The People Groups of Iran – an Important Prayer Request

Many Christians link the war in Iran to the Bible and the end times. A great majority of the believers have however forgotten, that almost 40 percent of the country’s population belongs to minorities and can be classified as unreached peoples groups (UPG). For them, one should preach ”the message of the kingdom will be preached to all the nations (ethnos; ethnic groups), before the end will come …” (Matt. 24:14).

Iran’s population is approximately 90 million, of which 14.4 million are Azeris, 9 million are Kurds. In addition to them, the larger minority groups consist of Lurs (5.4 million), Baloch (1.8 million), Arabs (1.7 million), as well as Turkmens and other Turkic peoples (about 1.5 million).

Among most of these ethnic groups, there are less than 0,03 percent evangelical Christians. In this way, they belong to the greatest mission challenges of our time. Why have we not paid more attention to these peoples in our prayers during Iran’s political conflict? We should remove the last obstacles for the second coming of Jesus Christ. 

Chinese Christians act 

Over the past 10 years, the so-called ”tentmakers” from China, alongside their work, have preached the gospel among Iran’s majority population with quite some success. Through informal channels, at least one million New Testaments and Bibles in Persian have been brought into the country.

Already in 2016, Iran’s Statistical Center reported that there was a total of 117,700 Christians in the country. According to Armenian sources, these figures have multiplied over the past ten years. They claim that the number of Christians might even have exceeded close to one million.

 This spiritual growth has however not yet significantly affected the spiritual growth among minorities in Iran. One of the main hindrances are the persecutions and serious discrimination of people, who become followers of Jesus Christ in the regions populated by Azeris, Kurds and Balochis.

Signs of light from the Caucasus

Jesus4Eurasia and Avainmedia have in recent years trained several church planters, who have successfully worked among people groups related to Persians, Turks and Caucasians in neighboring countries to Iran and Russia. As a result of this several new congregations have been planted in Dagestan, Ingushetia, and Chechnya, as well as in the regions of Kurds.

The last period of time Azeris, Kurds, and Balochis have become an important subject for prayers and even mission activities among congregations in Caucasus. Media has become an important tool in this challenging work to reach the unreached Islamic groups and change the false opinions about Christianity. Many Caucasian missionaries have even reached results by using personal evangelism as a tool. Some house groups of 20-persons been formed and become units for spiritual growth.

A minority pastor in the Turkic area said that every time a house group exceeds the limit of 20 members, the group is split into two, “because you cannot have twenty pairs of shoes outside the door …” The shoes must be left outside the place for prayers and then the risk will increase, that informers will share knowledge about Christian coming together.

The believers in Iran need all our prayers and support. What if the Lord wants the Iranian Christians to take Chinese tentmakers as an example and widen the borders of God´s kingdom to reach even the regions of the Azeris, Balochis, Kurds, Lurs and Turkmens? Prayers and goal -oriented mission for UPG`s in Afghanistan, North Afrika and Turkey are already going on. The group of people in white clothing is gathered from all the different people groups (Rev. 7:9). Lord wants even the 30 million minorities of Iran to hear the gospel of their Saviour Jesus Christ. Let us remember the suffering church in Iran and support them in finishing the Great Commission.

Rauli Lehtonen, Jesus4Eurasia