House hunters

At the 10th anniversary of the founding of Beijing’s Zion Church in 2017, the church’s multimedia team edited together clips from the church’s first Sunday with 50 members, its recent megachurch-style worship service, views of Beijing skyscrapers, and scenes from Jesus movies all set to a dramatic soundtrack. The video told the story of how a modest house church grew to one of the largest unregistered churches in the country: Each Sunday about 1,600 worshippers attend one of 14 services spread across Zion’s eight locations, the video’s deep-voiced narrator announced.

Zion’s size and openness is extraordinary in a country where only churches under the government-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement are legally recognized. Zion’s address is searchable online, and its pastor readily gives interviews to foreign media. When I asked for photos of the church, he sent me to a multimedia room with computers and a small video studio set up. It boggled my mind that I was inside a “house church.”

Yet the freedom Zion has enjoyed for the past decade is coming to an end. Since the government implemented new religious regulations in February, authorities have targeted Zion, pressuring its leaders and church members to stop meeting. And Zion isn’t alone: Other prominent churches as well as areas with large numbers of Christians like Henan province are also feeling the squeeze.

With salt-and-pepper hair and eyes that disappeared into crinkles each time he laughed, Pastor Ezra Jin offered me a cup of iced coffee from the church’s coffee shop before sitting down on his office couch to describe the recent government attacks on his church. On his crowded bookshelves and desk sat theology books in English, Chinese, and Korean, as Jin is one of 2 million ethnic Koreans in China.

‘If we search for a new place, it’ll be the same: The Party is in control of it all. We will be homeless.’ —Ezra Jin

Since its humble beginnings in May 2007, Zion has met little resistance from the government and grew in relative freedom. Five years ago, church leaders rented the 25,800-square-foot space they currently meet in and invested $608,000 into renovating the church.

The trouble began on April 10, when the building’s landlord, the Beijing Property Management Company, informed the church that it would install surveillance cameras in the church’s two auditoriums and its corridors to ensure fire safety and prevent overcrowding. The church agreed to have the cameras installed in the hallways, but refused to put cameras in the sanctuary.

“We can’t allow this because it is disrespectful to religion and violates individual privacy,” Jin said. Chinese church leaders fear the government will use the surveillance cameras to monitor who attends the church and what the pastor preaches, which it could later use as evidence against them. Last year, Wenzhou Christians were in an uproar when local officials forced churches to install cameras inside the churches: Some blocked police from entering the church, and others installed the cameras but either pointed them toward the ceiling or cut the power lines.

Because Zion refused to install the cameras, five days later the landlord returned to announce he would cancel the church’s lease despite a contract that allowed Zion to stay until 2023. The church consulted its lawyers and found that the landlord’s actions were illegal, as fire safety laws did not require surveillance cameras, according to the church’s statement. Chinese law also provides privacy protections for private companies and activities.

The next day, the landlord cut off the church’s water supply, shut off the elevator, and threatened to cut the electricity. In a public letter, Jin noted that the actions were not only illegal but also created a fire hazard for the church, the very thing authorities claim they want to prevent. After 24 hours, the landlord turned the water and power back on. Zion must vacate the property by August, the landlord told Jin.

“If we search for a new place, it’ll be the same: The Party is in control of it all,” Jin said. “We will be homeless.” To add to the pressure, local authorities canceled the licenses of the church’s bookstore and coffee shop.

The police also went after church members. A total of 100 church members said landlords, local police officers, neighborhood councils, or bosses approached them and told them to stop attending Zion. Police claimed the church was an illegal religious group and even a cult. “We are a traditional evangelical church,” Jin protested. “The government has known us for 11 years; they know that we worship here. If they actually thought we were a cult, we would have been shut down long ago.”

THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME the Chinese government has targeted a prominent church in Beijing. Officials blocked Shouwang Church from the building it had purchased in 2009, and after the church started renting meeting space at Old Story Restaurant, the government pressured the restaurant owners to evict the church. In 2011, the church began holding outdoor worship services, which led to the arrest of church leaders and members.

Today, Shouwang’s Pastor Jin Tianming (no relation) remains under house arrest. Each week he uploads sermons and transcripts onto the church website, which church members listen to as they gather in homes or a park for Sunday worship. The church still doesn’t have access to an indoor worship space. “Looking back at these seven years, we didn’t dare believe that this church would still be here today,” the Shouwang leaders wrote in a statement. “We believe God’s hand has been holding us these few years, never leaving His Shouwang Church.”

Churches around the country are also facing government pressure. In Henan province, an area known for its large Christian population, authorities have shut down 100 house churches this year. In Henan’s Ningling County, the local government threatened to demolish government-sanctioned churches if they refused to take down their crosses, according to Texas-based China Aid. Officials in Henan and Anhui demanded that house churches fill out a registration form that required information like the names of its members, sources of funding, and information on the property owners. Many fear the government will use this information to pressure church members to stop attending church or reject the application to prevent the house church from gathering.

Local authorities are also scrutinizing unregistered seminaries, church schools, and Christian training programs, especially those that invite foreign teachers. Zion Church leaders believe the government’s attacks violate the freedom of religion for citizens protected by the Chinese constitution. “They tell us to leave, but there’s no reason to,” Jin said. “This is our country too, we are also citizens, we also have protections.”

ON A RECENT SUNDAY AFTERNOON, about 100 young singles gathered for a worship service in Zion’s smaller auditorium as a Korean-language service met in the main sanctuary. Wearing a fuchsia button-up with a clerical collar and a gray blazer, Jin preached on the tax collector Zacchaeus’ transformative encounter with Jesus.

During the sermon, Jin recollected his own encounter with Jesus: Jin was a bright-eyed student at China’s elite Peking University when his world came crashing down on June 4, 1989. As the People’s Liberation Army opened fire on students peacefully protesting in Tiananmen Square, Jin and his classmates lost all faith in the Communist government. Around that time, Jin started regularly to attend church, where he saw a hope that he couldn’t find elsewhere, a hope that pulled him out of despair. He decided to go into ministry.

The service closed with the youthful worship team leading congregants in upbeat Chinese worship songs with the lyrics projected onto a screen behind the stage. A young woman prayed for the church to stay strong amid its current trials and for fellow believers around the country who are fighting the same fight. Ushers handed out red carnations to newcomers, and the leaders invited them to attend an after-service meeting to get to know the church.

“We are not afraid; we know that no matter where God leads, we will obey,” Jin told me. “But there are still some people among us who are weak and may falter when faced with pressure from their family. Please pray for them.”