Preface

I was a very unlikely founder of a media ministry. I knew little about the country I’ll call “Khorastan” for security reasons. I knew less about media ministry, and was not very good at being part of an organization, much less leading one. I have never considered myself to be a leader. Not only that, I was already ten years into retirement. But I sensed the irresistible call of Christ to see the gospel advance among Khorastan’s unreached millions. Isn’t that just like the Lord? He can choose the most unlikely people to do his bidding. Sometimes he deliberately chooses the foolish things of this world so there is no room for boasting.

It was 2013, and I had the privilege of serving as head of the strategy committee of a denominational mission board in the U.S. It had served in Khorastan for over 100 years. But now the number of missionaries had dwindled down to two families, and the government wasn’t issuing new visas for missionaries.

It was tempting just to take the path of least resistance: pack up and go home. But Khorastan had millions in unreached groups who had no access to the only way of salvation. It is a Muslim-majority country. The few who are Christians are among the most oppressed and persecuted in the world.

The task before our committee was to come up with a strategy of continuing to carry out Christ’s Great Commission to this nation in an era when we could no longer send conventional missionaries. We had a number of legacy missions.  We had a hospital and schools but nothing explicitly designed for making the gospel known in Khorastan which has such a massive, desperate need. The problem was we wanted to do more than just provide excellent healthcare and education for a few. We wanted to make eternal life available to many.

While these fine ministries did excellent work, they were not specifically designed to carry out the Great Commission let alone meet the demands of making Christ known in such a large country with such a large number of unreached peoples. What to do?

One day at a board meeting, one of our missionaries shared a video about what God was doing in Iran. I was amazed at how he was using a Christian satellite television ministry for Iran easily bypassing government censorship to support a powerful move of God in that country. Iran was showing the greatest rate of church growth in the world, about 17-19% in spite of severe repression and persecution from the government. Why couldn’t God do the same in the Khorastan?

Instead of being a hindrance, God was actually using the very unpopular government in Iran to accelerate the growth of the church. When the government announced a crackdown on this media ministry, the response from the average Iranian on the street was “If the government is against it, I better to check it out!” The government crackdowns backfired so spectacularly that it has been said that the Supreme Leader is worth ten Billy Grahams!

The government could ban missionaries, forbid church attendance and outlaw conversion to Christ. But they were powerless to stop the move of Almighty God, the exploding house church movement and the Christian satellite broadcasts that could easily bypass government censorship and control.

In relation to Khorastan, my thought was we should shift from working directly to working indirectly and from old school methods such as Bible correspondence schools to harnessing the power of modern communications tools such as television, the Internet and social media.

My pastor read the paper I wrote about mobilizing the Church in Khorastan, and responded by saying “What we need is a game changer, something like a satellite television channel.”

After this, I began to meet with one of the founders of the Iranian media ministry to find out how this kind of ministry works and how they started it. He helped me understand how developing the vision and sharing it would draw people in. That in turn would bring in the necessary resources. This fit in with something I already understood about leadership. I knew that the essence of leadership was articulating a vision and seeing it realized. So, I began to realize that Christian leadership was about bringing people into Jesus’ vision and seeing it realized.

He also suggested I attend their annual partner’s meeting in the Middle East in 2014 and connected me with the founder of the coalition-based media ministry for the Middle East and North Africa. These meetings were eye-opening.

At one partner’s meeting, a woman from Iran testified how her drug-addicted husband had abused her and forced her into prostitution. Understandably she became so depressed she wanted to take her own life. On the day she had decided to commit suicide, she happened to catch a glimpse of one of this ministry’s programs on television. The message of the program —the new life and hope offered in Jesus Christ —captured her attention and led her to put her faith in Christ. Her life was transformed. She left the abusive husband, divorced him and started a new life.

What I came to discover as I attended these meetings was that the power of the ministry wasn’t just the result of creating great television that could command a mass audience. Nor was it merely the impact of using powerful new media and technology. When I saw a Coptic Orthodox Archbishop celebrating communion with the Armenian Orthodox Archbishop of Tehran and an Anglican church leader along with many others from a broad spectrum of the Church of Jesus Christ, I saw why the ministry was having such an impact. I began to understand that by operating as an interdenominational, international coalition, it was realizing Jesus’ vision for his Church in relation to bringing the gospel to the world. In his Farewell Discourse (John 13-17), Jesus outlines how he wants his Church to carry out the Great Commission —together as the Body of Christ. More about this later.

I began to realize God could do in Khorastan what he was doing throughout the Middle East through a coalition-based ministry. I started to share the vision for developing a coalition-based media ministry for Khorastan. I had no idea how it would happen, but I felt compelled to share the vision with the mission board, our local church, friends, my home church, and with anyone who would listen. I presented the vision with Keynote presentations and created websites to promote the vision. In 2014 I presented the vision to a broad spectrum of national church leaders in Khorastan, who enthusiastically embraced the idea. We followed up that first consultation with a second one to agree on the values and terms of partnership for the ministry.

One day I received a prayer letter from a Muslim background evangelist who was doing evangelism and discipleship from Europe as he had been forced out of the country by death threats from radicals. He mentioned he needed a professional camera to produce his videos, and I had two professional cameras. Someone could easily film himself using one of these cameras just by using an app on an iPad. It was perfect for his small one-man studio.

Another Muslim background believer who was doing evangelism, leadership training and church planting from Europe came with me to meet this brother and take the camera to him.

On the Sunday we were there, an unusual thing happened. We went to his local European church to worship together, and they happened to have a visiting Pentecostal pastor preaching. After the worship time, he called me up for prayer and pronounced a word over me: “[This media effort] will gain momentum, the right leaders will come in and it will be fruitful.”

And this is exactly what began to happen. The ministry has grown to include representatives of a number of branches of the Church, indigenous teams in Khorastan, teams in the UK and the US, and several offices and television studios in country. Gifted leaders, such as my pastor and a senior executive leader from SAT-7 joined the effort. Other excellent leaders have joined the boards, the leadership team and the staff. Millions of people who previously had no chance of ever hearing about the only way of salvation are now hearing about Jesus and the gospel through social media and satellite television.

They are beginning to believe, to follow Christ and join underground churches. Honestly, I can only marvel that God can use even me in his mission. Believe me, you would marvel too if you knew the pitiful, ruined state I was in before Jesus Christ came into my life. You would also realize if God can use me, he can use anyone who is simply willing.