Discipleship in Iran is Difficult But Not Impossible: Mission Network News

by Katey Hearth

Iran (MNN) — Iran is one of the world’s most challenging places to be a Christian. However difficult it may be, Gospel growth is not impossible.

Three years ago, a secular survey revealed that the number of Iranians identifying as Christian rose from less than one percent to 1.5 percent – roughly one million people. The percentage has only gone up since then.

“In the West, we’re busy trying to tell people about the Good News, and we meet a lot of resistance. In Iran, people are coming to Jesus readily,” Transform Iran’s Lana Silk says.

[Iran doesn’t] have a shortage of converts.

Discipleship is the real challenge. Transform Iran is committed to making disciples who pass on what they’ve learned. More about that here.

“The important challenge is [making] sure people are grafted into the body of Christ, rooted in the Word of God, nurtured, and nourished so that they can grow and reproduce because that’s God’s heart for them,” Silk says.

Iranian Christians tell new believers, “Come walk with us, meet with us every week, learn about Jesus, learn about this hope that you’ve now found,” she continues.

For approximately one year, “we take them through a curriculum of basic Christian doctrine, and then as they grow, we teach them about church planting, evangelism, [and] apologetics,” Silk says.

“Often through that process, they will have planted a church, and now we’re nurturing them as young leaders.”

“This is a partnership. I can’t be on the streets in Iran talking to the people face to face, and they (believers) can’t do what they’re doing without me enabling them, whether it’s in prayer or finance, raising awareness, getting action from governments and authorities,” Silk says.

“We are one connected body in the Lord. Let’s find our part in all of this and make it happen together.”

Originally posted on: Mission Network News.