Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Church

The Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia (Indonesian: Gereja Reformed Injili Indonesia; Chinese: 印尼歸正福音教會), abbreviated GRII, also Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Church, is a Reformed Christian church that is headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was founded by Stephen Tong, a Chinese-born Indonesian evangelist. The church's members are mainly Indonesian Chinese.^[1]

History

Andrew Gih of the Evangelize China Fellowship established the Southeast Bible Seminary in Malang, East Java in 1952, and Tong graduated from it in 1961, establishing the church in 1989 following many years of preaching and evangelism.

Timeline

• In 1974 Tong conducts seminars in Surabaya and 2 years later become a guest lecturer in China Evangelical Seminary.
• Later in 1984 turned to Jakarta to uphold the Spirit of Reformed and Evangelical theology. Two years later in 1986 he was the co-founder of Reformed Evangelical School of Theology in Jakarta and Surabaya, and library and printing station that provides Christian Books.
• In 1989 Tong founded the Institute of Reformed Evangelical Indonesia the LRII, which become Gereja Reformed Injili Indonesia.^[2]
• 1991 - 2007 Tong serves as Rector in the Reformed Evangelical Divinity School in indonesia
• In 1996 Stephen Tong become the chairman of the church Synod and in 1998 heserved as a Rector in The Reformed Institute in Indonesia
• In 2008 Tong received an honorary degree from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA.^[2]

Stephen Tong founded the Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia in 1989 to establish a Reformed theology-based church and congregations who are committed to evangelism.

The GRII is headquartered in the Reformed Millennium Center, in Sawah Besar, Jakarta, where it has its largest church, the Messiah Cathedral. It has congregations in other major cities in Indonesia, as well as in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Australia, China, Taiwan, Germany and the USA.

Beliefs

The church subscribes to the Reformed confessions generally accepted by Reformed churches, but it has its own unique confession of faith.^[3] Some churches use the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Heidelberg Catechism.^[4]

Church organization

Tong is currently the Head of Synod of the Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia.

The Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia and its affiliated institutions have female evangelists, lecturers, and church council members. They are allowed to preach and assume authoritative roles, although they are not ordained.^[5]

• Benyamin Intan, pastor, is a member of the Board of Directors for the World Reformed Fellowship.

Recent issues

Stephen Tong has preached the Gospel to 1,5 million Indonesians in 2012. According to the International Evangelism Fellowship's adaptation of the press release by the Indonesian Evangelical Reformed Church till November 2012 the Reformed Evangelical Church's sermons have reached 1,5 millions. 700 preaching assemblies were held. In October 200,000 people were able to hear the Gospel. This assemblies was led by S. Tong. The church reaped great evangelisation work in 2012.^[6]

Indonesia has about 250 million people. Evangelisation is a long process, if the GRII preaches 1 million people per year it would take 218 years to let all Indonesians to hear the Gospel. Stephen Tong said that the church cannot be proud, because there is great distance towards the evangelisation of the entire country.^[7]

In a four-days evangelistic outreach in December 2012 Tong preached in the Messianic Cathedral in Jakarta to 30,000 attenders, in a Muslim majority country.^[8]

Worship center

Messiah Cathedral, captured from Kemayoran Street.

In 2008, a new building for the Reformed Evangelical Church in Jakarta called Reformed Millennium Center of Indonesia (RMCI), which includes The Messiah Cathedral (a 4800-seat auditorium),^[9] was finished. It took 16 years to persuade the Indonesian government to issue a permit to build the church.^[10] The church building was personally designed by Tong himself. It is one of the largest Chinese Christian evangelical church facilities in the world, with 600,000 square feet (56,000 m²) of space. In the Calvin auditorum concerts were held in the opening of the Cathedral in 2008.^[11] The building also includes a theological seminary, STT Reformed Injili Internasional, founded by the Synod of Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia in cooperation with Reformed Institute for Christianity and the 21st Century (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministries International). The seminary has a strong relation with Westminster Theological Seminary.

Other centers

There are churches in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Malang, Denpasar, Palembang, Medan, Batam, Samarinda, Singapore, Balikpapan, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Taipei, Taichung, Guang Zhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, Hongkong, Berlin, Hamburg, München, Toronto, Boston, and Los Angeles. The church has approximately 56 congregations.^[12]

International organisations

Member of the World Reformed Fellowship.^[13]

Notable churches

• GRII Swiss^[4]
• GRII Malang^[14]
• GRII Batam^[15]
• GRII Cikarang^[16]
• GRII Melbourne^[17]
• GRII Singapore^[18]
• GRII Pondok Indah^[19]

See also

• Stephen Tong
• Messiah Cathedral

References

External links

• Official website