The Secret Lives of Tentmakers
Navigating Missionary Identity in Restricted Access Nations
- Evangelism & Missions
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2026
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Publisher's Description
In the Restricted Access Nations (RANs) of the Arabian Peninsula, evangelical missionaries must conceal their core identity and purposes as evangelists and church planters. As “tentmakers,” they present a vocational identity on the field instead, leading a life often characterized by secrecy in order to protect themselves, the missionary community, and those they disciple. In an age of ubiquitous surveillance technology and global online connectivity, one slip could mean deportation, imprisonment, or danger in countries where missionary activities are illegal. Security issues and identity concealment sometimes create profound inner turmoil for the missionary, generating identity dissonance, feelings of fraudulence, and agonizing ethical struggles over truth-telling and concealment. Drawing on ethnographic interviews with tentmakers in the Arabian Peninsula, The Secret Lives of Tentmakers describes the daily practices of managing multiple role identities in a high-security environment, and how juggling these various identities impacts the missionary’s sense of self. This book explores the complex tensions between vocational excellence and missionary calling, uncovers the theological and cultural coping strategies tentmakers use to resist moral crisis, and reveals the crucial factors missionaries need for achieving identity consonance and integration across all the dimensions of their lives.
Endorsements (4)
“Serving in a global mission is already challenging. Serving in restricted-access contexts where Christian work is misunderstood or unwelcome adds another layer of complexity, particularly for the Christian worker’s identity. This well-written and thoroughly researched study addresses these challenges and will help future cross-cultural workers and the organizations, churches, and friends that send them.”
“A. G. Smith has conducted a beautiful study of the difficulties that tent-making missionaries in restricted-access nations face concerning their identity. Her analysis and insights should be required reading for all who are preparing to work in these countries and for all those who support such workers.”
“A. G. Smith has given the church and global missionary community an invaluable, urgently needed guide for all called into nations that actively restrict gospel witness. . . . As an experienced tentmaker who has trained in-service missionaries for twenty-eight years, I regard this as essential reading for every agency, sending church, and current and future tentmaker.”
“The Secret Lives of Tentmakers is essential reading for any business as mission practitioner or tentmaker. Drawing on the real stories of thirty-eight practitioners, Smith gives us a remarkably frank exploration of identity at the intersection of vocation and mission. Secret Lives is an invaluable resource and timely challenge for anyone navigating these complex issues in an increasingly globalized, digitally connected world.”
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