Tentmaking Tips

I’ve got good news.

The gifting that many people in ministry have is exactly what’s needed to be successful in a side business. You need to love people & serve them well. And you need to help them solve a problem they have. Most of you are already great at that!

Christian counselors help people overcome fear by strengthening faith in God and taking small steps of increasing exposure to that fear over time.

The solution to fear is not to suppress it, avoid it, or deny it. It’s to trust God & gradually be exposed to the fear over time until your fear is diminished.

The same is true with tentmaking.

The best way to overcome the fear of tentmaking is faith & exposure. Trust God & start doing a little bit of tentmaking. We’re not talking about quitting your job or diving into the deep en

It’s a good question.

I certainly didn’t “have” to. I was paid full-time by our church and the elders were glad to continue paying me. There was no financial struggle involved.

So, why do it?

I’ll give you 4 reasons.

1. It’s a joy to do ministry for free.

   When we moved back to Lubbock after graduating from seminary to start our church, we had no income. Our sponsor church was unable to help us financially, so we had to raise our personal support and also a budget for the church.

   We had many generous people give to help fund a salary for me and my family and a start-up budget for our church.

   Once our church started, all of the tithes and offerings went directly to church ministries because my salary had been covered for the first 2 years. I loved this!

   After 2 years, the church had the funds to bring me on the payroll, and while I was grateful, I really enjoyed not being on the payroll. Soon after coming on the payroll, I remember beginn

   ...

That’s simply not true. Tentmaking is not an all or nothing proposition. Some people want to continue getting paid by their ministry but want to generate some extra income from tentmaking for family vacations or other extra costs that might not fit in the budget. Tentmaking allows you to generate additional streams of income & how much you make in tentmaking is really up to you.

2. Tentmaking will take way too much time.

This is also a myth. I generate full-time income through tentmaking and it takes me a few hours each week. From the beginning of my tentmaking journey, I made sure I never spent so much time that I felt distracted from my ministry. I wanted tentmaking to be like a hobby and I only wanted to spend a few hour

I’d love to help.

By tentmaking, we mean earning money to support your ministry from outside your ministry. This could be supplemental income if you already have a ministry income. Or it could completely replace a ministry income and you could derive all of your income outside of your ministry.

Here are 4 steps to begin a tentmaking journey:

1. Determine how much extra income you need

Are you just needing an extra $5,000 each year? Or are you needing part-time income? Or do you need full-time income? This will help you decide what types of tentmaking opportunities to pursue.

2. Determine how much time you have to generate this extra income

Do you only have a few hours available each week or could you spend more time? Depending on the type of ministry you’re in now, you may either have quite a bit of flexibility to pursue tentmaking on the side or you may have very little. Knowing

I’m guessing most of the readers of this blog have heard of Dave Ramsey. And perhaps many of you have been through Financial Peace University or hosted it at your church.

If you’ve never heard of him, he’s a radio host of a call-in show where people call to ask for financial advice. He’s written many books on personal finance & he also developed a personal finance course that many churches use to help their congregations manage their money well.

If you have heard of him, chances are you know people that really love him & well, people that really don’t. Haha!

He’s often known as the “no debt guy” and the “cut up your credit cards guy.”

So, should you listen to him for financial advice?

My answer: It depends on what he’s talking about!

Let me share a few things I agree with Dave about & a few things where we don’t see eye to eye.

But before I do, I want to give you full disclosure.

Dave Ramsey’s teachings have been lif

This passage runs contrary to ministry culture in the US and probably challenges our paradigms.

Paul, a successful church planter & author of much of our New Testament, is making tents? Surely if anyone deserves a full-time paid salary, it's Paul. Paul even talked about how he had the right to support from churches as a traveling preacher (1 Cor 9), but in some cases "did not use this right" because he didn't want anything to "hinder the gospel of Christ." He wanted to preach the gospel "free of charge."

Paul told the Ephesian elders:

I have not coveted anyone’s silv...

But…

You’re worried about your husband or wife’s reaction.

“It’s too risky!”

“We need financial stability!”

“I don’t want you working nights and weekends!”

These concerns are totally understandable.

The key to bringing your spouse along on the journey is to start small & go slowwwww.

You don’t have to quit your job next week to start tentmaking on the side. You don’t have to put in 20 more hours of work each week on top of your busy ministry schedule. You don’t have to empty out your savings and retirement to get started.

Start small.

Like with Travel Hacking for example. I can almost guarantee you that your spouse will love it if you can plan an extra free vacation for the family each year. And that’s totally doable without a huge time investment. Check out this blog for more info: The Best Credit Card for Travel Rewards. 

After you’re earning some extra money through travel rewards, maybe consider Agent Hacking. In a few h

While most financial advisors would recommend having multiple streams, I’ve found that too often pastors/missionaries don’t pursue this.

Why is that?

I’m sure there are a number of reasons:

1. Don’t want to get distracted

2. Don’t have time

3. Worried about the optics

4. Perceived lack of additional skills

I can understand because I’ve been there too.

Then I realized that the reasons to have additional income streams far outweighed the reasons not to have them.

Here are some benefits:

1. Supplemental income for your family to make up for low or moderate ministry pay

2. Less pressure to stay in a ministry position that’s not a fit

3. Follow the Lord where he leads, even if it doesn’t pay much or anything at all

4. Interact with more unbelievers outside the church/ministry

5. Modeling integrity in the business sector

6. Increase in generosity

7. Get out of debt sooner

8. Save a sizable emergency fund

9. Get awa
...

It’s true. And sometimes they are very generous.

Chances are you have several thousand dollars at your primary bank that can be moved around. Perhaps this is your liquid emergency fund or some money you’ve been saving for a future purchase.

Use that money to redeem the best checking account bonuses when banks offer them.

Let me give you a few examples.

Chase Bank recently offered a $300 bonus for opening a new personal checking account and a $300 bonus for opening a new business account. I opened both. After completing a few activities, they deposited those bonuses right into my account.

Citi Bank then had a promotion offering up to a $750 bonus if you opened a new checking account with them (bonus varied depending on how much money you deposited). I signed up for this one as well and moved some money over.

Different banks offer promotions at different times, so just make a habit of