“We thought Jesus was only for foreigners. We didn’t know He could be our God too.”

Disciple-makers in Myanmar heard this over and over as they shared the Good News of Jesus in a least-reached community. It was eye-opening for Burmese people to meet someone who shared their language, culture, and context but followed Jesus Christ and embraced Him as Savior and Lord.

This comment is not unique to Myanmar. It crops up frequently in reports and testimonies from those seeking to reach least-reached people, reflecting a common gap in understanding that Jesus is the hope and salvation for every person. The near-culture worker bridges that gap and is key to our Global Disciples model for reaching the least-reached.

When you hear the Good News of Jesus from people who look like you, sound like you, and understand your cultural and religious background, you see that this new life in Him can be yours. It doesn’t carry the baggage of western culture, colonialism, or racial differences. Yes, issues of prejudice, division, history, and conflict still come into play—even people in related groups don’t always get along. Yet overcoming those with the Holy Spirit’s help, offering peace and reconciliation in place of enmity and hatred, speaks volumes to the power of Jesus Christ.

If you want near-culture workers, you need local churches. We are grateful for the generations of cross-cultural workers and the traditional mission-sending strategies. Thanks to their dedication and sacrificial lives, the global Body of Christ is mature and thriving in many places. Now it’s time for the next step: tapping into these local churches to train and send out their people as a new generation of mission workers. 

As Global Disciples, we partner with local churches to equip and send out their people as disciple-makers and church planters who are able to use small business for sustainability and develop leaders for the multiplying church.

They are near-culture workers, able to connect more deeply and authentically with the people they seek to reach. Obstacles like language, culture, religious background, economic and educational diversity, are reduced because they are shared. Even where language is not the same, a related or trade language often gets them in the door. The near-culture worker has access to many places and people that a cross-cultural worker, from outside this context, could only dream of reaching.

“Equipping people to reach their nations” is the Global Disciples tagline for a reason. Near-culture workers make it possible every day around the world.