Several years ago, my wife and I heard a knock at our door. A neighbor—a Hindu housewife—asked, “Can you help me get a Bible? You are the only Christians I know.”¹ This lady’s closest connection to Jesus was through her relationship with us. Our faith in Jesus was well-known and accepted by the dozens of South Asian families we lived amongst. Over time, we had earned a reputation as being trustworthy. Our presence and relationships in the community, which we had been intentionally developing, led this woman to seek us out when she was struck by a desire to learn more about Jesus. This is a common first step for Hindu people who want to explore Jesus begin—by reaching out to a known, trusted, Christ-following friend.

An Alongsider is a follower of Lord Jesus who is in an ongoing relationship with individuals or families from a different, non-Christ-following culture with the aim of introducing and walking with them towards biblical, faithful discipleship to Jesus. Importantly, Alongsiders do not have control or dominance in these relationships, but instead relate as peers, walking side by side. Alongsiding, then, is what an Alongsider does.

I do not imply that alongsiding means solely a friendship apart from spiritual discussion. Friendships between non-Christ-followers and disciples of Jesus are good and all too rare, but proper alongsiding friendships serve as weight-bearing foundations for ongoing gospel communication. A friendship alone with a disciple of Christ does not in itself equate to saving faith in Jesus. Alongsiders recognize they are called to be communicators, both sharing truths and listening carefully and empathetically to the other. Alongsiding absolutely includes communicating about Jesus early and frequently.

This ministry philosophy of alongsiding challenges two common assumptions about cross-cultural gospel ministry. First, it recognizes the limitations that exist when disciples of Jesus engage people cross-culturally. In these situations, the gospel messenger is an outsider. Even if an outsider is humble, seeking to learn, and cultivating relationships, they remain distinctly an outsider. These differences in culture, background, and familial context limit the amount of close, life-on-life modeling that can be directly transferred. “Follow me, as I follow Christ,” (1 Cor 11:1) is biblical truth, but how far does that extend when the gospel messenger has a freezer full of beef from his family’s cattle ranch and is sharing the gospel with a vegetarian Hindu family living next door in an American suburb?

Second, alongsiding avoids the constraints of “preaching to strangers.” Ministry to strangers removes the opportunity for unreached peoples to develop trust in the messenger and, consequently, his or her message. It minimizes the opportunity for witness to grow over time in favor of single, one-off encounters. It short-circuits the opportunity for an ongoing, deepening conversation about the gospel and its relevance to an individual or family situation. It does not foster space for an entire family group to interact together about what they are learning about Jesus.

Although witnessing to strangers has real barriers that must be overcome, there are two caveats that should be noted. One, God honors the faith of his people and will sometimes orchestrate a messenger bringing a message about Jesus to a stranger that powerfully speaks to their life and situation. The New Testament stories of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, Peter and Cornelius, and Paul and Ananias (amongst many others) illustrate this fact. Two, reluctance to share the gospel is sometimes simply cowardice rather than wisdom. Even though there are notable stories of people embracing the good news of Jesus shared from a stranger, I would submit that they are, perhaps, a loud minority. In general, there are clear obstacles and challenges about presenting the truth of Christ to strangers in the absence of trust.

This issue of developing trust is, in my mind, the central issue of evangelism in any discussion of mission amongst unreached people groups in today’s world. The reality of ministry among unreached peoples in 2026 is that, rather than speaking of Jesus to “those who have never heard,” we are speaking of Jesus with “those who have heard of Jesus, often wrongly or incompletely, and who do not trust those who told them.” Most unreached peoples that a Western disciple is likely to meet, whether in the global diaspora or in the large cities of Asia and Africa, will be people who have heard the name of Jesus.

Amongst the Hindu diaspora in the United States, possibly one third of Indian adults who have immigrated to the US in adulthood attended Christian “missionary schools” in India in their childhood. These are local schools that were set up during the colonial period throughout India. They are commonly regarded as offering the highest quality education in their immediate areas. The Hindu students who attended these schools experienced weekly chapel services, memorized Scripture verses, and sang Christmas carols. I have been told many fond stories of these missionary school memories by Hindu immigrants, but I have heard only a few accounts of how this exposure to biblical teaching led to faith in Jesus. The issue in these cases is not the lack of awareness of Jesus, but a lack of trust in his relevance for their lives.

