U.S. pastor abducted at gunpoint while delivering sermon in South Africa: “They knew him by name”

Gunmen in South Africa have abducted a U.S. missionary from his church as he was delivering a sermon, police and a colleague said Friday.

Pastor Josh Sullivan was abducted late Thursday at the Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell outside the coastal city of Gqeberha in what appeared to be a kidnapping for ransom, a colleague told AFP.

Kidnappings, including by criminal gangs that target people for whom large ransoms can be demanded, have been increasing in South Africa in recent years.

“It is alleged that while a sermon was conducted at the church, four armed and masked male suspects entered the church,” police said in a statement. “They robbed two cell phones and then took the 45-year-old male pastor with them and fled the scene.”

A spokesperson from the U.S. State Department told the BBC that they were aware of the kidnapping of an American citizen in South Africa.

Rev. Jeremy Hall, a pastor also based in the southeastern city, told AFP the abduction was probably “financially related.”

Sullivan was holding a prayer meeting with about 30 people, including his wife and six children, when the armed kidnappers entered, Hall said.

“They knew him by name,” he said. They took him at gunpoint and forced him into his car and drove off. The abandoned car was recovered about a mile from the church.

Sullivan arrived in South Africa with his family from Tennessee in November 2018, according to his personal website.

“We are looking to finish language school soon and plant a church to the Xhosa speaking people,” he writes on his site. 

Sullivan has been on the staff at Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee, since February of 2012, according to the website.

“Please pray for Josh Sullivan, missionary to South Africa,” the church wrote on its Facebook page.

Please pray for Josh Sullivan, missionary to South Africa. He was kidnapped at gun point by six men during their church service this evening.

Note: All comments other than prayers will be deleted.

Posted by Fellowship Baptist Church on Thursday, April 10, 2025

The police anti-gang unit said a Chinese national was also kidnapped Tuesday in the city, which is on the Indian Ocean and about 570 miles southeast of Johannesburg.

There were more than 17,000 kidnappings in South Africa in the 2023-2024 financial year, an 11-percent increase over the previous year, according to police statistics.

South Africa has also been plagued by escalating gun violence. Each day, 33 people are killed by guns in South Africa, according Gun Free South Africa, a nonprofit advocating for reduced gun violence.