Call to Prayer: Churches Take Stand for Persecuted Christians

Churches across America are being called to participate in Stand with the Persecuted Sunday, April 17.

Family Research Council, Open Doors USA, the Institute for Religion and Democracy, Voice of the Martyrs and In Defense of Christians are asking believers to pray for the persecuted across the globe.

"As Christians here in America, we have an obligation to pray for and act on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted for their faith," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins commented.

"The great challenge of this generation will be to love like Jesus loved in the face of persecution and to love both the persecuted and those who persecute" David Curry, CEO, Open Doors USA said. "The Church in the West needs to embrace and be a conduit for this teaching."

Stand with the Persecuted aims to not only motivate the American church to pray but to encourage them to participate in practical ministries that support those who have faced persecution.

Churches are being asked to make time during their weekend services to show a brief, two-minute video and distribute a special bulletin insert.

"Prayer is the path to victory and we have the privilege always to stand and pray for our persecuted family,"  Steve Oelenberger of Voice of the Martyrs added. " let us take this opportunity to stand with Family Research Council and others remembering in prayer those who are crying out to Jesus for the hope He has set before all those who believe."

Ministries are also being asked to promote policies that protect persecuted Christians.

"The persecution of Christians is at an unprecedented level and we are even seeing it here in the United States, but the hostility that Christians here in America are facing pales in comparison to the mistreatment, displacement, violence, rape, crucifixions, and beheadings experienced by followers of Jesus in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Pakistan, and other parts of the Middle East and beyond," Perkins said.