Vietnam opens door to Franklin Graham: 1% evangelical
The government sent its Minister of Religious Affairs to North Carolina and confirmed a fourth campaign in Hanoi for 2027.
A delegation of nine Vietnamese government officials and three evangelical pastors arrived in North Carolina this week to meet with Franklin Graham, Decision, the magazine of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, reported.
The Asian country has about 100 million inhabitants. Between one and two out of every hundred identify as evangelical Christians, according to Decision.
The minister who crossed the Pacific
The delegation was led by Nguyễn Đình Khang, Minister of Ethnic and Religious Affairs. His first stop was the headquarters of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Charlotte. The next day the group traveled to North Wilkesboro to learn how Samaritan's Purse stores disaster supplies.
«No one asks you for permission to open the church on Sunday; that custom can become invisible.»
Khang presented the channels his government has opened for religious minorities: direct dialogues, letters and digital platforms where they can raise needs and recommendations. He said the authorities seek to have that right protected by law and for the policy to reach the smallest communities.
Graham acknowledged the progress with a measured phrase: "I know some local churches faced great difficulties in the past, but I have seen that things are improving" (translation by Sígueme). He added that he values the relationship built and hopes to return to the country.
At the end of the meeting there was an exchange of gifts. The minister gave Graham a painting of a rice field under the sun, the work of a believer who met him in Hanoi in 2017 and titled it "Harvest." Graham gave him a Bible with his name.
Four campaigns and 1,400 churches
The government authorized Graham to preach in Hanoi in 2017, in Ho Chi Minh City in 2023 and in Can Tho in 2024. They were the first times it allowed an evangelistic campaign with a foreign speaker outside a religious date. A fourth is scheduled for spring 2027, again in Hanoi.
In October 2025, hundreds of pastors from across the country were able to attend a meeting organized by the association. Never before had church leaders gathered like that.
Pastor Nguyễn Hữu Mạc, president of the Evangelical Church of North Vietnam, told Decision that the church is growing: more than 1,400 congregations and about 220,000 believers. The government allowed the opening of a Bible institute to train leaders, and according to Mạc, space has also opened to bring the gospel to a minority group in the northwest. He himself admits that limitations remain in some places.
What do you do with this fact
In your city, no one asks you for permission to open the church on Sunday. That custom can become invisible: we take it for granted until someone tells us that their church needed a signed authorization to meet and sing.
Ask yourself seriously. What would you do if your congregation had to process every meeting? Would you still go the same way? Would you invite your friends with the same freedom?
Scripture presents those openings as something God does, not as an achievement of a nation or an official: "And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (Acts 14:27, ESV).
This weekend, pray for the believers in Vietnam, by name if you can. And keep the fact: one or two out of every hundred in a country of 100 million. The church grows with little, and the Lord opens the door.
