The term ‘transit church’ describes a church that becomes a temporary church for students who migrate to urban areas for studying. GKI Delima, a Reformed Presbyterian church in Indonesia, is one of them. Unfortunately, GKI Delima is not able to adapt to its context as a transit church. Consequently, there are several issues, namely, it could not fully embrace the transit students, provide space for them to participate, involve them in any church activities or empower them to carry out the mission of God. Therefore, a transit church must respond to its context by theologically and critically reflecting on its concrete identity. As the church has a threefold existence (local, particular and universal), the local congregation that adapts itself must not be disconnected from the universal church and should not be separated from being part of the particular church. In this article, I want to propose the ecclesiology of the transit church by manifesting the four marks of the universal church (
This article may contribute to the contextual ecclesiology discussion. This research can be an inspiration for other researchers to develop a transit church ecclesiology based on the context of other local churches. This research may also be developed further by discussing concrete activities that can be carried out by transit churches, such as intergenerational transit church liturgies, curriculum for members of the congregation to instil a missionary mindset, efforts to adjust church orders in the context of local congregations and the formation of small communities that provide space for friendship between the members and non-members of the church.
Changes in this world are certain and happen all the time.
The 21st century is known as the era of the greatest human mobility, where the movement of people from one place to another has become an important sign of this era. It is something that the church must realise and consider in carrying out its mission. The swift flow of migrants has changed the face of the church, from a church that used to be mostly homogeneous in ethnicity to a church that now has multi-ethnic members (heterogeneous). The church experiences pluralism. Therefore, the church is challenged to reformulate its ecclesiology in order to accommodate this phenomenon of migration.
GKI Delima (Indonesian Christian Church in Delima Street, Jakarta) faces the phenomenon of urbanisation significantly. It affects all the activities that GKI Delima has. Unfortunately, GKI Delima could not fully embrace the transit students – young people who migrate to Jakarta for their studies. In my observation, there are several problems that hinder the openness of GKI Delima to transit students and that hinder the involvement of transit students at GKI Delima. Firstly, GKI Delima was unable to embrace transit students. GKI Delima is not friendly to them as newcomers – in other words, GKI Delima has a hospitality crisis. Secondly, GKI Delima rigidly adheres to the church order which limits the involvement of immigrants in GKI Delima.
Based on these issues, GKI Delima needs to rethink its ecclesiology as a transit church. Therefore, this study constructs the ecclesiology of GKI Delima as a transit church by manifesting the four marks of the universal church, also known as
GKI Delima is an Indonesian Christian Church located in Tanjung Duren, Jakarta. This church is a Reformed-Calvinist church that has Presbyterian synodal system. The location of this church is very strategic because it is surrounded by five universities. Since 2014, GKI Delima has realised itself as a transit church because many students are present at GKI Delima whilst studying at colleges around GKI Delima. Since its establishment, GKI Delima has indeed been attended by transit students. Then, GKI Delima declared itself as a transit church. However, in the last five years before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, student attendance has increased significantly. They only attend for the duration of their studies, usually four years. There are still a few transit students who are involved in taking part in the service because the others feel like strangers. GKI Delima longs to make the students’ transit period a meaningful time. Thus, students could feel welcomed, accepted and at home and also have a commitment to participate in the GKI Delima fellowship.
GKI Delima held three public services every Sunday (06:30, 08:30 and 17:00) before the pandemic. In addition, GKI Delima held one youth service at 08:30, one youth service at 10:30 and one children’s service in Sunday school classes at 08:30. The number of people attending services at GKI Delima continues to increase from year to year, but the percentage of attendance of members of the congregation decreases and the percentage of attendance of non-members increases. The attendance of members decreased from year to year because of some members of the congregation who moved to other cities, especially Tangerang, or because some were elderly or had passed away.
The presence of non-members, which from year to year is increasing, has not received special attention from GKI Delima until now. It is difficult to find people who want to serve from year to year. To serve the increasing number of people attending Sunday services, more ministers are needed as well. The ministers here include structural positions, namely, elders, stewards of ministry bodies and so on, as well as non-structural roles. In a Pre-Work Meeting held in October 2016 in Hambalang, Sentul, GKI Delima agreed to call itself a transit church and began to think about changes in service patterns that would allow more people to be involved in the ministry.
GKI Delima needs to think about policy changes because so far it has focused more on trying to get its members involved in services. On the other hand, non-members are only considered as guests. In accordance with the GKI’s church order, the commission’s daily governing body Badan Pengurus Harian (BPH) must come from members of the congregation. In fact, many students have potential but are hindered by this rule. Could GKI Delima be more friendly in welcoming and even embracing newcomer students and also adjust the regulations of this church system to be more relevant to the situation and conditions of GKI Delima? For example, could students become ‘associate members’ at GKI Delima because, in general, students only transit for a few years of study and not everyone is willing to become full members?
