Lawrence McClure 

Lawrence is an author, speaker, musician, and entrepreneur with a passion for serving people through both ministry and business. Over the past several years, he's had the opportunity to minister and lead in diverse settings across the United States and internationally—including powerful seasons of ministry in South Korea and Japan.

In 2015, Lawrence and his family took a leap of faith and moved to Geochang, South Korea, where he served as the English Ministry Leader at a local Korean church while also teaching in the community. His heart for cross-cultural ministry later took him to Japan, where he continued to pour into leaders and pastors—encouraging them to stay anchored in the heart of God, no matter the challenges of life or ministry.

Lawrence is passionate about investing in leaders, reminding them that true impact starts with intimacy with God. Whether he's speaking from a stage, leading worship, or walking alongside fellow ministers, he brings encouragement, wisdom, and authenticity.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from Oklahoma State University, along with a Diploma in Project Management, Discipleship Training, and international studies from the University of Iceland.

Paul, the Tentmaker

Author: Randy Rice

   Do you ever struggle to find spiritual meaning in your daily work? If so, you are not alone. Many Christians feel a disconnection between their faith and their work. To make this situation worse, many businesses today prohibit any kind of faith-based activity at work.

In the book of Acts (Acts 18), we find an interesting insight about the Apostle Paul and two other people – Aquila and Pricilla:

“After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.” (Acts 18:1 – 5)

We commonly think of Paul as an evangelist, a teacher, a missionary, a church planter, and mentor to others, such as Timothy, but little is said about Paul’s commercial trade of being a tentmaker.

As I have been researching this aspect of Paul’s life, I have discovered there are entire books devoted just to the topic of Paul’s work as a tentmaker.

Perhaps the greatest insight I have gained is that Paul was not a tentmaker so he could make a living on the side. Based on everything we can tell about Paul’s missionary journeys and work with the early church, Paul was a tentmaker in order to conduct his other missionary and teaching activities without constantly being in fund-raising mode.

I think Christians today get conflicted about money, commerce, work and how it all relates to the Kingdom of God. Perhaps stated another way, Christians may ask, “What does my daily work mean to God and His work?”

Understanding the spiritual nature of work is not always easy. We see the problems caused by wealth and know that Jesus also warned about them. We have seen Christians exploit Christians in the name of money and ministry. We have seen people who do immensely good work receive very little financial compensation from their “normal” work, so we may wonder where the justice is in that.

Envisioning Paul as a tentmaker may also be a bit uncomfortable for those who see Paul as an intellectual person that wrote about one-third of the New Testament. Tents back in the day of Paul were not made of canvas, but rather, woven camel hair. To work with the materials of tentmaking meant that ones hands got rough and smelly. That’s not the image most Christians have of Paul.

But there was a great advantage for Paul to be a tentmaker. He was in the marketplace where he could have extended discussions with people while he was making tents alongside Aquila and Priscilla.

It is very possible that during the mid-day, Paul would then go to the synagogues and forums to preach and teach.

So basically, Paul was teaching about the Gospel everywhere he went – and the closer he could be to where the people were, the better. That is very different than how most of us see and practice discipleship today. We invite people to come to church or to our small group instead of making small groups in the marketplace we serve.

In future articles, I will explore more about how we can learn from Paul’s tentmaking business as a platform for ministry, and apply those lessons in our own vocations and callings to bless others and to carry the Gospel message to the world.