Aquila: The Tentmaker Who Helped Build the Church
September 1, 2026
Some of the most important people in the Bible never preached to a crowd.
Aquila was one of them.
He is almost always named alongside his wife Priscilla — and that, friend, is itself a beautiful testimony. Aquila is never the solo act. He is part of a partnership. A marriage. A household the Holy Spirit used to shape the early church.
Paul met them in Corinth, fresh refugees from Rome after Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from the city (Acts 18:1-2). Like Paul, they were tentmakers, and so they shared a trade as well as a faith. “So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers” (Acts 18:3, NKJV).
Pause on that for a moment.
The greatest apostle of the New Testament era sat down at a workbench with this couple, day after day, stitching tent leather. The history-shaping conversations of Christianity happened over an ordinary trade.
That is how the Holy Spirit often works. Not above ordinary life — within it.
Aquila and Priscilla travelled on with Paul to Ephesus. There they did something quietly extraordinary. When they heard the eloquent Apollos preaching with only a partial understanding of the gospel, they took him aside and gently sharpened him in the way of the Lord (Acts 18:26). They poured into a preacher more gifted than themselves, and through that pouring, an evangelist was completed.
And then, years later, in Romans 16, Paul writes one of the most striking commendations in any of his letters. Listen to this. “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles” (Romans 16:3-4, NKJV).
A church met in their house (1 Corinthians 16:19). They risked their lives. They worked alongside the apostle. They discipled an evangelist. They opened their table and their home and they kept opening it.
Friend, hear me — do not underestimate the ministry of an ordinary trade, an open home, and a faithful marriage.
Aquila did not preach to thousands. He stitched tents. He opened his table. He sharpened one preacher more accurately. He sheltered a church in his living room.
And the gospel went forward because of him.
So can it, through you.