TEHRAN, Iran (BP) — Christians in Iran are between a rock and a hard place as tensions flare internationally, but an Iranian American church planting director at The Summit Church in North Carolina wants his Southern Baptist family to keep a few things in mind.

Succinctly, the Islamic Republic, not the people of Iran, are fighting Israel. And the people of Iran themselves love Israel as well as the U.S., Central Asia Church Planting Director Nathan Rostampour told Baptist Press ahead of Saturday’s U.S. strike on Iran.

“I want them to know that people of Iran love to be friends with people of Israel and the United States,” Rostampour told Baptist Press (BP) on June 19 of the escalating war. “So we need to separate these two things. We have Islamic Republic. That is, a dictator, a regime that has taken the Iranian people as hostage for 46 years, and people don’t want them.

“The war is between Israel and the Islamic Republic.”

Rostampour, who is in touch with a broad-based but scattered Christian community in Iran and Afghanistan through his work with The Summit Church and as a trustee with the International Mission Board (IMB), spoke with Baptist Press on June 19 before the U.S. attacked sites in Iran over the weekend.

Communication with Christians has been blocked for nearly a week since the Iranian government shut down internet service there, citing security threats. The interruption directly impacts Rostampour’s ministry, which resources churches in Iran through online platforms, providing discipleship materials, worship, teaching and sermon videos and other support materials.

Iranians suffer mixed feelings, he said.

“They are happy at the same time they are sad,” he said, “because they see people are dying on both sides, in Iran and in Israel. But at the same time, they are happy because they know that the Israeli army is helping them to get rid of that regime.”

He does know that Christians have evacuated Tehran because of the war and are being housed by fellow believers elsewhere in Iran, he told Baptist Press with confidence.

“So they are hosting them in their houses,” he said. “They are loving them. They’re caring for them. They’re praying for them. And so there are a lot of prayers and care and support, even inside the country from other pastors and believers that are in safe regions, for the people that are in dangerous regions.”

While prayers are encouraging, he is discouraged that the disruption of the internet has hindered his communication with pastors in the region, interrupting his ministry.

“So that’s the hard part,” he said, “and a huge prayer request.”

The communication loss not only impacts the ministry but also the lives of believers, he said, who especially need communication support in secret churches.

“One of the most important things,” he said, “please pray for us to have the internet, to have phone connections, because we don’t want to lose this connection with our Iranian brothers and sisters. … I assume they are isolated in their houses, praying and just waiting for the Lord right now.”

Christians face severe persecution in Iran, with Open Doors International placing the country ninth on its 2025 World Watch List of the 50 places where it is most difficult for Christians, estimating 800,000 Christians live there among the majority Islamic population. Christian converts face the most severe persecution. Evangelism is illegal.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom includes seven Iranian Christians on its list of religious prisoners of conscious. Two of them were released in May 2023, although the list doesn’t indicate the total number of Christians imprisoned in Iran. Still held are:

1) Hakop Gochumyan, an Armenian Christian arrested in August 2023. He was dining at a friend’s home in Pardis during summer and early fall when authorities reportedly arrested more than 100 Christians across the country, USCIRF said, based on reports from Article 18. He is serving a 10-year prison term in Evin Prison in Tehran for promoting Christianity.

2) Gholamreza Keyvanmanesh, held in Vakilabad Prison, in Mashhad. He was arrested in June 2022 with three other Christians as they gathered in a house church in Neyshabur, according to USCIRF. He is charged with blasphemy for converting to Christianity and acting against national security by spreading propaganda against the regime and insulting the sacred.

3) Authorities arrested Mohammad Golbaz in July 2022 at his motorcycle repair shop. USCIRF reported it took place after raiding his parents’ home and confiscating a religious photo. No specific charges or the location of his incarceration were revealed, although he is being persecuted for converting to Christianity.

4) Reza Radmanesh, 65, was among four Christians arrested in July 2022 while worshiping in a house church in Neyshabur City. He was the only one transferred to Mashhad Prison. Charges were not specified, but the Christian — whose gender was not identified — is being persecuted for converting to Christianity.

5) Mojdeh Falahi was arrested when she took documents to the office of the Shiraz prosecutor for the release of a Christian friend arrested a day prior. Since her arrest in September 2024, she has been held at the Pelak-e 100 detention center, USCIRF said, under the jurisdiction of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. Charges were not specified. In July 2019, Falahi’s two older sisters were arrested in Bushehr for practicing Christianity.