Ezra Jin predicts 'enormous revival' in China amid crackdown; urges Xi to release 8 Zion Church leaders

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Friday, October 02, 2026

Editor's note: This article is Part 2 of a two-part series based on The Christian Post's interview with Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri of Beijing Zion Church following his release from a Chinese prison and return to the United States in July 2026. Read Part 1 here. Watch the interview here. 

WASHINGTON — Despite his newfound freedom, Pastor Ezra Jin's heart remains with the eight leaders from his Beijing Zion Church who remain detained in China, where he prays Christians will soon find relief and reap a spiritual harvest.

Speaking to The Christian Post during a recent interview at the Museum of the Bible, Jin expressed gratitude for the goodwill gesture from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who released the imprisoned pastor to the United States in July after 266 days in detention.

Jin prays the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader, who visited Washington, D.C., for three days last week, will be moved to extend the same goodwill to other Christians suffering under his government. The Zion Church leaders still imprisoned are Gao Yingjia, Wang Lin, Yin Huibin, Wang Zhong, Wang Cong, Liu Zhenbin, Lin Shucheng and Wu Qiuyu.

"I pray — and I hope others will join me in this prayer — that President Xi will stop the persecution of Christians," said Jin, whose words were translated into English by his daughter, Grace Jin Drexel. 

Growth from God

Jin, whose unregistered house church network has grown into one of the largest in China, explained how the CCP's years of attempted suppression of his church backfired and better equipped it for nationwide ministry.

Born in a rural village in northern China to an ethnically Korean family, Jin converted to Christianity after growing disillusioned with the CCP as he participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests while studying geophysics at Peking University.

After early work in a foreign company and years of ministry in state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement churches, Jin founded Zion Church in 2007 after receiving his doctorate at Fuller Theological Seminary in California.

"Initially, the plan wasn't specifically to plant a church," he said, noting he first returned from the U.S. to help out at a seminary in Beijing. When he took the opportunity to establish Zion Church, God unexpectedly caused it to grow rapidly into one of the city's largest churches, he said.

"Before the government shut us down, we had around 1,500 members coming to church every Sunday. It's perhaps one of the largest that we've seen since the Cultural Revolution," he said, adding that many of its congregants were young people.

After its growing influence drew the suspicion of the communist regime, Zion's entire congregation resolutely rejected the CCP's demand that they install 24 facial recognition cameras in their sanctuary in March 2018, which he marked as the beginning of their "very tense relationship" with state authorities.

Jin and his family moved to the U.S. that June to ease the confrontation, but he returned to China without them the next month as the pressure continued. He would not see some of them again for eight years.

Walking worship

Despite the CCP's best efforts, Zion's reach only expanded after their church building was shuttered in September 2018. Jin encouraged congregants to gather in parks or residential areas, listen to his pre-recorded sermons, share the Gospel and worship as they walked.

"At that time I called it 'Walking Worship' — it was something I invented," he said.

The technique prepared them to minister to thousands nationwide when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. As other churches with physical locations shut down and grew discouraged, Zion Church members were elated.

"What I didn't expect was that in 2020, the pandemic happened. We were the first to start worshiping on Zoom, so that actually encouraged so many of our congregation, because it allowed real-time, two-way communication, and they suddenly were able to interact with us again," he said.

Zion's numbers began to swell as Christians across China joined their Zoom services. Jin said participants grew from 300 to 5,000, which is the largest and most expensive Zoom package available; sometimes more than 1,000 pastors would join on a Sunday, seeking encouragement.

"In China, anything that had more than 3,000 people on Zoom was through Zion Church," he said.

As the pandemic waned and restrictions loosened, Jin and the other leaders were concerned to learn that many Christians in other cities were still using Zoom services as their only source of fellowship. He assembled small "visitation teams" to visit such individuals, encouraging them to hold in-person gatherings in addition to attending online services.

"That is how, over the course of three years, we established more than 100 churches across over 40 cities," he said.

