The Muria story

Description

This book tells the story of the Chinese Mennonite churches of Indonesia, today called the Muria Church (Gereja Kristen Muria Indonesia, GKMI). This is the first Mennonite church outside Europe and North America to be formally organized (September 27, 1925). This book is based on original research carried out with the assistance of writers such as J. Partowiguno and J. Herlianto, with additional data from Herman Tann. This book was first published in Indonesia in 1985. This is the first English language edition of this story. A two-volume Indonesian language edition of this work under the title TUNAS YANG TUMBUH: SEJARAH GEREJA KRISTEN MURIA INDONESIA was published in Semarang, Indonesia in 2000/2002 and is available from Pustaka Muria.

First Sentence

A plant grows from a particular seed and in particular soil. The growing plant in this story is the family of churches called the Muria Christian Churches of Indonesia. The seed of the church is surely the good news of Jesus Christ recounted in the Bible. The seed is scattered among many people. It is received and lived out by particular groups of people. If the seed is the Christian gospel, then the growing plant is more than the gospel. The plant that is the church is the result of the sewing and germination of the gospel among a group of people who have a particular historical experience, culture, and language. From another perspective both the good news and the people who accept it represent seeds of the plant that becomes a church.

Description

This is a history of the Muria Christian Churches of Indonesia (GKMI), one of the three Mennonite-related synods of churches in that fourth most populous nation in the world. This church developed from the initiative of a Chinese Indonesian businessman by the name of Tee Siem Tat, who seeking someone to baptize him and his newly believing associates, found Russian Mennonite missionaries of the Dutch Mennonite Mission working in the region who agreed to baptize them. The first baptisms occurred in December 1920. The church was organized and registered with the government by 1926. After forty years as an almost exclusively Chinese Indonesian church, they called a Javanese minister from the neighboring Javanese Mennonite Church (GITJ) and soon began to share their faith with Javanese people and eventually people of other ethnic groups as well. The church now has congregations in Central, West and East Java, Bali, northern and southern Sumatra, Kalimantan (Borneo) and several smaller islands.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The Muria story: a history of the Chinese Mennonite Churches of IndonesiaPandora Press2006-01-01
• The Muria storyPandora Press2007-01-01