; ), abbreviated GRII, also Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Church, is a

Reformed Reform is beneficial change Reform may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine *''Reforme'' ("Reforms"), initial name of the ...

Christian church that is headquartered in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

, Indonesia. It was founded by

Stephen Tong Stephen Tong Tjong Eng (, born 1940) is a Chinese Indonesian Reformed pastor, evangelist, teacher and musician. He heads the Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia, which houses the megachurch Messiah Cathedral, and is the largest Christ ...

, a Chinese-born Indonesian evangelist.

History

Andrew Gih of the Evangelize China Fellowship established the Southeast Bible Seminary in

Malang Malang (; ) is a landlocked List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of East Java. It has a history dating back to the age of Singhasari, Singhasari Kingdom. It is the second most popul ...

, 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 Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...

and 2 years later become a guest lecturer in

China Evangelical Seminary China Evangelical Seminary ( or abbreviated as ) is a private non-denominational, evangelical seminary. Before moving to Taoyuan City in 2019 Fall semester, its main campus was based in Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China) for the first 49 years. H ...

. *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. *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. Stephen Tong founded the Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia in 1989 to establish a

theology-based church and congregations who are committed to evangelism. The GRII is headquartered in the Reformed Millennium Center, in Sawah Besar,

, 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. Some churches use the Westminster Confession of Faith and the

Heidelberg Catechism The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), one of the Three Forms of Unity, is a Protestant confessional document taking the form of a series of questions and answers, for use in teaching Calvinist Christian doctrine. It was published in 1563 in Heidelberg, ...

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. * 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 until 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. 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. In a four-days evangelistic outreach in December 2012 Tong preached in the Messiah Cathedral in

to 30,000 attenders. 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

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), was finished. It took 16 years to persuade the Indonesian government to issue a permit to build the church. The church building was personally designed by Tong himself. It is one of the largest Chinese Christian evangelical church facilities in the world, with of space. In the Calvin auditorium, concerts were held in the opening of the Cathedral in 2008. 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

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

, Yogyakarta,

Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...

, Denpasar,

Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...

, Medan, Batam, Samarinda, Singapore, Balikpapan, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne,

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Perth, Taipei, Taichung, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Berlin, Hamburg,

München Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, Toronto, Boston, Los Angeles, and Tokyo. The church has approximately 56 congregations.

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 Cibubur *GRII Bogor *GRII Pantai Indah Kapuk *MRII Gading Serpong *PRII Harapan Indah Java & 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 Sumatra *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-Klang Valley *MRII Kuching *GRII Taipei *GRII Guangzhou *GRII Shanghai *MRII Taichung *MRII Beijing *MRII Xiamen *MRII Xindian *MRII Hong Kong *MRII Tokyo *PRII Fuzhou *PRII Tianjin *PRII Hangzhou *PRII Nanjing *PRII Hong Kong AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND *GRII Sydney *GRII Melbourne *GRII Perth *MRII Auckland EUROPE *MRII Berlin *MRII Hamburg *MRII Munich *MRII Bern *PRII Stockholm

International organisations

Member of the World Reformed Fellowship.

References

External links

* * NREC (National Reformed Evangelical Convention
https://nrec.stemi.id
*NRETC (National Reformed Evangelical Teen Convention) https://nretc.stemi.id *BCN (Bible Camp National
http://bcn.stemi.id
{{Churches in Indonesia Calvinist denominations established in the 20th century Evangelical denominations in Asia Members of the World Reformed Fellowship Reformed denominations in Indonesia Christian organizations established in 1989