Roots of the movement
From the underground church movement that started in Iran and spread rapidly into Afghanistan and currently 22 other countries, Global Catalytic Ministries is a disciple-making nonprofit organization. We are not a missionary, church planting, or relief organization, yet people are sent, churches are planted, and needs are met in the darkest of times. GCM doesn’t just resource the move of God throughout the world, we are the underground church that loves the lost to salvation in Christ and coaches current believers to make disciples in any circumstance.
Produced by a different ministry, Sheep Among Wolves 1 & 2 are films that highlight the move of God through GCM, the underground church in Iran.
We are Disciples
WE ARE THE UNDERGROUND CHURCH.
We don’t just tell stories of the underground church, we are the underground church.
WE OFFER OUR BODIES AS LIVING SACRIFICES.
To love Him so much that nothing else matters. He is worth it all.
WE WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO REACH PEOPLE IN THE DARKEST PLACES.
To reach people no one is reaching, we’ll have to do things no one is doing.
WE ALWAYS BRING OUR BEST THROUGH THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT.
To be set apart with integrity honors God and inspires people.
WE GIVE UP THINGS WE LOVE FOR THINGS WE LOVE EVEN MORE.
It’s an honor to sacrifice for Christ.
WE ARE THE UNDERGROUND CHURCH.
We don’t just tell stories of the underground church, we are the underground church.
WE OFFER OUR BODIES AS LIVING SACRIFICES.
To love Him so much that nothing else matters. He is worth it all.
WE WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO REACH PEOPLE IN THE DARKEST PLACES.
To reach people no one is reaching, we’ll have to do things no one is doing.
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Now the east Meets the west
Do you want to hear how five thousand Afghans came to faith in Jesus through just a handful of believers during the first year after US troops departed and the Taliban reasserted its rule? Would you like to know about the imam in Saudi Arabia who is currently leading his mosque to faith in Jesus? Do you wish to understand how an unlikely new believer in Turkey was able to plant over a dozen churches across his nation in less than two years? Would you like to know how these types of stories are beginning to replicate across North America and Europe?
- Discover that the Great Commission is too important to Jesus for him to have left it up to us to work out how go about it. He tells us very clearly how it will (and won’t!) succeed.
- Be encouraged by the amazing story of the rapid growth of the Church in Iran, as its Iranian leaders have rediscovered and recommitted themselves to the principles which Jesus teaches us in Luke 10.
- Find fresh faith that the Gospel can flourish, even in an increasingly hostile Western culture. Far from destroying the Church, the forces of secularization and cancel culture can become triggers for revival.
We Make Disciples
We make disciples who obey Jesus regardless of our situation and He builds His church. In Matthew 10, he commissions the Twelve and teaches them how to win the towns and cities of Galilee. In Luke 10, he commissions the Seventy-Two and teaches them how to win the towns and cities of the rest of Israel. On both occasions, Jesus offers detailed instructions about how his followers are to become effective missionaries to their nation. In Matthew 28, when Jesus gives the Great Commission, he offers few detailed instructions because he expects his followers to obey everything that he commanded them in the previous two commissions. Together, these form the disciple-making process of Jesus, not GCM, and it holds the keys to unlock true discipleship. We help apply these principles, show how to live it out while being believers living under heavy persecution, and to love God so much that nothing else matters.
A DISCIPLE…
- knows God’s voice
- is highly obedient
- has the ability to stand alone
- can multiply
Where your money goes
Your giving goes toward developing and planting churches, along with the security of your teams in 24 countries around the world:
- BAHRAIN
- ISRAEL
- EGYPT
- ITALY
- ARGENTINA
- GERMANY
- AUSTRALIA
- LATVIA
- NORWAY
- IRAN
- IRAQI KURDISTAN
- AFGHANISTAN
- PAKISTAN
- TURKEY
- SAUDI ARABIA
- SOMALIA
- NORTHERN CYPRUS
- INDONESIA
- NETHERLANDS
- CANADA
- UNITED KINGDOM
- UNITED STATES
- OMAN
- UAE
To Die is to Gain
Stories from the Underground Church
In September of 2022, GCM lost one of our 4th generation leaders in Afghanistan. Two men came into the leader’s house and hung him. Please pray for disciple-makers around the world who put their lives on the line for the sake of the Gospel. We want to honor his sacrifice by continuing the efforts in Afghanistan and beyond.
