Students Pray For Persecuted Christians at The Secret Church

Every year, people all around the world tune in to a nearly six-hour live Bible study simulcast led by David Platt called The Secret Church. In DeMoss Hall at Liberty University, more than 200 students gathered together to watch the broadcast, which was streamed April 20.

The mission of Platt’s Secret Church is to focus on praying for the persecuted church and to equip Christians to be able to reach those who have not yet heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every year, a new message is presented along with an emphasis on a specific country that deals with persecution.

This year’s focus was on the people of Malaysia, and Platt’s teaching was on learning how to recognize cults and false gospels.

“The Bible doesn’t call out false teachings or teachers just for the fun of it,” Platt said. “But it is so that these false teachings would be silenced by the truth of the gospel.”

Department Chair for Global Studies Melody Harper spoke about the impact that bringing The Secret Church to Liberty has on students.

“It is an opportunity for our students to come together and to be a part of something that is happening in churches all across the world,” Harper said. “It also raises awareness of the realities that our brothers and sisters around the world are facing just to stand up for their faith while living out the gospel.”

After hearing about The Secret Church event from their global studies class with Professor Harper, senior Jonathan Arnold and sophomore Hattie Underhill did not want to miss out on any part of it.

“It is definitely worth sitting through until the end, and I’m trying to soak in as much as possible,” Arnold said. “Honestly, within the first hour of the broadcast it felt like it had only been about 10 minutes.”

For Underhill, the livestream opened her heart up to things she was not aware of before.

“Tonight has changed something inside of me,” Underhill said. “It made me realize the needs that the people of Malaysia really have there.”

As the night progressed, a special time of prayer was devoted to praying for the people of Malaysia. With heads bowed, students prayed fervently together in groups for specific prayer requests that would continuously pop up on a screen for almost 20 minutes total.

Partnering with The Secret Church, the Spread Truth organization was also promoted during the livestream to bring attention to a short film they produced called The Story, which effectively shares the story of the Bible and the gospel message. Working together, they were able to translate the film into Bahasa Malay, which is the heart language of the Malay people. The Story is also available to be watched in 19 other languages including English.

Throughout the simulcast, Platt continued to passionately pour his heart out to all who were watching, urging them to share the love of Jesus with others.

“I hope that in the process of all of this that you’ll be compelled to love the people around you enough to want to share the one true gospel and the one true God with them—no matter what it may cost you,” Platt said.

For more information about The Secret Church’s mission and how to help this cause, visit radical.net/sc18.