The World Watch List? Sounds serious.
It is.
What is this about and what interest is this to me?
We're glad you asked!!
This list is an annual ranking provided by Open Doors, who compiles the top 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution. Open Doors is a well established, International mission that is taking on empowerment of the persecuted church worldwide. Their core purpose isn't to preach the gospel to non-believers but to help enable the gospel in places where Christians most face persecution and discrimination because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
I actually love this. Paul said, "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel..." He knew his calling, and stayed in his lane.
These folks seem to be doing the same, which is very respectable.
Their website states the following (which I have simply copied and pasted):
...they are involved in world evangelism by:
- Providing Bibles and literature, media, leadership training, socio-economic development, and through intercessory prayer
- Preparing the body of Christ living in threatened or unstable areas to face persecution and suffering
- Educating and mobilizing the body of Christ living in the free world to identify with threatened and persecuted Christians and be actively involved in assisting them
We do so because we believe that when one member suffers, all members suffer with it (1 Corinthians 12:26). All doors are open, and God enables His body to go into all the world and preach the gospel. (end copy and paste).
The reputation that this organization has appears to be solid, resulting from basic research. And the global impact very admirable. They seem to be well organized and genuine in their cause. Transparency is always a big thing with organizations such as these, and they seem to be aware of this and open to sharing info to potential supporters and activists.
One statistic that they promote on their website is that "More than 388 million Christians suffer persecution and discrimination". Other unaffiliated recent global reports on religious freedom estimate that about 1 in 7 Christians worldwide, roughly 14%, live under high levels of persecution or discrimination. That’s more than 380 million people, confirming these statistics.
Turning on the television or scrolling through social media will quickly confirm both the outpouring of the Holy Spirit across the nations right now, as well as the heightened level of persecution abroad. Isn't it interesting that above all other things, religion is one thing most persecuted abroad? Religion. Something that only improves people, lifts their spirits, encourages relationships and self improvement, etc. Why of all things in this world is this something that would be prosecutable? But it is.
As Christians, we understand that this is because our struggle is not against things of flesh and blood... our battle is a spiritual one. So true.
About that list... below is a screen shot of the top 10 most persecuted areas, based on the criteria of Open Doors.
The full list is available for download on their website (www.opendoorsus.org). They also offer other ways of getting involved to help influence the front line of battle (such as contributing financially and through active, guided prayer).
Perusing through the site, I didn't see any mention of connection to any particular denomination, but they did pay tribute to their founder, which they refer to as Brother Andrew, possibly indicating charismatic language. They do also include a statement of faith, which is the Apostles' Creed, and mostly word for word with the original, with one exception.
They did change from the original 'Holy Catholic Church' to 'Holy Christian Church'. However (a quick history lesson here), the original Apostles' Creed predates using the word 'Catholic' as being used to describe a type of church (before there was division). It had zero denominational meaning then, but rather meant Universal, or according to the whole... originally meaning "the one universal body of all believers everywhere." So these are really simple semantics here, despite their feel for the necessary edit.
The only reason that I bring these things to attention, is that I believe, as a unified Body of Christ, that we should all be comfortable with the message being promoted and the material that is being supported, as much as the ability to deliver it across formidable boundary lines. To that end, I do not have an answer as to how the material may represent the Church, but my team may work toward getting a broader perspective or at least a an educated response to this for one of our shows sometime.
Whether you support this type of mission or not, the information that they bring to the table is certainly informative and interesting. They are diligent about providing us with a roadmap for supporting these efforts in prayer, which I appreciate and admire. Their cause is unique and what they do is likely under-appreciated, in my opinion. Hopefully this helps bring some awareness their way.
If this is something you are interested in, please check out their website for more information about their mission, statistic, involvement, and ways to contact them.
Again... www.opendoorsus.org. Pray to see if this or other missions reaching beyond our own capabilities might be something that you should consider personally engaging with this year. You can also find this information on our own site, by clicking on "The Persecuted Church" in our navigation bar at the top of each web page.
May we all discover new ways for helping the Kingdom of Heaven break though here on earth in 2026!
~ Devin
Devin Osborne
The images above, the statistics, and shared text all belong to Open Doors, as the perspective owner.
