Christianity in Iran is growing despite intensifying pressure on Christian converts. As arrests, house raids and phone searches continue, Transform Iran President and CEO Lana Silk shares what Iranian Christians are facing — and how the underground church in Iran continues to reach, disciple and equip new believers.

Two members of Transform Iran’s team were recently arrested inside Iran.

They are not alone. Amid heightened political tensions and increased pressure on religious minorities, Christians in Iran continue to face arrest, surveillance and the risks associated with openly following Jesus.

Yet another story is unfolding behind those headlines.

The church in Iran keeps growing.

Despite the pressure, Iranians are continuing to encounter Jesus. New believers are being discipled, emerging leaders are being equipped, and Christian communities are forming — sometimes in places where there was previously no known church.

So how does a church grow when following Jesus can carry such a cost?

In a recent conversation with Rick Osborne on the Face to Face podcast, Lana shared what is happening behind the headlines — from extraordinary spiritual hunger, to the ways Iranians are encountering Jesus, being discipled in secret and taking the gospel into their own communities. She also shared a sobering update on what believers are facing inside Iran right now.

The harder the enemy presses to silence it, to censor it, to punish it, to press it, the more the people become hungry and desperate for truth.

https://youtu.be/3vEs1wKVYzs

Why Is Christianity Growing in Iran Despite Persecution?

Before Iran became an Islamic Republic in 1979, there were very few known Christians from a Muslim background in the country.

Nearly five decades later, the picture is dramatically different.

Precise numbers are difficult to establish for a church that largely has to remain hidden, but independent research and the experience of ministries serving Iran point to significant growth in Christianity among Iranians.

For Lana, however, the numbers are only part of the story.

What Transform Iran encounters every day are individual Iranians searching for truth — many of them deeply disillusioned with the religious system they have known and increasingly curious about Jesus.

Some first encounter the gospel through satellite television or radio. Others discover Christian content online or through social media. Some meet another believer. Others report dreams or extraordinary encounters that prompt them to begin asking questions about Jesus.

Transform Iran’s role is not simply to reach a large audience. It is to help the individual behind the number take the next step.

Reaching Iran Means More Than Broadcasting in Farsi

To understand Transform Iran’s approach, it is important first to understand Iran itself.

Iran is not one homogeneous people group. It is home to numerous ethnic and linguistic communities, and although Farsi is the country’s official language, millions of Iranians speak another language at home.

For Transform Iran, that makes heart-language ministry fundamental to reaching the whole nation.

The ministry produces Christian content across satellite television, radio and digital platforms, while working to make the gospel and Scripture accessible in the languages people know most intimately. It also adapts its approach for those who cannot read, removing another significant barrier to encountering the Bible.

This commitment extends to Bible translation. Rather than translating Scripture remotely and simply delivering the finished text, Transform Iran uses an integrated approach involving local speakers and communities in the translation process.

In places where there may be few known Christians — or no established church at all — something remarkable can happen. People gather around the text. They wrestle together with words and meaning. They encounter what Scripture actually says. And sometimes a Christian community begins to form around it.

People’s lives are being changed and the church just is born out of that quite organically.

How Iranian Christians Are Discipled in an Underground Church

Reaching someone with the gospel is only the beginning.

Transform Iran’s media platforms can reach millions of people, but the goal is not simply an audience figure, a television viewer or even a first response to Jesus.

It is transformation.

When someone makes contact with Transform Iran, trained teams can begin building a relationship with them and answering their questions. New believers can then be supported through an intentional discipleship journey, receiving regular teaching and personal encouragement as they grow in their faith.

Over time, some begin mentoring others. Emerging leaders are equipped. New churches and fellowships form. The person who was reached becomes someone who reaches another. Transform Iran describes this journey under three simple pillars: Evangelism. Discipleship. Transformation.

We want every Iranian — man, woman and child — to hear the gospel, be able to respond to it, and for that transformative gospel to change their lives.

This multiplication is particularly important in a country where conventional church buildings and public Christian ministry are unavailable to many converts.

The underground church is not dependent on a building. It grows through people.

From an Encounter With Jesus to an Iranian Church Leader

One story Lana shared in her recent interview captures how unexpectedly that process can begin.

An Iranian businesswoman was recovering from surgery at home and experiencing considerable pain. She was not a Christian and was not looking for Christianity.

Then she heard someone at her door. She made the difficult journey downstairs and opened it to find a man she did not recognize. What struck her most, Lana recounts, was the extraordinary love and compassion she saw in his face.

Startled by the encounter, she closed the door. Almost immediately she regretted it and opened it again.

The man was gone. As she returned upstairs, she realized that the pain she had been experiencing had disappeared.

Then the telephone rang. One of her young tenants asked if she could visit. The young woman arrived carrying a wrapped Bible and disclosed something that could place her at significant risk in Iran: she was a Christian. She explained that she had been praying for her landlady and believed God was telling her that this was the moment to share the Bible with her.

What followed wasn’t simply a single encounter. The younger woman shared the gospel with her. She walked alongside her. She discipled her. And in time, the businesswoman herself became a pastor.

One Iranian believer had taken the risk of reaching another — who would go on to reach others herself.