The widespread Zoom-based discipleship that the CCP's 2018 clampdown had positioned them for ultimately became the basis for the "illegal use of information networks" charge under which Jin and the other Zion Church leaders were arrested last year.

'We are all one family'

Jin urged Americans to pray earnestly not just for the eight Zion Church leaders still detained, but for the hundreds of other Christians in China suffering imprisonment for the sake of the Gospel, including Pastor Gao Quanfu of the Light of Zion Church. He noted with concern that the others have reportedly been treated more harshly since his release, and that the CCP is endeavoring to fast-track their convictions.

"There is so much for American Christians to do. Although we may have different nationalities, we are one in Christ Jesus. We are all one family and members of the same body. Therefore, when one member suffers, we all actually feel the pain within us together," he said. As an example, he said many Chinese churches mourned the death of the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk last year and watched his memorial service in the middle of the night.

"So it's not only one person who suffers. There are many, many others who share the same faith as we do and who likewise serve our God. I believe the United States is currently one of the countries with the largest number of Christians in the world. As American Christians, your prayers, your standing firm, your voices and your actions are decisive."

Jin also exhorted Christians to prepare their own hearts for potential persecution wherever they are.

Responding to a question about whether CCP-style tactics by Western governments against some churches during the COVID-19 pandemic indicate rising hostility toward Christianity globally, Jin observed that the period of Western history marked by Christian cultural dominance began to weaken and end in the 20th century.

"So, in Western society, there's also a powerful social force that is actually very unfriendly toward Christianity. So the challenges facing the Christian faith are not limited to China or the Middle East; they are, in fact, global in scope. This serves as a crucial reminder for Christians in the United States to remain especially vigilant," he said, adding that Jesus warned His disciples that persecution would come.

"Christians will inevitably face such persecution. Paul said that if you enter the Kingdom of God, you must experience tribulation. This is something all Christians throughout history have had to undergo. Paul affirmed that entering the Kingdom of God involves suffering," he added.

Hundredfold harvest

Cherie Geng, who came to faith under Jin's ministry and whose husband is one of the eight Zion Church leaders still detained, told CP in a recent interview that when Jin would baptize new Christians, he would publicly ask them if they were willing to suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ, even if it cost them their lives.

Suffering is "the DNA for Chinese churches," said Geng, who framed her own family's situation and the wider persecution of Christians in China as a sacrifice out of which she hopes God will bring forth much fruit.

Jin echoed her assessment, noting the Chinese church has grown exponentially in the crucible of its persecution. He said before the 1949 Chinese Revolution under Mao Zedong, there were perhaps roughly 700,000 Protestant believers in China. He believes the number of Christians is now likely more than 80 million.

"Since the communist takeover in 1949, the Church endured repression rarely seen in history," he said. "Since the revolution to now, there has been a tremendous growth of Christianity in China. The government estimates around 35 million Christians. But if you include those who aren't registered, the conservative estimate is around 80 million Christians in China. Just think about it: a situation rarely seen in history, where a population with almost no visible Christians grew to 80 million."

According to nonprofit persecution watchdog Open Doors, which estimates the number of Christians in China at nearly 97 million, the CCP's totalitarian rule over 1.4 billion citizens is marked by escalating "dictatorial paranoia" as it fears losing its grip on the next generation.

Their crackdowns make special targets of Christian leaders dedicated to discipling the youth, and minors under 18 have been banned from entering churches or participating in religious activities since the revised Regulations on Religious Affairs took effect in 2018.

Jin said the present intensity of high-pressure persecution has been afflicting the Chinese church for about 10 years, but he doubts it can continue as it has for another decade. He hopes that as persecution relents, its spiritual fruit will increase.

"The crucial thing is what happens next," he said. "There will likely be a very strong rebound across the whole of society. Faith is something internal, and external pressure is not able to take it away. So while the outside pressure is there, people whose faith is not firm will leave; but for those who do have faith, it has a purifying and strengthening effect. But of course, once the environment changes, that force and growth will suddenly burst forth and sprout."

"So you may see fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, even a hundredfold," he added. "I believe that while I am still alive, I will see China experience another enormous revival."