Ezra Jin, founder and pastor of Zion Church, and more than 30 of his associates and church staff were detained in China on Oct. 10. They have been charged but not yet sentenced for their alleged crimes. Time is running out before sentencing occurs, after which it will be much harder to obtain their releases.

Zion Church is a large underground house church with congregations in 40 cities across China. According to Pastor Ezra Jin’s daughter and son-in-law, Grace Jin Drexel and Bill Drexel, the Chinese Communist Party’s seizure of Zion Church’s meeting space in 2018 pushed the church “to develop the online hybrid model that proved so successful” during China’s severe COVID-19 lockdown and in the years since. At times, prayer groups led by Pastor Jin have reached 10,000 people.