At the end of last year, BTJ hosted a secret meeting in mainland China between some of the top underground house church pastors in China and about 30 pastors and mission leaders from Europe, America, and Brazil. What the Chinese pastors revealed at the meeting will change the way you see modern missions today.
Although it was an extremely risky meeting, there were so many things that the Chinese leaders wanted to share directly with supporters and they were willing to risk their security to get the information into the hands of those outside China. For several days, it felt as though the meetings were protected from the police in miraculous ways that can only be explained by an answer to prayer.
Two pastors were not able to attend the meeting because, even though they had already purchased their plane tickets, they were contacted by the police telling them not to leave their home. Another underground house church pastor was contacted by the police after he arrived at the meetings and could only share for 40 minutes about his situation, before rushing out and trying to blend in with the by-passers outside the hotel.
One of the BTJ Chinese staff members was contacted by the police while they were at the meeting and had to return to their home province to answer questions. Even one of the pastors from America who attended the meeting was contacted by the police at the hotel for very dubious reasons. Due to the high risks involved in this kind of meeting in China, BTJ has not hosted a secret forum of this nature for more than 10 years, but this year presented an amazing opportunity.
“Even though there has been persecution, we have seen a great increase in the church,” Pastor Bartholomew (not his real name) said with a victorious smile on his face. “Even during the Coronavirus epidemic, our city church increased in weekly fellowship by 2,000 new members!”
Pastor Bartholomew is the pastor of an urban church that has refused to close their doors despite China’s persecution blitz. “We have really seen an increase in the number of children attending our fellowship as well,” he reported.
Pastor Bartholomew is one of the pastors who helped launch the DOVE children’s ministry in China in the early 2000s. It has now been translated into 23 languages and has been used to train over a million Sunday school teacher trainers! Each trainer commits to train at least 10 more people after they are trained. DOVE is the only known Sunday school curriculum created by the underground house church for the underground house church.
“We currently have more than 900 children in our Sunday School,” Pastor Bartholomew reports, revealing one of their most dangerous operations at the church—in China today it is illegal to share the Gospel with those under the age of 18.
Another senior pastor from one of the five most well known underground house church networks shared how the persecution is increasing. “We have seen an increase in persecution,” he said, but reported that the number of believers continues to increase.
“We now have 53 Bible schools with about 40 students in each school, as well as 500 leadership training seminars.” The pastor also went on to report that they are focusing on these students and seminar graduates to evangelize 200 cities in China for 2026!
When asked how the church in the west could pray for the persecuted church in China, one of the pastors responded, “Please pray for two things. First, pray for protection. Second, pray that God would use us to serve His kingdom.”
The meeting ended with BTJ making commitments to support more Bibles in 2026. 2026 is a special year for the Bible, because it marks 500 years since the Bible was printed in English. In 1526, William Tyndale illegally printed the Bible and smuggled it into England to distribute among hungry Christians. As a result, he was strangled at a post and his body was burned to ashes.
According to all of the underground house church leaders who attended the meeting, Bibles is one of the biggest needs during this time of persecution. To support Bibles with BTJ, go to https://backtojerusalem.com/product/bible-production/.
If you would like to join us to pray for Bibles being sent to China, as well as other nations, get your copy of BIBLES NOT BOMBS: a 30 Day Devotional, where we share some of the most impactful stories from the mission field where God’s Word changed nations.
