Christian author and pastor David Platt was unable to stream a live teaching session from an undisclosed location in the Middle East on Wednesday. He spent time in the Word of God with a gathering of about 400 people from 50 nations around the world, examining the call to be a follower of Christ.

David Platt is known for his passionate desire to help spread God’s glory to unreached people groups. He hosts “Secret Church,” a six-hour simulcast gathering to learn Biblical truths, modeled after the persecuted church in areas around the world where believers are not able to meet openly. He has taught in such countries before, where Christians and Biblical resources are scarce. Platt had hoped to host a live simulcast teaching on discipleship with believers in a “predominantly unreached, difficult to reach, dangerous to reach area of the world,” last Wednesday. While the worship gathering was not able to be broadcast due to technical difficulties, he was still very encouraged by his time with the Middle Eastern believers that were present.

Platt taught from the book of Matthew, examining each passage where Jesus tells His disciples to follow Him. During his time there, he says he was “humbled, challenged, convicted, and encouraged by people I met and stories I heard about the mission of God in action, the faithfulness of God in suffering, and the need for laborers throughout the Middle East who will live and die for the spread of Christ’s love and the glory of Christ’s name.” Platt held the seminar in the Middle East because he believes that Christians can get a fuller picture of what Jesus meant when He said, “Follow Me,” there, a place where it is not culturally acceptable to be a Christian. He has written a related book called “Follow Me,” which addresses the problem of nominal Christianity – the danger of people calling themselves Christians but having no real, intimate relationship with Jesus.

Although LifeWay Christian Stores was unable to stream the simulcast at that time, Platt says that his heart was “engulfed in praying for those who would listen in on what was going on in that room via simulcast around the world. I was praying that God would use that time to lead people in various simulcast locations to decide to follow Christ truly and biblically for the first time in their lives. I was praying that God would mobilize His church through His Word to make disciples wherever God has put them.” The simulcast has been rescheduled to Wednesday night at 6 p.m. EST, and those who have not registered for the free simulcast are still able to do so online.

“I was compelled to pray specifically that during that simulcast, God might through His Word in His Spirit raise up men, women, and students across simulcast locations to move to place like the Middle East for the spread of the gospel among the unreached peoples of the world,” said Platt. The worship gathering in the Middle East ended with believers in the heavily persecuted country praying specifically for us – “they prayed that all of us, along with all of them, would lock arms together as disciples of Jesus making disciples of Jesus wherever God calls us, however God leads us, no matter what it costs us. May it be so,” Platt said.