LAHORE, Pakistan: Sardar Mushtaq Gill, founder of LEAD Ministries, is calling on the international Christian community to embrace a united and Christ-centered mission that brings together three vital responsibilities: defending the Christian faith, standing with persecuted believers, and planting healthy, sustainable churches.

Gill’s appeal follows his learning of a new case involving a Christian man in Lahore who was allegedly abducted, physically assaulted, and threatened at gunpoint in an apparent attempt to force him to abandon his Christian faith, according to an account shared with Christian leaders. The reported incident has renewed Gill’s call for the global Church to stand with vulnerable believers and to respond to such situations with prayer, compassion, advocacy, and practical support.

Gill believes these responsibilities should never be treated as separate or competing priorities. Together, they represent a comprehensive expression of Christian faithfulness—protecting the truth of the Gospel, standing with those who suffer for their faith, making disciples, developing leaders, serving communities, and establishing Christian communities where the Gospel can continue to flourish.

Defending the Faith with Truth and Grace

Gill stresses that Christians have a responsibility to understand their faith and to confidently communicate and defend their beliefs. Christian faith should be rooted in Scripture, strengthened through sound teaching, and expressed with wisdom, humility, compassion, and respect for every human being.

For Gill, defending the Christian faith is not simply about responding to criticism. It is about equipping believers to understand what they believe, why they believe it, and how they can communicate their convictions faithfully and respectfully in society.

Christians should have the freedom to worship, express their beliefs, educate their children according to their convictions, maintain their communities, and participate equally in public life. At the same time, religious freedom must be understood as a universal principle that protects people of every faith as well as those who hold no religious belief.

For Gill, defending Christianity means remaining faithful to Christ while engaging others with truth, wisdom, dignity, and grace.

Standing with the Persecuted Church

A central part of Gill’s appeal is a stronger commitment to Christians facing persecution, discrimination, violence, displacement, imprisonment, threats, intimidation, or restrictions because of their faith.

The reported Lahore case has reinforced his concern that vulnerable Christians must not be left to face such circumstances alone. Gill believes the international Christian community has a responsibility to listen to affected believers, pray for them, support their families, and advocate responsibly for their safety and freedom.

International Christian leaders, churches, mission organizations, and human-rights advocates can contribute through pastoral support, humanitarian assistance, responsible documentation of alleged abuses, legal and advocacy initiatives, and engagement with relevant authorities and international institutions.

No persecuted Christian should feel forgotten or abandoned by the worldwide Christian family.

Gill emphasizes that standing with persecuted believers is fundamentally about human dignity, freedom of conscience, justice, and the peaceful right of every person to live according to his or her faith.

He believes Christian solidarity should be expressed through practical compassion and long-term commitment, rather than being limited to statements issued when an individual case receives international attention.

Planting Churches for a Sustainable Future

Gill also considers church planting a central part of Christian mission. For him, planting churches is not simply about constructing buildings or increasing the number of congregations. It is about establishing healthy, Christ-centered communities where believers can worship, study Scripture, receive discipleship, grow spiritually, develop leaders, serve their neighbors, and proclaim the Gospel.

This vision is particularly important in vulnerable communities. A strong local church can provide spiritual encouragement, fellowship, pastoral care, community service, education, and practical support while enabling Christians to maintain a faithful witness in challenging circumstances.

Gill places particular emphasis on developing indigenous Christian leadership. Local believers understand their own communities, languages, cultures, opportunities, and challenges. Their leadership is therefore essential to the long-term strength of Christian mission.

International assistance should focus on equipping local Christians rather than creating permanent dependency. Sustainable church planting requires theological education, discipleship, leadership development, local participation, accountability, prayer, and long-term partnership.

The goal is not simply to establish churches, but to develop churches that can make disciples, raise leaders, serve communities, and reproduce a healthy Christian witness for future generations.

One Mission, Not Three Separate Agendas

Gill’s central message is clear: “Defending the faith, defending the persecuted, and planting churches are not competing missions. They are part of one responsibility: ensuring that the Christian witness remains alive, free, active, and capable of reaching future generations.”

For Gill, each responsibility strengthens the others. Defending the faith equips Christians to understand and communicate what they believe. Standing with persecuted Christians demonstrates the love and solidarity of the worldwide Church toward those who suffer. Planting healthy churches creates communities where the Gospel can be proclaimed, disciples can be formed, leaders can be developed, and future generations can be equipped.

