Iranian Christians using time of war to share the Gospel

While the war in Iran has brought significant hardships, it has also created openings for ministry for the country’s underground Church, according to a prominant ministry leader who advocates for persecuted Christians worldwide. 

“The Lord works in mysterious ways,” Todd Nettleton, vice president of Voice of the Martyrs–USA (VOM), told The Christian Post in an interview. 

“At the same time, with the Iranian government and the authorities there paying attention to the war, they’re not paying as much attention to house churches. They’re not paying as much attention to keeping Bibles out of the country or from being distributed within the country.”

VOM, an organization that supports persecuted Christians worldwide, partners with Iranian church networks, training field workers to proclaim the Gospel in regions hostile to Christians. The organization also distributes Bibles to believers facing persecution.

Even though the current conflict has also made it harder for VOM staff to travel in and out of the region, Nettleton said the organization distributed several thousand Bibles in Iran after the conflict began earlier this year. 

An underground fellowship in Iran that VOM has been in contact with was forced to flee its city as it came under attack, Nettleton said. The group of believers decided that if they had to leave, they should stay together, he added. 

“They turned it into a church camp,” the ministry leader explained. “They spent time out of town, studying God’s Word, worshiping together, encouraging each other, and really growing as a body of believers.”

While Nettleton could not provide more details about the group, he highlighted reports from field workers describing how believers in Iran are using the moment “for good and eternal purposes.”

“They are proactively talking to people about Jesus in a time when everything is in chaos, in a time when people are dying, and so people are thinking about eternity. They’re thinking about, ‘Hey, what happens after I die?’” Nettleton said.

Despite challenges posed by communication blackouts, Christians in Iran were likely already prepared to handle such conditions, Nettleton believes.

During the anti-government protests in Iran that began in December and continued into January and February, Iranian authorities restricted internet access to prevent people from organizing demonstrations.

“In that sense, I guess the believers and other Iranians were used to or prepared for that,” Nettleton said. “Because of that, many of these conversations are happening in one-on-one contexts in cafés or in a home.”

Iran ranks as the 10th worst country in the world for Christian persecution, according to watchdog Open Doors 2026 World Watch List report. In addition to raids on house churches, Christians in the region face long-term imprisonment, interrogations and hostility from families and local communities.

Converts from Islam to Christianity face the most danger. Despite those risks, Nettleton said reports from field workers point to a surprising sense of hope among Iranian Christians.

“One of the things that I heard from our Middle East team after the war started was that they were consistently hearing a sense of optimism from the believers they were talking to,” he said.

None of the Christians VOM has been in contact with have asked for help fleeing to Europe or the United States amid the conflict, Nettleton said.

“Not a single Christian had reached out to us and asked that. They were saying, ‘This is a turning point; this is a spiritual turning point for Iran. We want to be here. We want to be here to see the fruit of that and see the harvest of that,’” he said.

“So there is a sense of optimism and a sense of excitement about what Iran is going to look like after this and what could change in the midst of all this,” he continued.

Regarding how Christians and churches outside Iran can support persecuted believers, Nettleton urged continued prayer.

“I think, particularly right now, our Iranian brothers and sisters would appreciate our prayers. Obviously, prayers for protection, prayers for provision, as the economy and the effects of the war begin to impact grocery store shelves, gas supplies, and more,” he said.

“But also, I know they would ask us to pray for opportunities to be a witness. As the war goes on, as they have conversations and interactions with the people around them, pray that they’ll have opportunities to faithfully share the Gospel and to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ in those situations,” Nettleton added.