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331 testimonies matching your filters.
Iran Arrested More Christians in 2025 Than Any Year This Decade. The Church Grew Faster.
Iran (Tehran· 2025-2026
Iran's 2025 crackdown on Christians was the most aggressive in over a decade — more arrests, raids, and imprisonments than any recent year. Yet every metric of church growth surged simultaneously. Persecution scattered the church, and the scattering multiplied it.
Secret Baptisms in Tehran: Iranian House Churches Report Record Numbers Coming to Faith in 2025 and 2026
Tehran· 2025-2026
Iranian house churches report record baptism numbers through 2025-2026, with new believer enquiries exceeding anything in the underground church's history. Economic crisis, post-protest spiritual hunger, and mature digital infrastructure have converged to accelerate growth beyond what available leaders can disciple.
An Epidemic of Anxiety Is Meeting a Movement of Churches That Refuse to Look Away
Global (USA· Ongoing
As anxiety disorders reach epidemic levels worldwide, a growing movement of churches is refusing to look away — launching real programmes, training prayer teams, and providing the embodied community and spiritual care that apps and waiting lists cannot offer.
The Stigma Is Breaking: How Churches Are Becoming the Safest Place to Say 'I Am Not Okay'
Global (USA· Ongoing since 2019
A global cultural shift is transforming churches from places where mental illness was stigmatised into some of the safest spaces to say 'I am not okay', with churches now hiring counsellors, running mental health ministries, and leaders openly sharing their own struggles.
The Church Stepped Into the Suicide Crisis and Started Saving Lives
Global (USA· Ongoing since 2013
A global wave of church-based suicide prevention initiatives is emerging, combining community, faith, and trained pastoral care to fill the gap that hotlines and therapy alone cannot. Research in JAMA Psychiatry links religious attendance with significantly lower suicide risk.
The Neuroscience of Worship: Why Singing to God Does What Medication Sometimes Cannot
Global· Ongoing
Neuroscience research confirms that corporate worship activates the exact brain pathways disrupted by depression, anxiety, and trauma — reducing cortisol, increasing oxytocin, quieting the fear centre, and redirecting rumination. The church has been offering collective therapy for two thousand years.
How Celebrate Recovery Became the Largest Faith-Based Mental Health Movement on Earth
Global (founded in Lake Forest· 1991-present
Starting with 43 people at Saddleback Church in 1991, Celebrate Recovery has grown to over 35,000 churches worldwide with 5 million participants, becoming the largest faith-based mental health and recovery movement on earth.
2026: The Year Iran's Underground Church Became Impossible to Ignore
Iran· 2026
By 2026, Iran's underground church reached an estimated 1.5-3 million believers — up from fewer than 500 Muslim-background Christians in 1979. Digital house church networks, intensified persecution, and global attention make this the year the movement became impossible to ignore.
A New Sound Is Coming Out of Iran: How Farsi Worship Music Is Fuelling a Spiritual Revolution
Iran / Iranian Diaspora (Los Angeles· Ongoing since 2010s
Iranian Christians are creating a new wave of Farsi worship music that blends Persian musical tradition with Christian theology, fuelling the underground church and uniting scattered Iranian believers worldwide.
The Women Who Lead Iran's Underground Church When the Men Were Taken to Prison
Iran· Ongoing
When Iranian authorities imprison male house church leaders, women step forward to lead, teach, and multiply the underground church — making them the backbone of the fastest-growing church movement in the world.
The Iranian Diaspora Is Planting Churches Across Europe Faster Than Any Mission Agency
Europe (Germany· Ongoing since 2015
Iranian Christians who fled as refugees are now planting Farsi-speaking churches across Europe and Turkey at a pace that has stunned missiologists, revitalising the Western church with a theology born from persecution.
How Satellite TV Became the Church Iran Could Not Shut Down
Iran· Ongoing since 2000s
Farsi-language satellite TV and online broadcasts have become the unstoppable church in Iran, reaching millions who cannot attend a building, with live prayer lines connecting seekers to underground believers across the country.