Chinese church: Taiwanese pastor detained 15 days in China while visiting unauthorized church

A Taiwanese pastor was detained for 15 days by Chinese police after visiting an unauthorized Christian church congregation in central China, the pastor of the Chinese church group said Monday.

Li Jia'en, who leads the church group in the central Chinese city of Luoyang, said Shen Zhenguo had returned to Taiwan after being released on Oct. 29. Li himself also was detained for the same length of time on the charge of holding an illegal religious gathering.

Luoyang police declined to confirm the case over the phone, and the local government propaganda official said he was unaware of the matter. ...

Last month I preached in an unregistered church in Shandong China. By the way, unregistered does not mean underground. Many churches prefer to be unregistered because of the greater freedom in biblical proclamation. I was assured by their pastor who has wide connections to foreign church organizations that it is rather safe now and detentions and arrest are more or less a thing of the past.

China is a big country and the government does not seem to have a coherent approach to unregistered churches. The Chinese church is now coming to terms with the fact that the hard days of persecution are more or less over (for) now and they need to make use of the opportunity to reach their community.

China and Taiwan are making good progress in laying aside their differences, but their conflict is far from over. From time to time China flexes its muscles and I am not too surprised that the Taiwanese pastor got detained. The Taiwanese are very active in ministering to their compatriots in China. Many years back when I lived in Taiwan our pastor relocated to China and founded 2 churches in Sichuan.