In September, we will have our ‘Voices of the Persecuted’ conference, this time in the beautiful city of Oxford, UK. After having done several editions in the US, this one will give our European friends the opportunity to join in and hear stories from the persecuted church first-hand. Of course, our friends from other continents are still very welcome!
Why do we believe it is important to listen to believers who have experienced persecution? I will give a few reasons, and if any of them speak to your heart, please consider joining us.
Listening to these stories is an expression of the Biblical mandate to share in each other’s pain. We may come from the immensely privileged position of freedom and comfort, but the reality is that this is our family and they are hurting. Listening to their stories, face to face, with respect and empathy, is a way of allowing the suffering to come close, and to share a little of the burden.
Listening to the stories of the persecuted church, will also grow our understanding of how God works. It will teach us about the power of God to sustain his children in suffering and use their sufferings to show his glory. It will broaden our understanding of what a ‘normal’ Christian life is, and help us to trust God in times of hurt, danger and confusion.
Listening to these stories will correct simplistic ideas we may have about the suffering church, such as that these people have a level of heroism we could never attain to; or that these stories always have happy endings; or that once people are freed from prison, they can go on to live happy and victorious lives as a testimony to God’s salvation.
The reality is that the persecuted church is very much like we are, and that any heroism is the result of the grace of God working despite and through their circumstances. They also fail, they face the temptation to give up, they also suffer trauma and nightmares from what they went through. They need our support and prayer precisely because they are just as human as we are.
Lastly, their stories may help us prepare our hearts for times when we will be faced with hard choices and may have to make sacrifices for the sake of Christ. What should our attitude be? How can we practice even now to live with abandon and fix our eyes on Jesus?
We hope many of you will join us to listen, to learn, to pray and to marvel at what God is doing in the world. Join us in Oxford on the 26-27 September 2026
Can we join online?
Hi there, we cannot stream this live online due to the security and safety of some of our speakers. Those whose talks we can share will be posted on our YouTube channel after
Thank you!
This is a point that gets missed a lot in Western churches. We tend to read the persecuted church as a prayer topic rather than as a source of teaching, and those are very different postures. The section about listening before speaking stayed with me. I found this article after a friend shared it in a group chat – I mostly work on the marketing side of a small software team (we build Ravvi), so I am used to talking, and this was a good reminder to do the opposite. Thanks for keeping these stories in front of people.