Praying for Vietnam

Where the church stands in Vietnam

Christians are roughly one in twelve Vietnamese, most of them Catholic. The most striking growth has been among the Hmong of the northern mountains, where a movement that began in the late 1980s — largely through Christian radio broadcasts — now numbers in the hundreds of thousands.

The state requires churches to register under its 2018 Law on Belief and Religion, and unregistered congregations, particularly among Hmong and Central Highlands minority believers, face fines, harassment and pressure to recant. The ethnic Vietnamese majority in the countryside remains largely unreached.

Signs of hope

The Hmong movement, and a growing urban church among young Vietnamese.

The honest difficulty

Tight state control of religion and persecution of minority believers in the mountains and Central Highlands.

What "Less-reached" means

There is a church, but it is small relative to the population, or the Christian identity is far more widespread than active faith. Much of the nation can still live a whole life without meeting a follower of Jesus.

In Vietnam the majority religious context is Folk religion and Buddhism, with a large non-religious share. The largest population still considered without meaningful Gospel access is the The Kinh (ethnic Vietnamese) majority in rural areas, and many northern minority peoples.

How to pray for Vietnam

Prayer is not a substitute for going; it is how going begins. Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.

• Praise God for the Hmong movement to Christ.
• Pray for minority believers facing pressure to renounce their faith.
• Ask God to reach rural Vietnamese communities with little access to the Gospel.
• Pray for wisdom for churches navigating registration and state control.