Virtual Afghan church project wins innovation grant
A pioneering SAT-7 PARS social media programme is creating a “vision of a thriving Afghan Church” using virtual production technology thanks to a highly selective grant awarded to innovative projects around the world.
Church4Afghanistan was one of 12 groundbreaking projects chosen by Missio Nexus for its 2025 Innovation Fund. Project lead Reza Jafari, SAT-7 PARS Multimedia Senior Manager, said the team felt “honoured”, adding:
“We are grateful to God, first and foremost, for His provision, as well as to our Afghan and Persian team for their creativity and commitment to serve the Lord among isolated and persecuted Christian communities. Above all, we are excited to see what God will do in Afghanistan. Thank you to Missio Nexus for this award and for recognising this important and much-needed project.”
The grant will enable Church4Afghanistan to develop in ambitious new ways, chiefly using virtual production technology to bring together multiple Afghan Christians from different locations around the world into a shared virtual set.
Michael VanHuis, Missio Nexus Executive Director, said the project will “unite the Afghan Church and a global audience through virtual production technology. The project will create digital media to proclaim the gospel, using virtual production to create a sense of shared community”.
vision
As well as making it possible to present people in different locations on the same set, the virtual production technology will also enable the set itself to look authentically Afghan – as if the recording were taking place in Kabul. It is hoped that this will make Church4Afghanistan attention-grabbing for Afghan viewers and also help to dispel the misconception that Christianity is a Western religion.
“Though these believers are scattered across the diaspora, the technology allows us to give viewers a vision of what it could look like to have a thriving, Dari-speaking, culturally Afghan church within their own country,” Reza said.
Church4Afghanistan launched in 2022, initially in a very simple format with just the main presenter, Pastor Nourullah Nour, recording into his smartphone. Over three seasons, the program has expanded, adding more varied content and presenters, and building a growing audience.
The new phase of the project is expected to begin later this year with Church4Afganistan broadcasting on social media and satellite television. The program will have a magazine-style format with different segments addressing the felt needs of Afghan viewers, including psychological and educational content, as well as Biblical teaching and fellowship.
“We pray that this initiative will enable the Church in Afghanistan to grow,” Reza added. “At SAT-7, we have seen time and again that when people hear the Gospel in a culturally familiar and trusted way, even in the most difficult contexts, hearts are open to God’s love. We pray that lives will be touched through this message.”
“Positively shocked”
SAT-7 PARS installed virtual productions equipment in its studio in Limassol, Cyprus, in 2023, enabling the channel to create more dynamic and engaging sets, and bring together presenters in different locations. The use of such innovative technology is especially important for SAT-7’s Persian team because of the limitations they face in producing content for Iran and Afghanistan, often working with believers across the diaspora.
With virtual production, a traditional studio set is replaced with an extended 360-degree environment. Software that is used for building and supporting 3D environments such as video games then creates extremely realistic virtual sets that can be built, modified, and replaced quickly. The technology was installed thanks to a grant from another generous SAT-7 donor, and it is already being used for SAT-7 PARS programs Church4Kids and Mirror with plans to expand it further in 2026.
“We anticipated our viewers would be positively shocked”, says Antoine Karam, SAT-7’s Broadcast and IT Director. “This is Middle Eastern Christian media standing up and facing its competitors in the secular sector. But with a different message to theirs – the Word of the Gospel.”