraction from ministry.

It’s part of it.

The conversations.

The integrity.

The quiet influence.

The relationships that take years, not weeks.

Yes, it requires wisdom.

Yes, it requires boundaries.

But it also creates opportunities that full-time ministry never will.

So instead of asking, “How do I manage both?”

Start asking, “What is God doing in each space?”

That shift makes a huge difference.

You’re not divided.

You’re deployed!

Standing with you

Simon 

I want to tell you about Abi.

She and her husband planted a church in the North of England.

At the same time, she was:

Raising kids

Working multiple jobs

Leading and serving people week in, week out

So like a lot of tentmaking leaders…

She was giving out a lot… but not building anything that could sustain her.

She had experience.

She had calling.

But no clear pathway to turn that into something scalable.

No structured offer.

No consistent income.

Just a quiet sense of:

“I feel like I should be doing something with what I know…”

Maybe you’ve felt that too.

Here’s what changed.

Abi didn’t try to build a big business.

She didn’t quit anything.

She just focused on three simple things:

• Turn her experience into something teachable
• Get her first paying clients
• Prove this could actually work

That’s it.

So we kept it simple.

She built a small pilot coaching programme for women leading in Christian ministry.

Launched it.

And signed 10 people at $300.

From zero to ...

If you haven’t read the first newsletter in this series, you can read it here.

My wife and I just returned from a couple’s trip to the Cayman Islands (the picture above is from our balcony).