Strategic prayer

  • Give praise for the slow but steady growth of Turkish evangelical Christianity. Turkish and Kurdish believers probably numbered around 10 in 1960.This number rose to around 4,000 by 2010. While growth is not as rapid as many hoped for or expected, a sense of consolidation and maturation distinguishes the Church today.
  • A Church amongst Turks has at last become a visible reality, but it still only constitutes 0.005% of the population. Pray for:
  • Renewed church growth. The increases of the 1990s and early 2000s slowed in the face of spiritual, legal and cultural opposition. While this has caused an increase of prayer and focus on discipleship, the evangelism and church planting impetus of the past generation must be kept alive.
  • The Association of Protestant Churches of Turkey (TeK), founded in 1989. This body links most evangelical fellowships and leaders and provides them with advocacy and support, increasingly important in this time of heightened pressure.
  • Strong relationships within churches. Close family ties and the security this confers often make family rejection after conversion traumatic. Pray for fellowships that have had to become surrogate families. Backsliding is common, compromise in marrying non-Christians frequent and relationship breakdowns between believers disheartening. Pray also for families to see and accept a new life in Christ as something good and separate from simply conversion to a foreign religion.
  • Indigenous yet biblical faith expressions. Doctrinal extremes, legalism, personality clashes and disunity are all potential stumbling blocks. Denominationalism has not been an issue but could become so. Pray that Turkish leaders may be discerning and wise in developing sound relationships bolstered by both wholesome biblical applications and structures designed for holistic, reproducible growth.