Who the Persian are
Persians are the majority people of Iran, where there is no legal Persian-language church, no permitted evangelism, and no lawful path out of Islam. House-church leaders are regularly arrested and sentenced under national-security charges.
And the Persian church is widely reckoned among the fastest-growing anywhere. Estimates of believers from a Muslim background run from the high hundreds of thousands into the millions, reached largely through satellite television, Persian-language media, reported dreams, and Iranians discipling Iranians. A state that set out to enforce religion appears to have produced a generation deeply disillusioned with it.
Signs of hope
An underground house-church movement growing fast enough to be counted among the fastest anywhere, led entirely by Persians, with the full Bible in Farsi.
The honest difficulty
Arrests and long sentences for house-church leaders, and no legal way to gather, train or baptise.
What "Frontier" means
Fewer than 1 in 1,000 follow Jesus, and there is no indigenous movement large enough to grow on its own. Most people in this group will never meet a Christian.
This describes access to the Gospel, not the worth of a people or the sincerity of anyone's faith.
How to pray for the Persian
Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.
- Praise God for what He is doing among Persians against every human expectation.
- Pray for imprisoned believers and the families left behind.
- Ask God to multiply house churches faster than they can be closed.
- Pray for Persians meeting Christ through dreams — a pattern too widely reported to dismiss.
Where the Persian live
Each nation profile carries church size, unreached peoples, what is going well, what is hard, and four prayer points.
Questions people ask about the Persian
Who are the Persian people?
The Persian (also called Farsi, Iranian Persian) are a people group of roughly 50 million, living mainly in Iran. They speak Persian (Farsi) and are predominantly Islam (Shia). Officially one of the most closed peoples on earth, and one of the fastest-growing churches in the world. Population figures for people groups vary considerably by source and by how a group is defined.
Are the Persian an unreached people group?
The Persian are classified as frontier. Fewer than 1 in 1,000 follow Jesus, and there is no indigenous movement large enough to grow on its own. Most people in this group will never meet a Christian. Scripture status: Full Bible in Persian, widely available digitally.
How can I pray for the Persian?
Praise God for what He is doing among Persians against every human expectation. Pray for imprisoned believers and the families left behind. Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.