Journal for Christian Scholarship - 2017 (1st Quarter) 91 Mission and the Workplace – the example of Paul 1 Francois Tolmie Department of Old and New Testament Faculty of Theology University of the Free State BLOEMFONTEIN (South Africa) tolmief@ufs.ac.za Abstract According to the Letters of Paul and the Book of Acts, Paul supported himself by labouring with his own hands. In this article, the implications of Paul’s example in this regard for the twenty-irst century are considered. In the irst section a brief overview of scholarly research on the concept σκηνοποιός is offered. In the next section the question is considered as to whether tentmaking was a missionary strategy that was deliberately chosen by Paul. It is argued that this question should be answered in a nuanced way. In the last section, the appropriation of all of this within our current situation is considered. After a brief discussion of two opposing ways in which this has been done in recent times, some suggestions for the appropriation of Paul’s example are made. 1 Revised version of a paper read at a conference on “Faith and work: Christian mission and leadership in the workplace” at the St Petersburg Christian University on 8-9 September 2016. The inancial support of the National Research Foundation is acknowledged.