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  Religious witnessing in an Indonesian setting

  (Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, 1992-02) Lumowa, Ventje

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  This study addresses the issue of religious propagation in Indonesia. Traditionally, leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church regard public meetings as the best method of evangelism. But the political and sociological condition of Indonesia leads to the restriction of religious propagation. According to law, religious propagation should not be done in places where people have adhered to other religions. This poses the problem of how to evangelize Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to seek for an acceptable way of fulfilling Christ's commission to Indonesian Christians. The procedure for this study followed these steps: case presentation, analysis, biblical. interpretation, and pastoral action. Part I. Description The case presented shows a pastor's frustration. He could conduct public evangelistic effort only in the village where his church was located. The church members depended on the pastor for evangelism activities. He The case poses the problem of how might the people of Indonesia be evangelized. Part II. Analysis The analysis shows that Indonesians value their unity above everything else. Political unity was achieved as the whole nation struggled for independence from a common colonial rures. Religions and religious issues tend to be a dividing factor that endangers unity. Under Pancasila, the nation's basic state philosophy, every citizen has an equal right to embrace any of the recognized religions. But religious tolerance has been officially interpreted to mean that adherents of one religion shall not propagate their religious teachings among those already possessing a religious faith. Interfaith dialogue is highly recommended down to the individual level. Part III. Intrepretation The Bible indicates that Christ's great commission to the church is to bring the gospel to all peoples, including the various ethnic groups of Indonesia. A dignified method must be selected suited to time and local conditions. The early church flourished even in time of persecution because of every member's involvement in evangelism. As Christ's commission is to make disciples, evangelism involves post-baptismal "teaching" or training, so that every convert is a disciple that can "disciple" others. This method, following the principle of multiplication, will produce a natural, informal, spontaneous, and continuous kind of evangelism. Small group meetings in member's homes are conducive to personal evangelism and training purposes. Part IV. Action To produce disciples that can disciple, necessitates emphasis on post-baptismal teaching or training, which is best accomplished by an on-the-job training. The pastor should be the church's initiator of the training program at the loca1 church level. There are two action plans suggested for focal church pastors to initiate. In plan A, every trained member trains others. Plan B involves training leaders to organize members into small groups. There are two action plans suggested for the higher level of church organization: 1. Training workers to train. 2. Training ministerial students to train.

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  A Biblical understanding of death and the hereafter in Korean perspectives : a case study

  (Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, 1992-03) Kim, Pyung Ahn

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  This dissertation is a pastoral-theological case study from a Korean perspective. The story of the case describes a lady with terminal lung cancer living in Korea during the early 1980s. The main pastoral-theological issue in the case is the clash between different views about death and the hereafter: the Catholic and the shamanistic view of immortality of the soul; and the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) view of death for the believer as a temporary sleep, and conditional immortality. The purpose of the study is two-fold: (1) to give guidance to the pastor in helping a dying person to gain the Biblical truth about death, resurrection, and immortality, and (2) to identify effective ways to minister to the terminally-ill person. The study involves the following procedures: (1)description, (2) analysis, (3) Biblical-theological interpretation, and (4) pastoral action. Part I includes two chapters which present the case and give an introduction to the research. The introduction explains the pastoral-theological issues, methodology, delimitation of the study, presuppositions, descriptive outline, and significance of the study. Part II presents three chapters devoted to probing the socio-cultural, physio-psychological, and religious dynamics of the case. The Korean value system is remarkably practical and secular. Concepts of death are as complicated and tangled as the divers religious and cultural influences. Death and life are inseparable. Human life is highly regarded, but death is considered to be fearful. Death is the concern of the whole community in Korea. Shamanistic concepts of immortality of the soul underlie Korean philosophy about life and death. Part III discusses in four chapters the pastoral theological issue in the case story through a Biblical-theological interpretation. The Bible speaks of death as a sleep and the grave as the place of the dead. After physical death there is no activity, no plan, no thinking. The resurrection hope is prevalent in the OT and NT, and the resurrection to life for the just takes place at the second Advent of Jesus Christ. In the Bible, the eternal life of man is conditional on repentance and acceptance of the gospel message. Eternal life is the free gift of God, which will be given to believers when Jesus comes again. The Christian approach to the health ministry for dying persons includes hospice care and pastoral care. The ministry should be wholistic in order to care for the whole person; mental, physical, social, and spiritual. The ministry also needs to be a "blended" approach wherein pastors, physicians, and other helping persons work together for the benefit of the ill person. Part IV describes the result of the study with summary, conclusions, and applications to ministry. The dying person can be comforted through understanding the Biblical meaning of death, resurrection, and eternal life. Pastoral ministry for the dying person, based on the hope of the resurrection and eternal life, is suggested in detail.

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