Some survey questions you read with a cup of coffee. This one I read slowly.
We asked, “What’s the riskiest thing in your ministry context?” You answered in your own words, and we grouped the themes. One person could name more than one. Of the 39 of you who answered:
- Persecution and physical security: 11
- Spiritual and personal strain: 9
- Being misunderstood or seen as irrelevant: 7
- Funding: 6
- Isolation and doing it alone: 5
- Technology: 3
Split by region, the picture sharpens. Outside North America, nearly half of you named persecution and physical safety. In North America, the most common risk was spiritual and personal strain. In one place the risk is burning out. In the other, it can be losing your freedom.
The first answer isn’t a metaphor
For some of the people in this network, sharing Jesus online can mean prison. It can mean losing their family, their work, their safety. Some of our friends are doing digital and physical mission work right now knowing exactly what it could cost them.
Every conversation I have with them turns into a learning session, because there’s so much I don’t know. And we, the American church especially, have a lot to learn from the persecuted church, from all of it.
The quieter risks are real too
Spiritual strain. Being seen as irrelevant (“that’s not real ministry”). Doing it alone. These don’t make the news, but they wear people down. They’re why some faithful people stop. If those are your risks, they’re real too. Being dismissed or exhausted isn’t the same as being in danger, but either one can end a ministry. Don’t compare your weight to anyone else’s. Just don’t carry it by yourself.
What you asked us to do
In the same survey, you told us what you wish theChurch.digital would do. Two of those answers belong right here: “talk a bit more about digital wellbeing and online safeguarding,” and “establish a culture of prayer.”
So that’s where we start:
- Pray, specifically. If you serve somewhere dangerous, you don’t have to give us details. Just tell us how to pray.
- Safeguarding and wellbeing, taught by people who live it, not just people who’ve read about it.
- Don’t carry it alone. A One-to-One is a real conversation with someone who’ll listen (conversations are recorded): https://listen.thechurch.digital/
“If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” (1 Peter 4:14, BSB)
It is part of the cost of evangelism on the digital edge, and the people paying it deserve our attention.
How to pray for the persecuted digital church
You don’t need names to pray well. Try this:
- Pray for protection, for the people sharing Jesus and for the people they’re reaching.
- Pray for wisdom about what to say, what to post and what to keep offline.
- Pray for courage and joy, the same things Peter wrote about to scattered believers under pressure.
- Pray for families, who often carry the risk alongside the missionary.
Digital safeguarding basics
Some of this is simple, and it protects people:
- Never share someone’s story, photo or location without their clear permission, and assume a screenshot can travel anywhere.
- Use the most secure channel for sensitive conversations, and know which of your platforms aren’t private.
- Keep personal details out of public spaces, including your own, if your context requires it.
- Have a plan for what you’ll do if an account is compromised or someone is in danger.
What the rest of us can learn
If you serve somewhere safe, this list should change how you pray and how you complain. The friends I’ve talked with who face real danger still show up, still share Jesus, and still ask how they can help us. That’s a kind of faithfulness most of us haven’t had to learn yet.
We can learn it by listening more than we talk, by giving without needing the credit, and by remembering that the global digital church isn’t an audience for American ideas. It’s a family, and some of our family is paying a much higher price than we are.
Pray for the people being reached
The people coming to faith through this work often face the same risks the moment they say yes to Jesus, sometimes more. Pray for new believers you’ll never meet, by country if you can’t by name, and ask God to surround them with a church family.
All the results: https://thechurch.digital/townhall/results/
