Open Doors

Overview

Open Doors is an international mission organization that supports churches and believers in countries where Christians are a minority or face persecution. It began by secretly bringing Bibles into Communist countries. Today it works in Muslim-majority and socialist countries, among others. Its Korean branch, Open Doors Korea, operates as an interdenominational organization not affiliated with any denomination.

Founding and History

• 1955: The ministry is generally traced to founder Brother Andrew's delivery of Bibles to Communist Poland. Born in 1928 in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, he later became widely known through his memoir God's Smuggler, which recounts how he secretly carried Bibles behind the "Iron Curtain" (the Cold War boundary dividing the Communist bloc of Eastern Europe from the West).
• Late 1970s: Open Doors International was established. Sources differ on the year, giving either 1976 or 1979.
• 1981: Through what became known as "Project Pearl," the organization reportedly delivered one million Bibles to the underground church in China.
• 1993: The first persecution ranking was compiled as an internal document; it was made public beginning in the late 1990s.
• 1995: Open Doors Korea was founded to support the underground church in North Korea. Kim Sung-tae, professor emeritus of missiology at the Graduate School of Theology of Chongshin University, led its founding and served as its president and as chairman of its board.
• September 27, 2022: Brother Andrew died at his home in Harderwijk, the Netherlands, at the age of 94.

Major Activities

• Support for persecuted regions: Open Doors sends Bibles, Christian literature, food, and medicine to persecuted churches and assists prisoners and their families.
• World Watch List: Released every January, the list scores six areas—church life, national life, community life, family life, private life, and violence—on a scale of 0 to 100 and names the 50 highest-ranking countries. North Korea has ranked first every year since 2002 except 2022, when it ranked second. It again ranked first on the 2025 list, with a score of 98.
• Activities in Korea: Open Doors Korea has concentrated on North Korea ministry and Bible distribution. It holds an annual Korean-language event to present the persecution ranking and has run a North Korea Mission School since 2012; the school has been held every year except 2020. It also informs Korean churches about conditions in the North Korean church and asks them for intercessory prayer.

Organization

Open Doors is not a federation of member denominations. It is an international network in which national branches work together under an international headquarters. The U.S. branch describes its work as spanning more than 70 countries.

Assessment

The World Watch List is frequently cited by media and churches in Korea and abroad when reporting on the state of persecution. Because the ranking is based on assessments by field researchers and outside experts, some critics note that it may involve subjective judgment. Open Doors states that it substantially revised its research methodology around 2012 to improve objectivity and transparency.