By Selah Hurd, Staff Writer
On Nov. 12, Wheaton students learned in chapel about the persecution of a church whose leaders were trained on campus.
Jamie Goodwin, director of the humanitarian and disaster leadership program, shared the story of her former student Anna Liu ‘22, whose husband, along with a number of other pastors, has been imprisoned on charges of “illegally using information networks,” according to the BBC’s report on a copy of what appears to be an official detention notice issued by the Public Security Bureau in Beihai, China.
Liu called the campus community to pray for “more than 20 faithful pastors and ministry co-workers — both men and women — who were taken prisoner in China over the weekend and remain in custody at undisclosed locations.”
Although four have been released on bail, “this situation continues to call for our urgent intercession,” Wheaton College President Philip Ryken said in an email to students and faculty later that day.
Wheaton College has long-standing ties to Zion Church, a leading evangelical congregation that began in Beijing and now includes around 100 house churches across China. Several key leaders there have studied at Wheaton in recent years, including Franklin Wang, who completed a Ph.D. in Old Testament studies and helped launch a local Chinese house church while on campus. Jin and Liu’s son is also a sophomore at Wheaton this year.
In an interview with The Record, Anna Liu also described Zion’s humble beginnings in 2007 as a Korean Chinese immigrant church with only about 20 members. Zion Church members, who adhere to orthodox Protestant Christian beliefs, are protected in writing under Chinese law, yet Communist authorities began harassing the church in 2018. Members and leaders were placed under surveillance, taken to police stations for questioning and eventually forced out of their main worship site in Beijing. Despite these facts, Zion Church has continued to grow, expanding to more than 40 cities with membership in the thousands.
The Rev. Sean Long, a Ph.D. student in biblical and theological studies at Wheaton, has paused his academic work to serve as interim pastor for Zion during the crisis.
“Persecution is an opportunity for us to grow and develop even more widely,” Long said. “It transcends any one country.”
Liu urged the Wheaton community to learn the details surrounding the persecution facing Zion members and Christians across the world. Long echoed this sentiment as well.
The regulations used to justify arrests, Long said, “are not law,” and actually violate the Chinese Constitution as well as international law.
“They are setting forth lower-level regulations to make it seem like they have legal ground,” he said.
Article 36 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China states that the members of the government, public organizations or individuals may not “compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion.”
“We do believe God can use persecution to purify and sometimes unify his church,” Long said. “Throughout more than 2,000 years of church history, usually when the church was persecuted, the church may be scattered, but the gospel was spread.”
Zion’s own history reflects this pattern. After the government shut down its facilities in 2018 and confiscated property, the congregation spent months practicing “walking worship.” Members listened to recorded sermons and songs on a mobile app while they walked and met in small groups.
When COVID-19 struck, this flexible model allowed the gospel to spread at a rapid pace. Zion grew even faster, which Long said was “an embarrassing development for the government.”
The church continues to operate through decentralized in-person small groups that join an online service, and many continue to come to faith despite the risks.
“We are so encouraged by new believers who got baptized after the crackdown,” Long said. “They’re ready to pay the price.”
Long described persecution as a time of great pain and yet great strengthening for the body of Christ.
“Persecution is anti-fragile resistance training that wounds the church, but when we rest in Christ and are healed by the Spirit, we become stronger to carry out God’s mission,” he said.
