Under the Hood of OKC Covo: Three Pathways to Kingdom Work in the Marketplace

by Dave Miller

In the movement of covocational leadership forming across Oklahoma City, we are watching God use business not just as a means of provision, but as a platform for discipleship and kingdom expansion. This isn’t a side hustle to ministry—this is ministry. As we equip and mobilize leaders across the city, we’ve found that many followers of Jesus in the marketplace don’t always have clear language for what they’re doing or what’s possible. That’s why it’s time to lift the hood and offer a compelling framework for seeing your work through a kingdom lens. Whether you’re running a business, clocking into a job with purpose, or using your income to fuel your calling elsewhere, your work matters to God.

Let’s unpack three distinct, convictional pathways for marketplace engagement in the kingdom: the Sentrepreneur, the Marketplace Missionary, and the Tentmaker.

Sentrepreneur: Starting and Scaling for the Sake of the Kingdom

A Sentrepreneur is a business owner who sees themselves as sent by God into the marketplace to create value, make disciples, and model kingdom culture. These leaders are more than entrepreneurs—they are apostles in the marketplace. They use the leverage of ownership not just for profit but for people. Their business becomes a model others can imitate, creating space for others to live out their faith without leaving their vocation.

Sentrepreneurs are planting gospel seeds with every system they build, every job they create, and every customer they serve. They know they’re entrusted by God to lead with integrity, generosity, and spiritual intentionality.

These are often the cultural architects of OKC Covo—those who host, gather, and empower others through their business platform. Their conviction is clear: the business is the vehicle for disciple-making, and leadership is stewardship of people under God’s authority. Sentreprenuers multiply disciples, platforms, and resources. 

Marketplace Missionary: Living with Gospel Intentionality on the Job

Marketplace Missionaries are employees who understand their 9-to-5 job as a primary mission field. They may not own the business, but they show up with purpose. They seek to bless their coworkers, serve their customers with excellence, and look for opportunities to share the hope of Christ in ordinary conversations. These individuals model faithfulness, kindness, and courage in workplaces that often feel spiritually dry or disconnected.

What sets a marketplace missionary apart is intentionality. They don’t separate the sacred and the secular. They embody what it means to be a light in the darkness, often leading prayer groups at work, mentoring coworkers, or initiating faith-filled conversations over lunch breaks. They know that their influence doesn’t require a pulpit—it requires presence, character, and love.

Tentmaker: Working to Fund the Call Beyond the Workplace

The Tentmaker works in the marketplace primarily to support a broader call to ministry—whether that’s planting churches, discipling young leaders, or traveling for mission work. Their job is not their identity, but it is their provision. Like Paul, they see their work as a practical and strategic way to be self-sustaining while fully engaging in the mission of God.

Tentmakers often live in a tension: working a full-time job while pursuing a full-time calling. But this tension becomes fertile ground for character formation, time stewardship, and creative ministry. Their conviction keeps them grounded—they are called to more than comfort, and they use their income as fuel for eternal investments. In the OKC Covo oikosystem, tentmakers are teachers, dentists, nonprofit leaders, or social workers, who have learned to carry responsibility in both the sacred and the secular.

Sentergy: Coordinating for Kingdom Synergy

As powerful as each role is individually, even more transformation happens when these roles work together in what we call Sentergy—kingdom synergy intentionally coordinated around APEST gifts (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, Teacher), vocational callings, and family rhythms. In Sentergy, the goal is not competition but collaboration. We see each role not as siloed, but as essential parts of a greater whole.

Sentrepreneurs can provide platforms and funding for tentmakers. Tentmakers can bring apostolic edge and spiritual hunger to marketplace teams. Marketplace missionaries often act as bridges, living out day-to-day influence while supporting the broader vision. Families are not sidelined in this vision—they are included and supported as vital units of mission.

In Sentergy, your job is not just a job. Your gifting is not just personal. Your calling is not just for you. Together, we’re forming a movement of faithful presence, where each person’s obedience becomes multiplied impact. collaboration beats isolation every time.

The Vision: A City Saturated with Faithful Presence

Each of these roles—Sentrepreneur, Marketplace Missionary, and Tentmaker—reveals a different facet of how the kingdom of God advances through the marketplace. They require different rhythms, pressures, and disciplines, but all are necessary. Together, they form a polycentric network of leaders who reflect Jesus not just on Sundays, but in, sales calls, service jobs, boardrooms, refugee apartments, subdivisions, parks, and soccer clubs. 

The goal is not to idolize any one path, but to name and empower people in whatever lane God has placed them. Our hope is that as you discover your role, you’ll also see the people around you more clearly—inviting them into a vision of work that is sacred, strategic, multiplying disciples and churches and Spirit-filled.

The kingdom advances one conversation, one risk, one moment of obedience at a time—right where you are.

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