That quiet multiplication helps explain why Christianity in Iran cannot be understood simply by counting churches or registered congregations.

Much of the Iranian church is growing relationally and out of sight.

The Cost of Being a Christian in Iran

That growth comes at a cost.

Iran recognizes some historic Christian minorities, but the experience of converts from Islam can be very different. Christian converts who openly practice their faith, evangelize or participate in unregistered Christian activity can face surveillance, interrogation, arrest and imprisonment.

And amid the current heightened security environment, those risks have become particularly immediate.

Lana shared that just days earlier, two members of Transform Iran’s team had been arrested. For a time, the ministry did not know where they were or what had happened to them. They later learned that the authorities were demanding property as security for their release — leaving the team urgently trying to find someone willing and able to put forward the necessary collateral.

Their experience is part of a much wider climate of pressure. Lana described house raids and random checks on the streets, with authorities taking people’s phones and searching them. For Christians involved in underground ministry, a phone can expose far more than one individual: messages, contacts and connections can potentially place other believers at risk too.

There was also the recent experience of a female Iranian pastor who was travelling with her husband when they were stopped. Authorities demanded her phone. When she questioned why they wanted it, she was beaten severely.

The incident is particularly sobering because travelling is itself an important part of these leaders’ ministry.

Iranian Christians can be profoundly isolated. Some may have come to faith through satellite television, radio or online ministry but have no local church they can safely attend and few, if any, other believers around them. Pastors and ministry leaders therefore travel to meet them, encourage them, disciple them and help connect a scattered underground church.

They do so knowing what can happen if they are stopped.

And still they go.

That creates a tension in how Christians outside Iran should pray. Protection matters deeply — particularly when believers are being arrested, searched and attacked. But she does not want fear of what could happen to prevent Iranian Christians from doing what God has called them to do.

Lana’s prayer is therefore not simply for safety, nor simply for boldness. It is for believers to have the wisdom to know when to move and when to wait, the courage to continue despite the risks, and the protection they need as they do so.

Pray that they would have courage, wisdom, Holy Spirit guidance, all mixed in with that protection — at the same time that the gospel would advance.

Why Iranian Christians Pray for Those Who Persecute Them

There is another group Transform Iran asks Christians around the world to pray for.

Iran’s leaders. It is not always a popular request. Lana says Transform Iran has faced criticism for encouraging prayer for people associated with a regime responsible for tremendous suffering. But for her, this reaches the heart of the gospel itself. Jesus did not tell his followers only to pray for people they considered deserving of mercy. He told them to love their enemies and pray for those who persecuted them.

Lana describes watching events unfold in Iran and having to confront the same question personally: Are we praying only for the people suffering — or are we also praying for the people responsible for that suffering?

It is a tragedy when, as Christians, we give ourselves permission to judge and decide who is and isn’t worthy of our prayers and God’s mercy.

That does not mean praying for oppression to succeed. It means praying for the people responsible for it to encounter Jesus and themselves be transformed.

And Lana says that is already happening.

There are people connected to Iran’s structures of power who have encountered Jesus, although security considerations mean many of their stories cannot yet safely be told. Lana looks forward to the day when they can.

I can’t wait for the glory that that will bring Jesus when people see how He’s redeemed people that we would consider irredeemable.

For a ministry called Transform Iran, perhaps there is no clearer expression of what transformation means.

The vision is not simply for one section of Iranian society.

It is for Iran.

Preparing the Church in Iran for What Comes Next

No one knows exactly what comes next for Iran.

Political upheaval, regional conflict, economic pressure and internal discontent have created enormous uncertainty. Greater openness could come quickly — or repression could intensify further.

Transform Iran is therefore not building its strategy around a political prediction. It is preparing to serve Iranians whatever comes next. At the same time, Lana believes the possibility of a more open Iran demands preparation now.

We are really gearing up our preparations for an open Iran and the avalanche of need — the openness to the gospel, but also just the humanitarian crisis that will come out of that.

If the doors of Iran were suddenly to open, greater freedom could bring extraordinary opportunities for the gospel — but also enormous practical and humanitarian needs.

Transform Iran does not want to begin preparing after that moment arrives. The foundations are being built now.

Scripture is being translated. Iranian believers are being discipled. Leaders are being equipped. Media and technology are helping overcome barriers of geography, censorship and risk. Ministry is being developed in the heart languages of Iran’s diverse peoples. And the underground church is multiplying.

The same believers facing today’s pressure could become the leaders who serve and disciple a more open Iran tomorrow.

And perhaps that is the remarkable story beneath the current headlines.

At a moment when the pressure on Christians in Iran is intensifying, the church is not waiting for freedom before it grows.

Stand with the Church in Iran

Please pray for Iranian Christians facing pressure and persecution; for courage, wisdom and protection for those sharing the gospel; for seekers searching for truth; and even for those responsible for persecution to encounter the transforming love of Jesus.

Pray, too, for Transform Iran as we equip the underground church today and prepare for the opportunities — and needs — that lie ahead.

Pray with us for Iran

Help us equip and strengthen the Church in Iran

Interview originally published on: Face-to-Face with God Podcast