I don’t know about you, but asking others to care about missions can feel like pulling teeth. It isn’t uncommon that I catch a flash of fear—or guilt—in a friend’s eyes when I ask if they’ve considered serving God overseas. As a writer and speaker, I’m used to making asks, calling audiences to action, or inviting them to adopt a different perspective. And there’s a pattern here that I’ve noticed: the bigger the ask, the stronger the resistance. A life on mission is a significant commitment, and persuading others to even consider that God could be calling them into it has been an uphill climb. But what if missions wasn’t as big of an ask as it may seem?

Attitudes Toward Missions

The first question to answer when advocating for missions in any form is the question of need: Is missions necessary? Readers of a missions magazine such as this one probably don’t need convincing, but in case you’re on the fence, there are around 3.5 billion people who haven’t heard the gospel yet—about 42% of the world’s population.1 As Jesus said, “the harvest is plenti-ful, but the workers are few” (Matt 9:37). I don’t think many of us are unaware of this need, but there’s plenty of contention surrounding who should be sent and how these peoples should be reached.

A 2020 Barna study found that one in three American Christians believe that missions has been “unethical in the past,” and two in five that missions has been “tainted by its association with colonialism.” Commenting on these stats, International Mission Board (IMB) President Paul Chitwood observed that “we can no longer expect that future generations of Protestants will inherently engage in missions education and missions action.” Fortunately, that same study found that over half of engaged Christian respondents (defined as churchgoers who participate in their church’s ministry) between ages 18 and 34 see themselves as “potential missionaries.”2 In short, Americans are aware of the need for missions, and are simultaneously hesitant and open to the idea of jumping in.

Hesitance Behind Missions

Why are we hesitant about the idea of missions? Besides the above associations of missions with harm and colonialism, a study from MissioNexus identified a few primary factors that dissuade people from participating: materialism, global dan-ger, and debt.3 Materialism here can be associated with the high living standards enjoyed by the average American; global danger with the privileges of general public safety, and healthcare, and policing infrastructure; and debt with the financial instability perceived in missions work.

Typical articles I’ve read on the obstacles to missions often explore ways that fears and tensions such as these can be theologized away or otherwise mitigated by robust calls to faith in God over the idols of material and social comfort, physical security, and financial stability. I’m not against these calls to faithfulness, should any of these things become idols in our hearts. But comfort, security, and financial peace aren’t necessarily evil either, and I believe that persuasive appeals such as these, while appropriate, miss a vital piece of the puzzle: Overseas missions is costly, and not all of us are in positions to pay that cost. But what if we didn’t have to?

A New Mission

I stumbled onto the concept of diaspora missions purely by accident while volunteering at a missions conference, where I was introduced to the Lausanne Movement’s Global Diaspora Network (GDN). For reference, a “diaspora” is “any group of ethnic people that lives outside of their native land.”4 I knew that Lausanne was committed to helping leaders fulfill the Great Commission but hadn’t realized that they were committed to reaching more than just the 10/40 window or distant peoples who had never heard the gospel. Diasporas of unreached and unevangelized peoples exist all around the world, and they need the good news just as much as those who still live in far off places. This opened my eyes to a new idea: We don’t have to cross the globe to reach the world, because the world has come to us.

The GDN describes this opportunity by observing that in an increasingly global world, “Local congregations are strategically positioned to engage in cross-cultural mission in their immediate neighborhoods.”5 In other words, the mission is the same, but the map has changed. This may be truer in the United States than anywhere else, as we host the world’s largest immigrant population—around 52 million people. For reference, Germany, in second place, has an immigrant population of just 17 million.6 These populations also present many opportunities to engage with unreached peoples, and UPG North America has identified hubs of over 120 unreached diaspora peoples across the US and Canada, spanning from Afghans in Montreal to Somalis in Columbus to Gujaratis in Dallas.7 For more information about how you can engage diaspora communities, check out UPG North America’s website and find a community near you.

The Appeal of Diaspora Missions

Working to fulfill the Great Commission amongst diaspora peoples provides the opportunity for impactful cross-cultural missions work in our own communities. It also presents a way to participate in missions while avoiding many of the aforementioned obstacles that make overseas missions a hard ask. My goal here is not to argue how we can overcome common barriers to missions, but to assert that diaspora missions a) does not exacerbate and b) may more easily bypass these barriers than global missions.

Colonialism and Harm: In reaching out to immigrants and refugees, there is always the danger that established Americans will seek to “help” others from a position of superiority, assuming a stance reminiscent of historic colonizers. However, immigrants in the US have real needs that we can help with, and any concerns about improper heart postures should not stop us from meeting those needs. For example, 50% of immigrants live below the poverty line, many lack access to adequate food, housing, and health care. And many face a disparity of opportunity due to low English proficiency.8 These are all needs that the average American Christian can meet in some way, either by providing resources, helping navigate legal bureaucracy, or providing exposure and practice with the English language. While these intentions to help are right and good both in the US and abroad, helping our own cities and towns should in no way raise alarm bells of colonialism or harm, like efforts to evangelize overseas have in the past.

Materialism: While we as Christians ought to oppose materialism (the rich young ruler comes to mind), this vice cannot act as an excuse not to pursue domestic missions, as it may with global missions. Because local missions doesn’t necessitate moving from one’s home to a new country and culture, this form of fulfilling the Great Commission doesn’t even require a sacrifice of material comforts in the mission pursuit.

Global Danger: Environments in diaspora missions are the same environments where we live, work, and play in our home countries. Like any place, some areas may be more dangerous than others, but access to dependable police and hospital services are not a concern as they may be in global contexts. The ability to participate in diaspora missions while living at home also means that no danger is presented to our families that wouldn’t already be present in our everyday lives.

Debt: Local cross-cultural work doesn’t require either support raising or sacrificing a salary to pursue, so debt should not be a barrier to serving in this capacity.

Living Missions

Before concluding, I’d like to address a reaction some of you may have had while reading these responses—that although I’ve identified why people hesitate to consider or go into full-time overseas missions, rather than advocate for costly obedience or explain why missions is worth sacrificing for, I’ve outlined an “easy way out.” I disagree, and would hazard that diaspora missions may be more costly than traditional overseas missions. There are a thousand reasons besides the few I listed above for not going into global missions, many of them valid, good, and faithful. I can understand why we wouldn’t want to pay the cost of moving overseas, but I can find no excuse not to invest in loving our neighbors.

In the end, it’s impossible to adequately discuss the challenges of calling believers into cross-cultural foreign missions, the obstacles that potential missionaries face, and the opportunities of diaspora missions in one article. I hope that these ideas will start new conversations, and open new doors to obedience to God in our own communities, mirroring Isaiah as he declared, “Here I am. Send me!” (Isa 6:8). The command to go and make disciples of all nations remains the same—only now the nations have come to us. I pray we will be given the eyes to see and the willingness to seek the unreached within our reach, to be sent to the nations next door.