Church Reformation in Youth’s Perspective
Friday, 31 January 2020by adminstube
Church reformation should not be commemorated or reflected only on 31 October, but throughout the year, day-by-day, especially for church members and church youth as the slogan and meaning of church reform itself, namely "Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda est secundum verbum Dei". It was echoed first time in devotional writing, called Jodocus van Lodenstein (1620-1677). When he wrote this sentence, what had in his mind was: that the reform that happened in the era of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc should penetrate life and real practice of God's people.
Now we see that the practice has decreased in church and its members. It is not an actual news when a segregation happened in the body of church and followed by dualism of leaders, even being a new church organization. Sometimes it is closely related with money and selfishness of individuals who impose personal ego and group interests which bring negative impact on faith growth of church members and away from reformation dreams. God works through Martin Luther to eradicate problems in the body of church, one of those was the abusing practice of money which still exists until now.
Started from 'Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda est secundum verbum Dei', Yedija Manullang, a volunteer student of Multiplication of Stube-HEMAT in Bengkulu invited several church youth in his neighbourhood consisting of students to discuss and to find out their understanding about church reformation. It took place at Yedija’s house on Jl. Sisingamangaraja, Doloksanggul, North Sumatra (Thursday, January 30, 2020) at 20:00 WIB. It was attended by eight students who were not familiar with Stube-HEMAT, so Yedija began the meeting by explaining Stube-HEMAT ministry and continued by the main topic of discussion, church reformation. Preceding the discussion, they were asked to mention their church denomination and found out that four participants are from Lutheran church and four others are from Pentacostal church.
"In age of technology and information transparency, youth cannot be separated from gadget, and it is truly surprising that they did not know what church reformation was, while the news about artists or viral news they may immediately access it," said Yedija, followed by laughter from them, most of them did not know the history of church reformation.
Yedija narrated the history of church reformation which was 'successfully' campaigned by Martin Luther. Before him, there were those who initiated reformation movement, namely Jan Hus, a scholar who ended in death because he was accused of opposing the Pope by accusing the church for its dishonorable behavior. At that time, opposing the Pope was like a suicide. Martin Luther, a young man at that time experienced a turning point in his life in serving God as a monk when he was almost struck by lightning, he screamed and prayed, "Please! Santa Anna, I will become a monk!" Finally he took theological education and left his law and philosophy lecture. Having graduated and took part in church service, Luther witnessed money manipulation practices carried out by the church through the sale of indulgences letter or forgiveness of sins. Luther strongly critisized it and he announced 95 theses about indulgences, written on a poster nailed at the north entrance of Frederik Palace Church in Wittenberg. The incident took place on October 31, 1517, which marked the Church Reform Movement which we commemorate for the 502 years. Martin Luther was still 33 years old, a relatively young age when he campaigned the thesis.
The youth role
Refering to Martin Luther's young age, Yedija linked his struggle with Indonesian youth in the 20-year cycle of youth and student movements at the time, started in 1908 by Boedi Oetomo movement, 1928 Youth Pledge, 1948 Test of Ideology, 1968 the fall of Old Order dan New Order establishement, 1978 New Order was opposed, 1998 the fall of New Order, and this country entered the Reformation era. It shows that in the past time, youth has central role in making policies, and the benefits are still felt up to now. It is the time for youth to learn from youth leaders, one of them is Martin Luther who always hold the truth and the youth should continue the struggle in this technology era.
Before ending the discussion, Yedija also shared the conclusion of discussion about 502 years of reformation and how the church development in Bengkulu, with Jonny Simamora, an academician and Bataknesee (HKBP) church council. As the final reflection, Yedija asked the participants about the development of church reformation which was undergoing 503 years in Doloksanggul.
Rahel Silaban, one of the participants admitted that there are still many congregations even church youth who are apathetic with the church condition, shown by low participation in a meeting related with church. They thought that the church organization is the resposibility of the church servant and church assembly only.
Yedija hoped and reminded that youth must take part in church service in order to learn and comprehend church reformation, ‘Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda est secundum verbum Dei’, it means that a reformed church is a church that is continually reformed according to God's word. How can the church members be renewed if they are still apathetic and do not participate in the development of church, even they rarely go to church? It is worth for us to think about. ***