What Is the Opportunity?

The land of Türkiye (Turkey) has an important place in biblical history. The Apostle Paul traveled widely through the region of Asia Minor on his missionary journeys recorded in the book of Acts. The seven churches addressed by Christ in the book of Revelation were all located here. In the following centuries, many Christian churches flourished in the region.

However, today Türkiye is almost entirely Muslim. Islam is entwined with Turkish national identity, and Christians number only 0.2% of the population.¹ Evangelistic outreach has been challenging in the country throughout the era of Protestant missionary endeavor.² Life remains difficult for Christians in most parts of the country. Believers in Christ face hostility from the government, from family, and from the wider population. Being a pastor or missionary in Türkiye can be dangerous because of this opposition.

Turkish is the 18th most-spoken language in the world, spoken by 90 million people—mainly in Türkiye itself, but also including 1.3 million people in Germany. Christian churches in Türkiye are small, and congregations of first-generation believers are greatly in need of faithful biblical teaching and discipleship resources.

How Is Ligonier Meeting These Needs?

We are striving to reach and serve Turkish-speaking pastors, laypeople, and unbelievers through the following ministry outreach efforts:

Web and Social Media

We are reaching people with the gospel in Türkiye (Turkey), surrounding countries, and those scattered around the world. Ligonier’s dedicated-language website in Turkish (tr.Ligonier.org), together with our Facebook and Instagram pages, is providing ready access to trustworthy teaching. Our website contains several historic Christian creeds.

The Ligonier Statement on Christology

Confusion abounds regarding Christology, the doctrine of Christ. As the church continues to grow, it is imperative that believers learn the truths of Scripture summarized in the great confessions of faith. We produced The Word Made Flesh: The Ligonier Statement on Christology to help Christians know what the church has historically taught and to provide clarity on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Our goal is to distribute this statement worldwide, and it has already been translated into numerous languages, including Turkish.

Books

Growing interest in Reformed theology has sparked more requests for more resources from Dr. R.C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries. Our plans include translating and distributing the following titles from the Crucial Questions series:

• What Is the Church? by R.C. Sproul
• Who Is the Holy Spirit? by R.C. Sproul
• What Is Faith? by R.C. Sproul
• What Is the Gospel? by R.C. Sproul

What Is Needed?

• Translating and publishing print and digital editions of five Crucial Questions titles — $23,590 USD
• Digital outreach — $19,530 USD (annually)
• Publishing 1,000 copies of Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow — $5,990 USD

Funding needs reflect quoted estimates based on December 2023 foreign exchange rates and current translation fees.

How Do Your Gifts Help?

These are only a few of our many international projects underway. We ask you to prayerfully consider supporting these efforts through your financial gifts and prayers for the Turkish-speaking and global church. By God’s grace, your generosity enables the translation, printing, and distribution of trustworthy resources, providing countless opportunities to reach people with the truth of God’s Word. You can donate here.

Our policy is to apply gifts given toward a specific program. If we receive more contributions than can be wisely used for a given project, we apply these funds to meet other pressing needs in our outreach efforts. We are committed to stewarding all gifts wisely toward the goal of proclaiming the holiness of God to as many people as possible. Ligonier Ministries is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

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¹ See World Christian Encyclopedia.

² See https://www.evangelical-times.org/turkey-in-perspective/ as at October 23, 2023