Together, these responsibilities strengthen the Church’s ability to bear faithful witness across cultures and generations.

A Call to the Global Christian Community

Gill is calling on churches, mission organizations, Christian institutions, and leaders around the world to strengthen partnerships with vulnerable Christian communities.

He encourages cooperation in theological education, leadership development, church planting, humanitarian assistance, pastoral care, religious-freedom advocacy, and youth discipleship, while ensuring that local Christian leaders remain at the heart of the mission.

For Gill, international partnership should be more than financial assistance. It should involve prayer, encouragement, knowledge-sharing, mentoring, leadership development, mutual accountability, and a long-term commitment to walking alongside local churches.

The international Christian community has an opportunity to connect churches across borders so that vulnerable communities are not isolated and local leaders have access to the resources, training, relationships, and encouragement needed to strengthen their ministries.

Such cooperation can help build a more connected global Christian family in which believers recognize that the challenges facing Christians in one part of the world matter to Christians everywhere.

Teaching and Equipping the Next Generation

Gill believes the continuation of the Christian faith also depends heavily on the next generation.

Children and young Christians must be taught Scripture, discipled in the Christian faith, encouraged to develop strong Christian character, and equipped to serve God and their communities.

Families, churches, pastors, teachers, and Christian organizations share responsibility for passing on the faith through biblical teaching, prayer, personal example, service, and spiritual formation. Church planting and discipleship must therefore work together. A church that produces mature disciples and develops local leaders is better equipped to maintain a faithful Christian witness beyond a single generation.

The future of Christian mission depends not only on establishing churches today, but also on preparing faithful Christian leaders who can serve tomorrow.

Faithfulness and Courage in Difficult Circumstances

Gill’s vision emphasizes Christian perseverance in the face of difficulty.

When believers encounter pressure, discrimination, or persecution, they need spiritual strength, pastoral care, community support, and the encouragement of fellow Christians. They also need the assurance that their faith and dignity are valued by the wider Christian family.

Gill believes Christians should respond to difficult circumstances with courage, prayer, truth, wisdom, peaceful advocacy, service, perseverance, and love.

The objective is not simply for Christianity to survive as an institution. The deeper responsibility is for Christians to remain faithful to Christ and continue His mission even when circumstances are difficult.

A Gospel-Centered Vision for the Church

Gill’s appeal ultimately goes beyond institutional survival or numerical growth.

His concern is whether Christians will remain faithful to Christ, preserve the integrity of their witness, stand with suffering believers, disciple the next generation, strengthen local churches, and continue making Christ known.

That means defending Christian truth with wisdom and grace, advocating for religious freedom, standing alongside vulnerable believers, establishing healthy churches, developing indigenous leaders, and serving communities with compassion.

The strength of the Church cannot be measured merely by the number of buildings or congregations it possesses. It is also demonstrated through its faithfulness under pressure, its compassion toward those who suffer, its commitment to truth, its investment in people, and its willingness to serve its neighbors.

A Call to Courage, Compassion, and Cooperation

Gill’s message to the international Christian community is ultimately a call to move from concern to commitment and from isolated efforts to genuine partnership.

The reported case involving the Christian man in Lahore is a sobering reminder that vulnerable believers need the attention, prayers, support, and solidarity of the wider Christian family. Gill is calling on international Christian leaders to respond thoughtfully and responsibly while supporting peaceful and lawful efforts to protect religious freedom and human dignity.

His appeal is not limited to one case or one country. It is a broader call for the global Church to recognize its shared responsibility toward believers living in vulnerable circumstances and to strengthen the structures that allow Christian communities to flourish.

Defend the faith with truth and gentleness. Stand with persecuted believers with courage and compassion. Plant healthy churches. Equip the next generation. Develop local leaders. Serve communities faithfully. And proclaim the Gospel with love, truth, humility, courage, and respect for the dignity of every person.

For Sardar Mushtaq Gill, these are not competing agendas. They are interconnected expressions of one Christian calling: to remain faithful to Jesus Christ, stand with those who suffer, strengthen His Church, serve humanity, and carry the Christian witness forward from one generation to the next.

The global Church is strongest when it stands together—united in faith, committed to truth, courageous in the face of suffering, compassionate toward those in need, and faithful to the mission of Christ.