Equipping the Saints in Indonesia - Opening Doors Through Training

by James Daley

Indonesia, with the largest Islamic population in the world, has been a great challenge for Baptist missionaries. The Independent Baptist movement in Indonesia dates back to 1970. The Bible institute was started in 1971 by another Independent Baptist missionary and me. The school was started to train workers for the young churches. The beginning was in a garage with a handful of students. Twenty-three years later, the school has its own building and over sixty students including the seminary section. The school now has branches in Medan in North Sumatra, in Bandung, in West Java, and in Central Java. In the last ten years, all the new missionaries have been given visas as teachers. Because of a change of policy concerning missionaries, no new visas are given for only missionary work. This has made the Bible Institute of even greater importance, since it is our only vehicle for new missionaries to come in.

Because of the shortage of good books in the Indonesian language and because most of our national pastors have difficulty reading English, we needed a means for them to continue their education. A good number of the former Sunday School children are now grown and are either attending University or have already graduated. The pastors have felt the need to continue improving their preaching. A few years ago, I started post-graduate studies for our national pastors. At first, I was a little dubious about this venture because many of these men had to work as well as pastor. I now have sixteen men studying, and they have proven to be very faithful in attending classes. Their desire to increase their knowledge of the Word has gone beyond my expectations. This past semester ended with twelve of these men getting higher degrees. They have worked very hard, but the results have justified their efforts. Many of the churches have grown both numerically and spiritually. The desire for improvement on the part of the pastors has created a greater interest in the Bible Institute, and we are getting more and more new students from the twelve churches and ten missions in the Jakarta area.

Our present building is composed of two stories, with offices and a library on the second floor. We plan to add a third story in the future so that we may have more dormitory space. At present, we can only take care of four live-in students.

Our program is to train soul-winners who are equipped to start Baptist churches and thus fulfill the Great Commission. Almost all our former graduates are now pastors or are working in churches throughout the island of Java. We are thrilled at what the Lord has done in the past, but even more about what He will do in the future here in Indonesia.