Missions Catalyst

Source: Crosswalk, June 9, 2025

More than 26,000 individuals across the United States were baptized on Sunday [June 8] in what is believed to be the largest synchronized baptism event in the nation’s history. Dubbed “Baptize America,” the one-day initiative saw 26,657 individuals baptized and 6,445 salvations recorded across 1,080 baptism events hosted by 650 churches in all 50 states, according to preliminary numbers. Organizers on Sunday night said about 10 percent of churches had yet to report.

“This wasn’t just about a moment in the water; it was about launching people into a life with Jesus, surrounded by a community that can help them grow,” [said Pastor and organizer Mark Francey of Oceans Church in California]. “We witnessed countless personal transformations and families baptized together; it was a movement of hope.”

“This is just the beginning,” Francey said. “We believe Pentecost Sunday will be marked yearly by revival, renewal, and restoration across America.”

Read the full story.See also Young Evangelicals Eager for Revival in Europe (Christianity Today).

Thailand is also setting new baptism records. The Association of Free Churches in Thailand has baptized more than 30,000 Thai believers in the last six years, many in mass baptism events.  At a single event on June 12, they baptized 2,016 individuals. We looked for a good news article to share or link to and didn’t find one. Learn more about the movement as a whole in a 2024 article by Dwight Martin (Global Missiology).

Source: International Christian Concern, June 10, 2025

In a recent judgment, the Delhi High Court upheld the dismissal of a Christian army officer by the Indian Army for his refusal to participate in specific religious rituals during regimental parades.

Lieutenant Samuel Kamalesan challenged the Indian Army order dated March 3, 2021, dismissing him from the army without pension and gratuity, and sought reinstatement in service.

But the Delhi High Court upheld the dismissal by the Indian army, concluding that Kamalesan’s refusal to participate in specific religious rituals during regimental parades, citing his Christian faith, constituted insubordination and indiscipline, thereby justifying his termination.

Kamalesan stated that his regiment maintained only a mandir (Hindu temple) and a gurudwara (Sikh place of worship) for religious observances and parades, but did not have a Sarv Dharm Sthal—a place of worship accommodating all faiths—and noted that there was no Christian church on the premises.

He claimed that he regularly accompanied his troops to the mandir and gurudwara for weekly religious parades and festivals but sought exemption from entering the innermost sanctum of the temple during rituals such as puja, havan, or aarti.

Kamalesan stated that he abstained from entering the sanctum sanctorum of temples and gurudwaras during weekly regimental religious parades, aligning with his Protestant Christian beliefs that prohibit idol worship. He maintained that his participation in the outer areas of these religious sites was a sign of respect and solidarity with his troops.

However, the Army contended that participation in regimental religious activities is integral to fostering unit cohesion and morale.

Read the full story here.

Also read about an Indian Christian army officer fired for refusing to join a Sikh ceremony (Christian Today).

From another hotspot: Read about Friday’s massacre of more than 200 Christians in Nigeria (International Christian Concern).

Source: Forum 18, June 16, 2025

Individuals and religious organizations continue to be brought to court across Russia on administrative charges of unlawful “missionary activity.” These charges punish a wide range of activities, including ordinary worship meetings for fellow believers. Forum 18 found 124 such prosecutions between the beginning of January 2024 and the end of April 2025. The true number is believed to be higher.

More than 95 percent of defendants whose cases reached a verdict are known to have been found guilty during this period.

Read the full story and a longer article focused on the impact on foreigners working in the country. 

See also What It Costs to Be a Christian Uyghur in China (Voice of the Martyrs Canada, via Mission Network News).

Source: Radical, April 29. 2025

What does it mean to reach the unreached when the cost is high, the outcome is uncertain, and the people you’re trying to reach don’t want to be reached?

In the final episode of Hard to Reach: Indonesia, Steven Morales wrestles with the deeper questions of gospel mission—questions of calling, sacrifice, and faithfulness in the face of resistance. In a country where the gospel is present yet millions remain unreached, what compels believers to press on?

Watch the 13-minute episode and others in the three-video series.

See also Celebrating Breakthrough in Indonesia (Pioneers-USA). It reports that all 132 previously unreached, unengaged people groups with populations of 10,000 or more are currently “engaged.” Praise God! Engaged to reached can be a long and rocky road, though, so let’s pray.

Source: Christian Today, June 3, 2025

As one of the UK’s most ambitious Christian projects prepares to break ground, the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer has appointed a new Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ian Bullock, to help steer the initiative into its next chapter. Former Chief Executive of the Royal College of Physicians, Dr. Bullock brings with him an extensive background in leadership.

Located in Coleshill, close to Birmingham, the Eternal Wall is set to rise 160 feet into the skyline and feature a million bricks—each representing a documented answered prayer.