We Asked
"Why do you give to the Underground Church?"
4.3 Star Average Rating
Be the Underground Church
We believe that the move of God we are seeing around the world will be funded by the people of God. Your donations are absolutely needed, however we want to do something new. People have been asking, “What else can I do beyond giving and praying?”. We are challenging you, and all supporters, to become a fundraiser yourself and be a part of the underground church movement.
Register below in a few simple steps. You will have your own personalized fundraising page and Text-to-Donate keyword that you can send to your pastor, coworkers, family, and friends.
“God is moving powerfully in the Middle East. I am blown away by how God is using Global Catalytic Ministries to catalyze radical Jesus movements in the most dangerous countries of the world for Christians.”
/ Jennie Allen // Founder and Visionary of IF:Gathering
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FAQ
Being a disciple-making ministry and not a relief organization, why does GCM raise money for relief efforts in Afganistan, Iran protests, and Turkey? Is that vision drift?
“Access ministry” is defined by bringing relief or meeting a need to gain access to a region or person’s life. This is a big part of our disciple-making process. When we meet someone’s need, this helps to go from a simple conversation into a spiritual one quicker and that person’s “God need” is revealed. That starts our disciple-making process. “Relief” or “access ministry” looks different for all countries and disciple-makers. In Afghanistan, it looks like rescue operations and safe houses, in Iran it looks like food and medical aid, in Turkey, it looks like Safe houses and water filters, but in the UK it can look like custom disciple-making playing cards that lead to a conversation and serving American BBQ in Dubai. Context and culture play a big role in the needs of the people we serve and the countries we operate in.
How can we tell if claims of impact and numbers are just difficult to verify or exaggerated and overblown?
We have a very extensive coaching and data-gathering process, where every disciple-maker is required to fill out a spreadsheet monthly so the coaches can track what they are doing and give some insight to how they can best engage their community. There is a very predominant ministry whose name I will keep hidden that was having trouble verifying their own personal numbers in one particular country we both operated in. They came to us to see how we verified our numbers and were so impressed they asked us to teach them. For security reasons and to get even more accurate and up-to-date information, we are rolling out a new system starting in the second quarter of 2023. It’s very hard to quantify the movement of the Spirit but we also realize the importance to be accurate with our numbers.
How does GCM define “church”?
The persecuted church can’t have large gatherings because they would be captured, tortured, and killed, so we gather in small groups of people from 8-15 in homes. Many times we need to come up with excuses for the gatherings like bringing cake or balloons just in case people are watching and asking questions. We believe the church is defined by the people not the location or size of the gathering. The early church was called the ecclesia which was defined by the people in the gathering. Many scholars believe years later in Germany, the gathering started to be called “kirche” which was defined by the building or location of the gathering. GCM loves all sizes, cultures, locations, and expressions of the body of Christ. From stadium churches, to house churches, and even online churches. If God can speak through a donkey, He can use anything for His glory. The underground church is here to help the capital “C” Church not just survive persecution but thrive and make disciples in any circumstance or situation for the glory of Jesus.
Prayer
Prayer is at the foundation for everything we do. We are deeply aware of the reality of what Jesus said in John 15:5: “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” Our goal is to have 5000 committed partners praying for GCM on a daily basis.
To date, we have 29 weekly hours covered by prayer groups representing 1402 committed prayer partners. A committed prayer partner is someone engaging with our prayer community through leading a prayer meeting, attending a regular prayer meeting, and/or in prayer communication with us.
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