Fruitful and faithful ministry amongst the unreached should focus on developing trust between believers and the unreached. Alongsiding brings that emphasis squarely into place. I strongly advocate for this ministry philosophy of alongsiding in conversations about sharing the gospel in Hindu communities. As I discuss this idea with others, I commonly hear that alongsiding is unevangelistic, passive, or cowardly.

Alongsiding is not unevangelistic. One Sunday afternoon, a Hindu couple called us and asked if they could visit our home. We did not expect to have visitors that day, but we valued our friends highly and assured them that they were welcome. After a couple hours spent together, when it was about time for us to begin putting our baby to bed, we asked our friends if we could pray to Jesus for anything for them. “Oh yes,” the couple replied. “That’s why we came today. We want you to pray to Jesus for us.” How startled my wife and I were! Our past conversations with this couple had been stirring up in them a strong desire to seek Christ!

Sometimes people incorrectly assume that if you focus on building deep relationships, you must surrender evangelism and witness. This is simply not true. Alongsiders recognize that developing a sustaining relationship with someone is critical to developing a credible, patient witness. As I recently heard from an Indian pastor, when discussing witness amongst Hindus, “Spiritual decisions are important decisions, and important decisions are made collectively, so they are rarely made in a single conversation.” Walking alongside someone gives the best opportunities to address varying cultural and spiritual skepticisms that might be blocking faith in Jesus.

A particular challenge for the Alongsider is that the people to whom he or she is relating may express disinterest in Christ. Obviously, not everyone who is introduced to Christ will want to walk further down that road. Alongsiders want to spend their time in faithful ministry with spiritually interested, open people who are wanting and willing to explore devotion to Jesus. Accepting a cross-cultural friend’s desire to no longer learn about or discuss Jesus is difficult. In these situations, it is best for the Alongsider to maintain a warm cordiality and polite connection, while allowing your friend to slowly distance themselves from you. This is a normal process that can maintain relational harmony. Although painful, the gradual distancing of one relationship will make space for new relationships that may prove more fruitful. Allowing people and relationships to transition is one reality of being an evangelistic Alongsider.

Alongsiding is not passive. True alongsiding requires the active cultivation of cross-cultural relationships.

First, large amounts of initiative are often required, especially at the beginning. In diaspora settings, it is expected and normal to develop a level of polite but distant agreeableness in the workplace or in the neighborhood. And this is a fine thing! But true alongsiding goes beyond just learning someone’s name. It takes the further step of becoming more personal, more aware, and more concerned. Alongsiders expend effort to visit someone’s home, ask questions about an individual’s family and how they are doing, and inquire about an individual’s spiritual interest and openness. All of this, and particularly the conversations about spiritual practice and allegiance, are done through the sharing and exchanging of stories. Building a cross-cultural friendship adds a level of confusion and uncertainty to the mix. Listening to someone’s stories, choosing to care for them, and taking steps to introduce Jesus and give opportunities to respond requires significant effort. Simply, being in relationship takes work. Alongsiding is not passive.

Alongsiding is not cowardly. Rather, it requires great boldness, courage, and faith to bring up spiritual topics early in conversations with people who do not likely share your same spiritual beliefs. As individuals grow interested in Jesus and begin considering how to follow him, courage is needed to allow people the openness and freedom to make their own decisions about how to respond to Jesus and communicate about him within their extended families. Operating from an organized, established structure can be comforting and directive. Alongsiding is rarely that.

Embracing the reality that there are limitations in what a cross-cultural believer can understand may be deeply discomforting; cultivated reticence, the antidote to this problem, is not our natural response.² When we are making cross-cultural friendships outside of our familiar Christian culture, the differing religious practices and questions about identity can be extremely sensitive and challenging to navigate. Engaging the frontier by walking alongside someone cross-culturally is never cowardly.

Most disciples of Christ have not experienced exploring Jesus in a true, ongoing cross-cultural relationship with someone else. Because of this, the idea of alongsiding might seem hesitant, lazy, or fearful. These traits, however, do not represent what it is like to consciously choose to love both God and unreached persons (and note that we truly can never love an amorphous “people,” rather we love specific and individual persons and families) with the earnest desire that our friends, neighbors, and colleagues would come to love Christ. Being an Alongsider requires consistent intentionality, rather than isolated or sporadic evangelistic bursts. It takes significant effort to develop cross-cultural friendships. It takes courage to move forward into unknown and uncertain spaces. The privilege to walk alongside others is open to anyone who loves God and loves people with a witnessing spirit, intention, and courage.