Read the full story. Curious? Check out their Eternal Wall FAQ video or browse a whole playlist of answered prayer videos. They hope to gather 200,000 testimonies of answered prayer. They have a ways to go.

For more videos about answered prayer, see Everyone Everywhere’s roundup of two dozen inspiring stories from around the world. Consider sharing one or more with your church or group—like the one below.

1. World: How Do We Get the Gospel to 3 Billion People?
2. Is the Great Commission Realistic in Our Modern Times?
3. USA: How Will Current Events Affect International Student Ministry?
4. Mozambique: Terror Attacks Continue, Adding Layers of Challenge for Ministry
5. Somalia: Former Addict Driven from Home for Accepting Christ
6. Ireland: Quiet Revival May Be Happening There, Too

Read or share the email edition.

Source: Alliance for the Unreached

On  June 8, 2025, we invite you to stand with us on the  International Day for the Unreached, a day to raise awareness, pray, and take action so that every person on Earth has the opportunity to hear the gospel.

With 3 billion people still waiting to hear the gospel, the Alliance for the Unreached provides free, practical resources to equip you for global missions, right where you are.

Explore resources. Some of the resources they mention in their promotions have been hard to find on their website. We will keep looking and may highlight a few later.

Source: The Christian Post, June 1, 2025

Has the final directive of Jesus become undoable? This commandment was given by Jesus in a context far different from ours. The modern world is now characterized by progressive ideals, by emphases on scientific knowledge, and by lifestyles far advanced from antiquity. So, how could this command now be fulfilled by his followers?

I believe Christian discipleship remains a fulfilling component of human existence, and learning about Jesus isn’t anachronistic. If you are truly in Christ, you know assuredly what I’m talking about. 

Nevertheless, our cultural context cannot be ignored as we seek to make disciples. Historically, Western thought and culture have gone from being developed by Christian faith, to being intellectually enriched by it, and to now believing it’s useless. In a world of scientific advancement, it’s now [considered] uncultured to be associated with a 2,000-year-old teaching.

Read the whole article and another that argues, even after 2,000 years, Jesus is as relevant as ever.

The tensions are not the same all over. A new infographic compares Christian demographics from A.D. 325 and 2025—1,700 years later (Center for the Study of Global Christianity). Once again, the Church is more global than Western.

And on that note: In April, 1,600 people from 25 countries gathered in Panama for the 2025 COMIBAM Conference. One theme of the event was the truth that the Great Commission remains a timely, urgent, and global calling (Evangelical Focus).

Source: Justin Long’s Weekly Roundup, May 30, 2025

Two political trends are slamming into American universities, and ministries to international students will feel the shock.

The first is the geopolitics of China and the USA. Chinese students, in particular, are being targeted for visa revocation. The second is the political dustup between the administration and “elite” universities over DEI, campus speech, and the like.

International students may, as a result, be sent home (or elsewhere). The implication for missiological strategies in the USA: for a long time, there has been a strategy of “reaching the nations [that] are coming here.”

It is now perhaps time for international student ministry’s turn to feel what refugee ministry already did. This trend will also affect many Christian colleges that likewise rely on international students as a significant portion of their revenue stream. All of this might be reversed in another three years—given current patterns, it might reverse in another three months. But I wouldn’t count on it. I suspect that people who have student visas are living on borrowed time, and many may end up moving to universities in other countries.

Read the rest of this commentary.

Note that an annual event for people who work with international students takes place this week (June 5-7), and it’s all online (Association of Christians Ministering Among Internationals).

Source: Mission Network News, May 20, 2025

Reports of insurgency continue in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province, despite the government’s efforts to quell it.

A string of attacks starting on March 31 and leading into April displaced 15,000 people, according to one report. For some people, it was their third or fourth displacement.

“Paolo,” a partner with MegaVoice, explains that the insurgency started small in 2017 after the discovery of massive natural gas reserves. It has now become a seven-year-old conflict that has killed more than 4,000 people and displaced 800,000.

“Anyone in front of them, they were killing. They were burning house[s],” Paolo says. “[It] was not necessarily a religion conflict. [It] was because there’s a financial possibility in the region. But definitely these affect a lot of the [religious] work, especially because many missionaries moved from there because of security issues.”

But MegaVoice’s local partners have stayed. Paolo says these people are essential for distributing audio Bibles.

The full story explains the receptivity the ministry has found for audio Bibles in the local language.

The deaths and displacement are the tip of the iceberg, it seems. The United Nations has reported that nearly 5.2 million people in Mozambique need assistance due to a “triple crisis” stemming from “armed conflict, recurring extreme weather events, and months of post-electoral unrest” (quoted by multiple sources).

News about human suffering is never hard to find, is it? ReliefWeb reports that thousands of children in Myanmar’s earthquake zone face a new school year without schools.