Welcome back to Ask the Woods Wednesday. We received another question and this one is related more specifically to the ministry here with the Gereja Kristen Luther Indonesia (The Indonesian Christian Lutheran Church, GKLI). Here it is: What is the Lutheran Church in Indonesia like? Are there any unique ways in which the culture has impacted the practice of Lutheran faith?
What is the Lutheran Church in Indonesia like?
This question takes some unpacking because most Indonesians who consider themselves to be Lutheran belong to a church that calls itself protestant. The largest of these church bodies is the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (The Protestant Batak Christian Church, HKBP). This church body was started by German missionaries in the 1860s. These missionaries were heavily influenced by pietism and the forced union between Reformed and Lutherans in Germany. The missionaries quickly translated Luther’s Small Catechism and held to important doctrines about Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. However, over time the Reformed/Calvinist influence strengthened, especially at the seminaries and among the denominational leadership. So the HKBP, at least officially, says that they are not Lutheran. Instead they say that the HKBP is the HKBP, but if you ask a member of the laity who still memorize Luther’s Small Catechism they will proudly declare that they are Lutheran.
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
The Church body that we work with most closely in Indonesia, the GKLI, was formed in the 1960s after a conflict within the HKBP. The founder of the GKLI, Jethro Sinaga, was insistent that this new church be explicitly identified as Lutheran instead of generically protestant. (I am told that Pastor Jethro would loudly stomp his feet if he felt that a sermon was missing the Gospel.)
The GKLI has been committed to learning and implementing explicitly Lutheran practices in the life of their Church. We are currently working on developing a hymnal with them to strengthen the proclamation of the Gospel in their worship services.
So, what is the Lutheran Church like in Indonesia? Well it depends on who you ask. It is not so much different from Europe or North America in this regard. The HKBP is a large church of about four million members. Their commitment to explicitly Lutheran teaching is not as strong as it could be, but there are many members of the laity and pastors who are firmly committed to it. Like in North America many of the congregations have grade schools and high schools associated with them. The GKLI is much smaller, about 20,000 members mostly on the Island of Sumatra. For both the HKBP and the GKLI congregational life centers around Sunday morning worship. Many members attend a weekly prayer meeting on Wednesday night. All in all the basic structure of their congregational life does not very wildly from what is familiar for an LCMS member in the USA.
Are there any unique ways in which the culture has impacted the practice of Lutheran faith?
The missionaries from the 1860s feared that traditional Batak (the tribe with whom the missionaries worked) cultural practices, collectively called adat, were too heavily influenced by their pre-Christian religion, known as Parmalim. So they sought to outlaw adat ceremonies rather than utilize them to proclaim the Gospel. Eliminating the adat was unsuccessful and today adat ceremonies run parallel to Christian ceremonies even as most Batak people reject the old Batak religion. What this means is that the unique elements of Batak culture do not impact the weekly worship life of the congregation. However, the adat still plays a strong role in family life, because the adat formalizes the social responsibilities of Batak people, most significantly who is responsible for caring for and serving whom. So, the Batak people who became Christians rejected their former gods, but continued to embrace their traditional family structure and thus still follow the adat in order to strengthen their family life.
Pastors and elders gather for a picture after worship. Pastors are in black and elders are in white.
The Christian traditions of the HKBP and the GKLI are influenced by many different European traditions. The traditional vestments and church polity come from the Dutch Reformed tradition. The worship service of the HKBP is influence by the pietism of the early missionaries. The worship service of the GKLI is influenced by Norwegian practices introduced by the founder’s time at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, MN in the 1950s, when the seminary was still part of the Norwegian Synod. These traditions were later strengthened by their partnership in the 1980s and 1990s with the Norwegian Lutheran Mission. More on their worship and music will come in a later edition of Ask the Woods Wednesday.
Their sanctuaries are nearly identical to what you would find in small town USA. A small narthex sits at the back of a large nave and the pastor and elders lead the service from the chancel. Pulpits are generally, but not always, elevated. They follow a three year lectionary which is just slightly different from what you would find in the LSB. The sermon is almost always on the Gospel and typically lasts about 45 minutes, most of which is an explanation of the text followed by application. Due to the lack of affordable wine they celebrate the Lord’s Supper about four times a year. The price of a bottle of wine in Indonesia is about the same as a weeks salary for most pastors, and depending on the location it could take days to find.
One unique aspect of congregational life in Indonesia is that they love to sing. It is not uncommon for three choirs (women’s, men’s, and youth) to offer a musical piece during worship. It is also fairly common for participants at a theological workshop to spend their break time singing Christian songs together karaoke style.