TWR broadcasts 16 programs each week over shortwave radio to encourage believers in North Korea.

At a private gathering with religious leaders, the president encouraged them to promote French-style 'laicité' and spoke about hot issues like his plans on euthanasia and the State's dialogue with Muslims.

North Korea heads the new Open Doors ranking. North African countries such as Morocco and Algeria appear on the list. “If we lose religious freedom, then all other freedoms fall”.

More than 400 influential Christian leaders and 30 church groups sent an urgent appeal the last week of December to the president and the prime minister of India.

Peacebuilding and advocacy are complementary, sometimes intertwined disciplines. After all, there can be no true peace without justice.

The YouVersion Bible app annual report shows that  around 14 million engage in the Bible every day. Prayer and peace were among the top in-app search terms.

Several people were arrested after an American woman died in the so called ‘Sarco’ capsule. The Swiss interior minister says it is not legally compliant.

At least 630 religious places have been damaged, says a report of Mission Eurasia. Russian soldiers raid churches, ban religious activities and persecute faith leaders.

‘YWAM Together 2024’ convened 4,500 folk from 110 nations in Manila. Missionaries from countries closed to the gospel 75 years ago today, are going to the least, the last and the lost in every corner of the world. 

In Estonia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Latvia and Finland, just 10% or fewer adults say religion is a priority for them.

We must be incarnational, engaging in civil society and promoting social cohesion as peacemakers while revealing the hope of the kingdom in Christ.

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In just 2 moths, police raided 4 worship services and issued 7 fines for leading and participating in “illegal missionary activity”.

The National Evangelical Council of France describes the new draft law as an “attack on humanity” as it puts pressure on “socially fragile people who feel a kind of duty to leave life”.

The polls in the most popullated country in the world show another victory for the Hindutva nationalism of Narendra Modi. “Religious freedom is important and under threat”, say evangelicals.

Members of the Russian Evangelical Alliance traveled to Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing to meet leaders of the China Christian Council.

A Sikh warrior group warned them against worship and conversions.

Tribal villagers violently attacked and expelled an old man and a couple for refusing to renounce their Christian faith.

An in-depth report of what was discussed and dreamt about at the 2024 World Without Orphans (WWO) forum in Chiang Mai, Thailand. “The church has the capacity to lead the effort in reducing vulnerability and ending orphanhood”.

There is concern that the romanticisation of “dying hand in hand” may lead to more cases of elderly couples choosing to apply for euthanasia together.

Open Doors publishes a new edition of the World Watch List identifying as many as 78 countries with high levels of hostility against Christianity in the world. North Korea and Nigeria stand out among those with “extreme persecution”.

Mission will be polycentric when the power structures shift and African, Asian, and Latin American Christians can participate in their own ways, with their own resources.

The new chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, Dominic Yeo from Singapore, spoke to Evangelical Focus. “We have to expect discipleship happening in our churches, and the next generation becoming church planters”.

On the supposition that the church members had angered spirits or gods by leaving them for Christianity, the officials also threatened to impose large fines on the Christians if other people in the village became ill or died.

An event on the Manipur violence in India organised by the World Evangelical Alliance at the UN in Geneva gets worldwide attention.

Could it be that we tend to look at persecuted Christians with a mix of concern and pity because mission for the modern church often begins from the centers of power?