They Prayed for Persecution. Then the Churches Burned. Now Indonesia Wants to Send 30,000 Missionaries.

NEW YORK —

In the 1980s, an Indonesian named Bambang Budijanto stood translating for Brother Andrew, the founder of Open Doors, as he spoke to Indonesian pastors. According to Budijanto's account, reported Oct. 31 by Christian Daily International, Brother Andrew asked them to pray for something few pastors ever request: that God would send persecution, so the Church would be united.

See where this is ›

What came in the years that followed was waves of anti-Christian violence, including the Muslim-Christian conflict in the Maluku Islands. Budijanto says more than 500 churches were burned and many people died. “But then the church united,” he said.

From burned churches to a prayer movement

A national prayer movement began in 1991 with seven coordinators. Budijanto says 534 cities now keep up 24-hour prayer in what participants call “towers of prayer,” and that the model has spread to Myanmar and other countries.

See where this is ›

Budijanto, general secretary of the Asia Evangelical Alliance, now chairs ALUSIA, the Indonesian Alliance for World Mission. Formed in 2023 after he invited about 14 sending organizations to join, it aims to see 30,000 Indonesian missionaries serving other nations by 2033. There were about 800 in 2020, more than half of them serving Indonesian communities abroad.

“We owe other nations,” Budijanto said, noting that Indonesia received the Gospel from others and now has about 30 million Christians.

“I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.”

Romans 1:14, KJV

A revival remembered on Timor

Budijanto traces today's church to a line of revivals, starting with the 1965 revival at Soe, on the island of Timor, which Mel Tari described in his books Like a Mighty Wind and The Gentle Breeze of Jesus. A revival among the Dayak people of Borneo followed in the 1970s, then a spread to major cities in the late 1970s and 1980s. Jakarta had more than 5,000 prayer groups by 1984.

The story reaches back much further. The first missionaries arrived in the Maluku Islands in 1534, and the first of them died about a year later. The 500th anniversary comes in 2034, a year after ALUSIA's target date.

'It's not easy, but it's doable'

An earlier effort fell short. A mission initiative formed in 1992 tried to send two missionaries to China and did not last. “I think we were not mature enough to work together,” Budijanto said.

Thirty thousand is about 0.1 percent of Indonesia's Christians, and South Korea has sent about the same number. At least four other Indonesian networks have adopted the figure. ALUSIA calls it an aspiration and measures progress another way: it wants at least 20 percent of churches to be “missional,” meaning they meet four of five marks: giving to global mission, sending, praying for it, building capacity and working with others. About 60 percent of churches give to global mission, about 30 percent preach on it, and about 16 percent pray for it.

“It's not easy, but it's doable,” Budijanto said.

Coming to America

More than 500 Indonesian congregations meet outside Indonesia, over half of them in the United States. Budijanto calls them the “low-hanging fruit.” He met diaspora pastors in Queens, New York, and in Philadelphia in October. Two California cities are planned for November, a Dallas stop has been requested, and Sydney and Melbourne are planned for next year. The first global conference for Indonesian missionaries is planned for the first week of October 2027, with the location undecided.

What we don't know yet: The account of the prayer and what followed is Budijanto's own telling. The report gives no year for the prayer meeting beyond the 1980s, and the 534-city count is his. Whether the 2033 goal can be reached is an open question, and ALUSIA itself treats it as an aspiration.