When God Moves Through Someone You Almost Overlooked

There is a particular kind of person I have learned to pay more attention to over the years. They are not usually the ones in the front of the room. They are not the most articulate or the most theologically trained. Sometimes they are the quietest person in a training. Sometimes they are the newest believer. Sometimes they are someone whose background or circumstances would make most ministry leaders hesitate before investing deeply.

And again and again, in contexts across South Asia, West Africa, Southeast Asia, and now increasingly in diaspora communities in Europe and North America, those are the people through whom God moves.

The Pattern That Keeps Repeating

I have a friend who leads a network of disciple-making groups among refugees in a major European city. She came to faith as a refugee herself, in a camp, through a simple DBS group led by someone who had been a believer for less than a year. Within eighteen months of coming to faith, she was leading three groups of her own, each of them reaching people from her home country who were now scattered across the city.

She was not who anyone would have strategically identified as a movement catalyst. She had no theological training, no platform, no connections to any established ministry. What she had was a story, a community of people who shared her language and her displacement, and a willingness to share what she had found.

That is the profile I have learned to look for. No credentials. Not confident. Willingness to learn, grow, and obey, and a proximity to people no one else is reaching.

What This Means for How We Invest

If this pattern is real — and I believe it is, both from Scripture and from watching it play out in multiple contexts where movements take off— then it has direct implications for how we choose who to invest in.

It means we should be paying attention to people at the margins of our existing Christian networks. The newcomer. The person from a background very different from the rest of the group. The one who seems unlikely by conventional ministry metrics but who has deep roots in a community no one else can reach.

This is especially true right now in the Americas and in Europe, where diaspora communities — people from the Global South who have come as refugees, immigrants, and students — represent one of the most significant disciple-making opportunities of this generation. Many of them maintain deep connections to their home countries and home communities. A disciple made here can become the link through whom a movement starts there.

The One You Almost Passed By

I want to ask you directly: who is the person in your context that you have almost overlooked? The one whose background, circumstances, or apparent limitations have caused you to invest less rather than more?

That person may be exactly who God is waiting to move through. Not in spite of their story, but because of it.Because they have access to people, places, and communities that you do not.Because their obedience, if it comes, will carry the gospel somewhere it has not yet gone.

Pay attention to that person. Invest. You may be looking at the beginning of something you cannot yet fully imagine.

If you work with diaspora communities or lead in a context where the “unlikely” person is the one God keeps using, we’d love to have you in the conversation. Find out more atmultipliersmindset.com/dtmmembership.

Something to Think About and Discuss:

• Who is the person in your current context that you may have almost overlooked? What makes them easy to underestimate?

• What resonated with you most in this article?

• What would it look like to make a more intentional investment in that person this month?

Share in the comments below or on our Dare to Multiply community.