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 Indonesians of Chinese descent.[1]

Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Church
Gereja Reformed Injili Indonesia
ClassificationProtestantism
TheologyCalvinism
PolityPresbyterian
LeaderStephen Tong
AssociationsWorld Reformed Fellowship
RegionIndonesia, United States, Malaysia, Australia, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Japan
Origin1989
Jakarta
Congregations47 in Indonesia, 4 in Australia, 19 in China, Malaysia, Singapore, 5 in Europe, 3 in North America, 1 in Japan
Members7000+
Official websitehttp://grii.org

http://www.recjakarta.grii.org

http://www.recjakarta.com

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

Stephen 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.
  • FIRES (Fellowship of Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Students) lead by Preacher Edward Oei.
  • STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministries International) lead by Preacher Stephen Tong as movement to reach international community in Christ.

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 that was led by Stephen Tong were held. In October 200,000 people were able to hear the Gospel. The church reaped great evangelisation work in 2012.[6]

Indonesia is populated by about 250 million people, in which the majority are muslims. Thus, evangelisation there is a long process. As Pastor Tong noted, if the GRII preaches to 1 million people per year it would take 218 years for all Indonesians to hear the Gospel. Therefore, he urged the church to not be proud of its accomplishments, 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.[8]

On December 28, 2019 at the National Reformed Evangelical Convention (NREC), an annually held convention in Indonesia, Pastor Tong brought up an issue that the church was currently experiencing: a crisis of male servants to serve as sunday school teachers and a vacant of fatherly authority in children's life because Sunday school teachers are predominantly women. He called for the young generation, especially men, to surrender themselves as servants of God to serve as sunday school teachers in their respective churches.

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 auditorium, 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, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, Hong Kong, 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

INDONESIA

JAKARTA

  • GRII Pusat
  • GRII Bintaro
  • GRII Karawaci
  • GRII Pondok Indah
  • GRII Kelapa Gading
  • GRII Buaran
  • GRII Cikarang
  • GRII Kebon Jeruk
  • GRII BSD
  • GRII Kuningan
  • GRII Depok
  • GRII Cibubut
  • GRII Bogor
  • GRII Pantai Indah Kapuk
  • MRII Gading Serpong
  • PRII Harapan Indah

JAWA & BALI

  • GRII Andhika Surabaya
  • GRII Ngagel Surabaya
  • GRII Malang
  • GRII Bandung
  • GRII Semarang
  • GRII Denpasar
  • GRII Kertajaya
  • GRII Citra Raya
  • GRII Sidoarjo
  • GRII Graha Famili
  • MRII Yokyakarta
  • MRII Solo
  • PRII Kediri

SUMATERA

  • GRII Medan
  • GRII Palembang
  • GRII Batam
  • MRII Lampung

SULAWESI & MALUKU

  • MRII Manado
  • MRII Makasar
  • PRII Ternate

KALIMANTAN

  • GRII Samarinda
  • MRII Balikpapan
  • MRII Pontianak
  • PRII Banjarmasin

NUSA TENGGARA TIMUR

  • PRII Kupang.

ASIA

  • GRII Singapore
  • MRII Singapore
  • MRII Kuala Lumpur
  • MRII KL-Klangvalley
  • MRII Kuching
  • GRII Taipei
  • GRII Guangzhou
  • GRII Shanghai
  • MRII Taichung
  • MRII Beijing
  • MRII Xiamen
  • MRII Xin Dian
  • MRII HongKong
  • PRII Fuzhou
  • PRII Tianjin
  • PRII Hangzhou
  • PRII Nanjing
  • PRII HongKong
  • PRII Tokyo

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

  • GRII Sydney
  • GRII Melbourne
  • GRII Perth
  • MRII Auckland

EUROPE

  • MRII Berlin
  • MRII Hamburg
  • MRII Münich
  • MRII Bern
  • PRII Stockholm

USA

  • MRII Los Angeles
  • MRII Boston
  • MRII Salt Lake City

See also

Annual Convention Event

  • NREC (National Reformed Evangelical Convention)
  • NRETC (National Reformed Evangelical Teen Convention)

References
  1. Ethnic Chinese in Contemporary Indonesia, p. 112
  2. "Gereja Reformed Injili Indonesia | Profil Gereja di Indonesia". Profilgereja.wordpress.com. 2015-03-19. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  3. "Pengakuan Iman Reformed Injili". grii.org. Archived from the original on 2008-09-02. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  4. "Persekutuan Reformed Injili Indonesia di Swiss". Profil-priswiss.blogspot.hu. 2006-07-11. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  5. "Gereja Reformed Injili Indonesia". reformiert-online.net. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
  6. "Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Church Reaches Evangelism Milestone of 1.5 Million People". Gospelherald.com. 2012-11-26. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  7. "Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Church Reaches Evangelism Milestone of 1.5 Million People". Gospelherald.com. 2012-11-26. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  8. "Chinese-Indonesian Evangelist Stephen Tong Preaches to 30,000 in Muslim-Majority Nation". Gospelherald.com. 2011-12-14. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  9. "Largest Chinese Church Overseas to Open in Jakarta". The Christian Post. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  10. Wright, Tom (2008-09-04). "Improbable Houses of Worship". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  11. "Mimbar Reformed Injili Indonesia Los Angeles: The Cathedral of Messiah of Jakarta Reformed Evangelical Church". Mriila.org. Archived from the original on 2013-11-10. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  12. Archived August 11, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  13. Archived July 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
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