At ABWE, while our primary focus is sending missionaries, we also recognize that God is already working across the globe using national believers. Indigenous missionaries can often be far more effective than traditional Western missionaries in hard-to-reach and limited-access countries.
In Scripture, a desire to partner with national churches and believers overseas characterized even the Apostle Paul’s ministry. God is still using national partnership today. God works when like-minded believers bring together their own gifts and resources across cultures to work toward a common gospel goal. We believe the goal of healthy missions is to see thriving national churches expand and for the missionary to shift from the “pioneer” mentality into a “partner” mentality over time as indigenous believers mature.