{"id":96153,"date":"2025-11-21T21:15:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=96153"},"modified":"2025-11-21T21:18:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:18:14","slug":"christians-from-45-countries-call-for-zion-church-pastors-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=96153","title":{"rendered":"Christians from 45 Countries call for Zion Church pastor\u2019s release"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Pastor Jin “Ezra” Mingrin, seven years ago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 500 church leaders and members in 45 countries with close ties to China signed an\u00a0online prayer petition\u00a0in solidarity with the arrested leaders of China\u2019s Zion Church, including senior pastor Jin \u201cEzra\u201d Mingri.<\/p>\n

The countries represented\u2014including Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, and India\u2014are part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China\u2019s strategy to invest in infrastructure around the world, or BRICS, a bloc of emerging economies that includes China. This the first time Christians around the world have jointly spoken out for the persecuted church in China based on their countries\u2019 relationships, said Bill Drexel, a Hudson Institute fellow and son-in-law of Jin.<\/p>\n

The prayer, written and circulated by Jin\u2019s family, urges China\u2019s leaders to \u201crecognize that religious freedom strengthens rather than threatens nations,\u201d to immediately release Jin and the other church leaders, and to create \u201ca future where Christians in China can worship freely, serve their communities openly, and live out their faith without fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pray for all believers in China who face mounting pressure, restrictions, and persecutions for following You,\u201d a portion of the prayer reads. \u201cMay they know they are not forgotten, and that Christians around the world stand with them in spirit and in prayer, and that the world is bearing witness to their treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the US Senate\u00a0passed\u00a0a bipartisan resolution condemning the Chinese Communist Party for the detentions and calling for the church leaders\u2019 release. Earlier in the week, Chinese authorities released 4 Zion Church leaders on bail. At least 18 remain in detention centers in Beihai, China. They are likely to face formal sentencing next week.<\/p>\n

Most of the arrested leaders have access to lawyers, and Jin is \u201cdoing okay physically, spiritually, and mentally,\u201d according to Zion\u2019s interim lead pastor, Sean Long. On October 19, Jin\u00a0released a letter\u00a0from prison calling on the church to have courage. \u201cDon\u2019t worry about me,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI find great comfort in being able to endure this little suffering for the gospel.\u201d
\nDrexel noted that the public solidarity prayer aims to show the Chinese government that the global church\u2014not only the American church\u2014is concerned about the treatment of fellow believers. Many of the countries China hopes to lead through BRI and BRICS initiatives \u201chave much larger (and faster-growing) proportions of their populations that identify as evangelical, especially in the Global South,\u201d Drexel said. He added that church leaders in these countries plan to continue to push this issue in different ways.<\/p>\n

One signatory of the prayer petition, Daniel Bianchi of Argentina, first met Jin at a Lausanne meeting in 2017 and invited him to speak at a summit held by his organization, which advocates for the persecuted church, in Argentina the following year. But police shut down Zion Church in September 2018 and barred Jin from leaving the country.<\/p>\n

When Bianchi heard that police had arrested Jin and other church leaders last month, he immediately put out a call to prayer on a WhatsApp group of Latin American church leaders.<\/p>\n

Bianchi, who is also the Lausanne Movement\u2019s regional director for Latin America, noted that although some Christians in his region are aware of ongoing persecution in China, it remains a peripheral issue as they focus on things closer to home. At the grassroots level, he sees Latin American believers sharing news about the Zion Church arrests and praying for the Chinese church. But he has yet to see any top leaders or evangelical bodies speak out about it.<\/p>\n

Argentinian church members should use their freedoms to raise awareness of the challenges their Chinese brothers and sisters are facing and advocate for them, Bianchi said. In his view, the solidarity prayer he signed in support of Zion Church is important because the concept of\u00a0koinonia\u00a0(the body of believers) mentioned in Philippians means Christians everywhere should fellowship in suffering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just that there\u2019s one church that is happy and prosperous and another church going through adversity and suffering,\u201d Bianchi said. \u201cWe have a common voice, heart, and concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zion Church continues to meet each Sunday, with sermons broadcast over Zoom and in-person gatherings of between 5 and 50 believers in homes or restaurants. Unity has been challenging to maintain, Long noted, because the church is spread out over 40 cities in China and some pastors, like him, live overseas.<\/p>\n

Under the intense pressure of the recent arrests, he has seen conflicts among church members arise due to miscommunication, differing opinions on how to respond to the persecution, and a complicated eruption of emotions, including anger, anxiety, and fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to digest [the crackdown] together as a team, as a faith community, and not leave any space for the Devil\u2019s temptation,\u201d Long said. \u201cHow we maintain unity is key to winning this spiritual battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The church also runs a counseling center that has been helping the wives and children of imprisoned pastors deal with mental health challenges like depression and trauma.<\/p>\n

While some members have left the congregation out of fear of associating with a church in the government\u2019s cross hairs, Long said new people are joining services and getting baptized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are willing to join Zion Church amid the persecution,\u201d Long said. \u201cThey are disciples who are ready to pay the price, the cost of discipleship. It\u2019s encouraging for us ministers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long is grateful to see the global church come alongside Zion in prayer and support. On Tuesday, religious freedom groups\u00a0held\u00a0a 24-hour International Day of Prayer for Zion Church. Meanwhile, Long believes the public solidarity prayer by Jin\u2019s family encourages more people to pray for his church and strategically marshals support from countries that have a tangible impact on China\u2019s international standing. \u201cIf we can mobilize more pastors from BRI and BRICS region, I think their voices will be heard not just by God but the leaders of China,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

David Ro, executive director of Arise Asia, said some pastors were hesitant to sign the online prayer petition out of fear that it could impact their ability to travel or do ministry in China.<\/p>\n

But Ro, who lives in Bangkok, finds their views shortsighted. \u201cIf you were arrested, wouldn\u2019t you want people to stand up for you?\u201d
\nRo worked closely with Jin on\u00a0Mission China 2030, an effort Jin cofounded in 2013 to encourage Chinese Christians to engage in cross-cultural missions. He noted that Jin had prepared for an inevitable crackdown on his church by building a wide network within the global evangelical community. Doing so helped news of his arrest travel far and wide.<\/p>\n

In China, house churches are wrestling over how to respond to the government crackdown, Ro said. They want to speak out against Jin and other Zion Church leaders\u2019 arrests\u2014as Jin did for some of them when they faced persecution\u2014but at the same time, they know the Chinese government will target them if they do.<\/p>\n

As persecution increases in China, more house church members and leaders are looking to move overseas to worship freely and provide their children with a Christian education, Ro observed. Such international moves may also be an opportunity to spread the gospel where they settle. Ro pointed to Acts 8, where persecution against the church in Jerusalem led to Christians being scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is using persecution to expand the Mission China 2030 movement that Ezra helped start,\u201d Ro said.<\/p>\n

\u25cf By Christianity Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 500 church leaders and members in 45 countries with close ties to China signed an\u00a0online prayer petition\u00a0in solidarity with the arrested leaders of China\u2019s Zion Church, including senior pastor Jin \u201cEzra\u201d Mingri. The countries represented\u2014including Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, and India\u2014are part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China\u2019s strategy to invest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":95443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5772],"tags":[1426,7551,7548,1058,1124,7550,577,7549],"class_list":["post-96153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-faith","tag-china","tag-house-churches","tag-jin","tag-pastor","tag-release","tag-ro","tag-us","tag-zion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/95443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}