Dr Paul Allen

While the world’s attention remains locked on nuclear threats, anti-Israel rhetoric, and escalating Middle East tensions, a quiet revolution is transforming Iran, not through politics or protests but through a surge of faith that defies everything the Islamic Republic stands for. Beneath the iron grip of clerical rule and state repression, more than 2,000 Iranians are converting to Christianity every single day, embracing a faith that is banned, criminalized, and punishable by prison or worse. This spiritual explosion, invisible to international headlines but deeply real on the ground, is rewriting the very identity of a nation once seen as an unshakable stronghold of radical Islam. What’s happening is not a fleeting trend but a sustained transformation with roots going back nearly a decade. As early as 2016, Iran was recognized as the country with the fastest-growing Evangelical movement in the world. Today, mission groups and researchers estimate that well over two million Iranians h...

I think that all of us would say that the main purpose for small groups in a church is to make disciples. If we are not making disciples, then we might as well call them social clubs. The question then becomes – what is a disciple? For the sake of this discussion, I am going to use the definition that a disciple is simply someone who is taking their next steps to be more like Christ. The really tough part is how to evaluate your groups for effectiveness in discipleship making. We can make it complicated and have the wrong assumptions about spiritual growth. Here are four wrong assumptions that you can make about discipleship in groups: Everyone grows at the same pace. The worst mistake that we can make in churches is trying to microwave the growth process in our people. If we don’t get results quickly, then we feel like we have failed as leaders. Lasting growth takes time and cannot be rushed. Everyone grows in the same way. We are all wired differently as human beings, so we ...