# Indonesian Pentecostalism - the churches in Indonesia need deepening



## Pergamum (Jan 31, 2013)

Inside Indonesia - a quarterly magazine on Indonesia and its people, culture, politics, economy and environment



> On a November afternoon in 2009, I was pulled from the torrential rain into the muddy entrance of a church by Frances, a student studying English at Satya Wacana University in Salatiga, Central Java. She high-fived the person handing out news bulletins at the door, and ran into the worship hall with me in tow. As the sound of evangelical rock grew louder, I saw a giant screen hanging in the air, projecting slides of lyrics and images. Microphone stands, drums, electronic guitars, and musicians filled the space beneath. A young female worship leader was leading the congregation through gospel rock to soft ballads, with nine spandex-clad dancers to her left and three tambourine dancers spinning before her in white tulle dresses.
> 
> A full hour of singing and dancing climaxed with the resounding voices of bahasa roh, the Indonesian term for speaking in tongues. Congregants raised their hands, some embracing each other. People were murmuring or shouting unintelligible words. Their faces were distorted, their eyes tightly shut with deep frowns on their brows. This, as I later learned, was the worship style of churches that are labeled ‘pentakosta’ for their doctrines and ‘karismatik’ for their ways of worshipping.





and



> Recent figures suggest that among Indonesia’s approximately 17 million Protestants, 6 million are Pentecostals,



In this Muslim-majority nation (the largest muslim country in the world) evangelical missions expert drool because of the influx of Indonesians into the category of "Christian" - and yet most of these "Christians" belong to churches that are so unsound that they are not hearing the true Gospel. Any "gospel growth" or "church growth" or "missions success" in Indonesian is largely an illusion because deepening is mostly just not happening.

We need to deepen the foundations of the church and we are in need of theological teachers. Many of the missionaries are, themselves, promoting bad theology or syncretistic compromise in the form of hyper-contextualization.


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## Jackie Kaulitz (Feb 1, 2013)

As I read this with sadness, it just struck me that although we spread Christianity to other countries, some are just not called. So whether they are seduced by Islam or tongues, God has given them up to what appeals to them. How sad that people find "Christianity" but there is no Christ in their version. So close, yet so far. This makes me all the more eager to learn the truth, so that I may help spread the truth of Christianity and lead some away from all the error out there. There is so much error out there by design. May God give us all open eyes to discern and humble us to seek and cherish the truth above all else. What profit is there in holding proudly to a lie?


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