China has launched a renewed effort to stop online preaching and prayer, but there is one pastor who refuses to obey those laws – Pastor Zhang Rongliang.
Although the banning of online preaching and prayer is not a new law, there is a fresh push. Many Christian media outlets are reporting that there is a new effort in China to stop all online preaching and prayer. This is in line with the persecution wave of 2019, when China instituted numerous new regulations prohibiting religious content online, including teaching Bible lessons to children and forming youth groups.
China has been increasing their ability to monitor online activity and crackdown on Christians who attempt to access the Bible, Christian teachings, or worship music through the internet, but they have not been able to stop Pastor Zhang. Pastor Zhang keeps teaching and praying anyway.
Pastor Zhang started an underground house church network in China which today has over 10 million believers. Even though he has retired from ministry, he still preaches and prays for people online every day.
In the age of digital ministry, where Christians often enjoy sermons and worship online, China is attempting to cut people like Zhang off from any access to other Christians, but thus far has been largely unsuccessful.
Article 5 of the Chinese religious laws states that only clergy members that are registered by the government can preach or provide religious education and online training through registered religious organizations’ websites, applications, forums and platforms that have an “Internet Religious Information Services License.”
Pastor Zhang is not registered with the government. They know who he is, have thrown him in prison and tortured him for his faith in the most brutal manner. The government has taken Pastor Zhang’s passport away, so he has to regularly check in with the police department where he is constantly threatened for preaching the Gospel message, but he has not stopped.
WeChat is the number one social media platform in China and preaching and praying with others is strictly off-limits, however Pastor Zhang used Wechat extensively to pray and comfort others during the Covid-19 pandemic. When China was in lockdown and people felt hopeless, Pastor Zhang gained a massive online following.
Though China has looked for ways to stop this, thus far they have been unsuccessful.
To learn more about Pastor Zhang’s personal story, click below:
