To the Ends of the Earth: Making Disciples in Indonesia

After spending two years pursuing his Master of Divinity in church planting at Southeastern Seminary, James and his wife, Maria, eagerly stepped onto the mission field in a foreign country — where they began ministry work while completing James’s degree remotely.

One day, following an evangelism training, James and a local believer set out to share the gospel with a member of an unreached people group.

“James,” his partner asked, “when we share the gospel and this person believes, what do we do next?”

James stopped in his tracks. The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind, and so he answered truthfully: “I don’t know.”

That moment, all those years ago, inspired in James a passion for practical, tangible Great Commission ministry. It all boiled down to one question: “When the rubber meets the road, what does it look like to actually walk out the Great Commission?”

When the rubber meets the road, what does it look like to actually walk out the Great Commission?

“That experience,” James recalled, “really helped me shape how I wanted to learn and help other people grow on the field.”

During their years on the field, one of the biggest things he and Maria have learned is that Great Commission ministry must start first and foremost in partnership with the indigenous church.

By changing their own perspective and coming alongside local believers as supporters instead of leaders, James and Maria have watched the gospel advance with greater speed and clarity than they could have accomplished on their own.

Ministry in a foreign context calls for a specific mindset, one that is willing to learn and ready to adapt as each change and challenge presents itself. This mindset — that of a life-long learner — is one that James has been striving to cultivate since his studies at Southeastern almost 15 years ago.

Committing to a Life of Learning

When James and Maria arrived at Southeastern in 2012, they knew that they were headed for the mission field and that their time in seminary would be short. They weren’t wrong. But the while the Keys’ time on campus went by quickly, James’s studies provided him with essential foundations that he would later build on in ministry.

“Being a follower of Christ is committing to being a student for life,” James explained. “We’re called disciples. Being a disciple is about being a lifelong learner, and so I think the most formative or helpful mindset of being in seminary is simply setting your standard and rhythms for how you will disciple well as a follower of Christ throughout the rest of your life.”

Being a follower of Christ is committing to being a student for life. We’re called disciples.

Coming into Southeastern, James knew that he had much to learn. He had grown up in the church but had not had the opportunity to sit under strong, biblical teaching until college.

“I made most of my library online because I knew we were going overseas,” James said, recalling those intense two years of studying. “We still have all those books and the ability to go back and review all of the things we learned. You can’t really put a price tag on that.”

His classes also helped him delve into the foundations of his faith and understand it to a deeper extent.

“I was really appreciative of how Southeastern helped us make sense of the biblical narrative, theological frameworks, and historical understanding of why Baptists exist, why the church exists, and so forth,” James expressed.

He has realized that understanding this biblical, theological, and historical context is essential for the work of church planting.

“Being able to diagnose why people stand where they stand was one of the most helpful things that I’ve gleaned and gathered from my time at Southeastern,” James said. “We have all these terms — Christian, disciple, church, communion — things that we say have meaning and historical context and traditions behind them. But when you’re talking about planting churches overseas, making disciples of all nations, you really need people who can make sense of all of those things and can define them well.”

Being able to diagnose why people stand where they stand was one of the most helpful things that I’ve gleaned and gathered from my time at Southeastern.

This need is particularly relevant in the Keys’ current work: a ministry initiative which, James explained, “exists to recruit, equip, and train Indonesian Christians to reach the unreached of Indonesia.”

Mobilizing the Local Church

The history and geography of Indonesia present particularly unique opportunities for gospel ministry. Composed of over 17,000 islands, Indonesia contains hundreds of people groups and numerous religions.

“This country is the largest Muslim country in the world,” James said, “with about 200 million people who are considered unreached. Spread out amongst all those unreached people are areas where they have been reached. There are Christian majority areas and Christian majority islands, and there are churches all over the country.”

“Our hope, our goal, is to find those people who know that the Lord has called them to fulfill the Great Commission, and then help them understand what that looks like, both practically and theologically,” James explained.

One of the ways James and Maria do this is by equipping these believers with business and tent-making skills. Their ministry initiative does not possess the resources to fund each church planter that it sends — moreover, this would not be sustainable for years on end. Instead, alongside their theological education, the ministry leaders also receive the skills they need to support themselves long-term as they reach the lost.

Through this initiative, James and Maria have grown in their appreciation for the unique gifts of the local believers and churches.

James recalled a specific lightbulb moment that impressed on him the importance of investing in local believers and equipping them to use those gifts for the Kingdom.

“I walked alongside an Indonesian man who came to faith, and I was working through these foundational principles of faith with him for months — it seemed like years,” he said. “I finally brought in a local guy to help me out, and in an afternoon, this believer shared things that I felt like I had been sharing for months.”

The man James had been discipling finally understood what he had been trying to tell him all along, and from that experience, James realized: “If I stand in the way, yes, progress can happen, but it might take six years. When we let the indigenous church lead, it can take just a couple months. We want to see things that take years take only a couple months because there are billions of people that need to hear the gospel.”

We want to see things that take years take only a couple months because there are billions of people that need to hear the gospel.

The Simple Things of God

As James and Maria invest in the work of equipping Indonesian Great Commission leaders, they are reminded of the work that God continues to do in the hearts of his people.

As disciples of Christ, Christians should be constantly learning, but they also should be growing and bearing fruit as the Spirit continues to sanctify them.

“I’m becoming increasingly aware that there are two levels of growth that we really need to instill in people,” James said.

The Keys’ ministry initiative helps believers grow in their theological understanding and their ability to practice what they have learned. But leadership in ministry also requires spiritual growth and maturity.

“We want them to be practically equipped, and we want them to be righteous people,” James explained. “That work is actually far harder than the practical side of things. As we build out our team of nationals and continue training them, it becomes more and more evident that cultivating leaders who have God’s heart is the true, hard task of equipping the church.”

While the work is difficult, it is good.

“Seeing those people grow,” James said, “is one of the most amazing and gratifying things.”

“I’ve learned that following Christ, obeying the Great Commission — it’s simple. But it’s not easy,” James said. “I keep telling my team, ‘Let’s not complicate the simple things of God.’ When Jesus says, ‘Take up your cross and follow me,’ we shouldn’t explain around it and create this complicated, convoluted thing. He means what he says, and we should do that. Let’s not shortchange how difficult it is though. As we keep things simple, let’s walk through it, understanding the difficulty. And in that camaraderie and that brotherly and sisterly love, we grow as a team, we grow as disciples, and we grow as a church.”

Join us in praying for James and Maria as they seek to both grow as disciples and make disciples as they serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission. Pray for the local believers in Indonesia, that God would raise up mission-minded leaders who trust in his presence as they seek to reach the unreached in their midst. 

 

*Names have been changed for security purposes.