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.
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.