The status of GKI Delima as a transit church did not necessarily reflect that it was grateful to be a transit church. On the one hand, the elderly are grateful to see that the number of church members who worship continues to increase. On the other hand, the elderly began to worry about the change in the identity of GKI Delima
Leo Koffeman in
GKI Delima as a concrete congregation has a threefold existence, which are local, particular and universal church. As a local church that is undergoing rapid changes, GKI Delima needs to respond to existing problems and dare to realise the spirit of
GKI Delima so far is a church based on the ecclesiology of the universal church as reflected in the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed and on the ecclesiology of the particular church as reflected in its church order. In fact, in order to become an authentic and meaningful church in everyday life, ecclesiology must not be understood as a doctrinal theory that is detached from its day-to-day reality. As Nicholas Healy (
Healy (
The concrete church’s ecclesiology approach could help the local church to become a significant and relevant church in responding to today’s struggles. Building the ecclesiology of the transit church does not mean ignoring the understanding of the ecclesiology of the universal church and the particular church. I want to examine a construction of transit church ecclesiology that is meaningful and relevant here today but is still related to universal church ecclesiology and particular church ecclesiology by examining church signs known as
There are four classic signs of the church that we are familiar with as they appeared in the Nicene Creed of Constantinople in 381, namely, that the church is one, holy, universal and apostolic. Howard A. Snyder and D. Runyan state that these four classic church signs do not reflect the church in its fullness, as the church is described in the Bible. They argue that the four notes are more suitable for institutional churches, but not for the church as an organic movement (Snyder & Runyan
Talking about the universal church, Koffeman, by referring to Haight and Nieman who quoted Schleiermacher, divides the church into two aspects, namely, the visible and the invisible (Koffeman
Koffeman (
By using Snyder’s approach and the theory of Hans Dombois, which is also used by Koffeman, I try to construct four characteristics of the transit church that are parallel to the four universal church signs and also in relation to the manifestations of these four signs in the particular church. These four transit church signs are expected to become an ecclesiological model that could answer the real problems of the GKI Delima as previously described.
As part of the catholic nature of the church, the church must be inclusive and open to everyone. The Catholic Church ‘breaks through’ all barriers. The Catholic Church is not present only for one group, but is open to anyone. The church does not discriminate against people based on ethnicity, race, class, tradition, social status and so on. In this perspective, GKI Delima transit needs to be a church that could fully embrace transit students from various places and ethnicities. However, as a church that was originally homogeneously Chinese in ethnicity, GKI Delima had problems when it became a multi-ethnic church. GKI Delima as a transit church has not succeeded in showing hospitality to the diverse transit students.
Some of the old members felt uncomfortable when they saw students from various ethnic groups coming to GKI Delima, and sometimes they lost their sense of security. They worried that GKI Delima would change its identity from a church with a majority of Chinese members to a multi-ethnic one. The
In addition to highlighting the Greek word
The story of the Good Samaritan and the good innkeeper is one of healing. Yet the healing would never happen if the ones who saw the wounded stranger with mercy do not overcome their own fear. Compassion will be powerless if it is encapsulated by fear. ‘There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear’, says 1 John. In the midst of the growing culture and politics of fear, the open church has to overcome its fear of strangers by learning to pass through and cross over its self-imposed boundaries. It is at the margin of their circle of safety that the people of an open church meet and embrace the wounded other. (p. 199)
This story shows that the inn became a home of hospitality that brought healing. The church is not only an open space but also a healing site. However, we need to understand that the church is not the healer. Otherwise, the church becomes superior over others, even over the world. With the church, ‘wounded’ people walk together as they go through the healing process. The church does not heal but the church participates in the healing process. Adiprasetya (
The church is a
The idea of
The characteristics of the holy church as one of the
By calling the church liquid, Ward (
Ward uses the term ‘solid church’ to describe the existence of a church which, according to him, has so far limited the understanding of the church to only certain definitions and must follow certain rules that tend to be rigid, for example, the understanding that the church is a fellowship held at a certain location and place with the main purpose of carrying out a certain liturgy communally (Ward
Ward coined the theory and used the term ‘liquid church’ because it was inspired by the thoughts of a Polish sociologist named Zygmunt Bauman. Ward notes that Bauman, in his book
Ward also drew inspiration about the liquid church from Daniel W. Hardy, an Anglican theologian. Hardy states that God’s actions in this world could be characterised by sociality or social life (Hardy
Ward initiated an understanding of the fluid church based on theological views that are relevant to today’s culture. As Nicholas Healy said, the church should consider the concrete response of the church regarding culture. Therefore, the church needs a theological analysis of culture in order to be able to connect the life of the congregation in accordance with the local cultural context. Ward was inspired to build a theological approach related to the church, as stated by Healy, so that this approach could be applied as a result of expressing the theological values of living culture and integrating them in everyday life, especially in concrete communities in the form of churches. The liquid church will revive the church’s characteristic, namely as a liquid organisation, which is built with a theological approach and closely related to culture. As Healy hoped that the church would seek a theological approach that is relevant to culture, Ward’s liquid church concept was able to realise that hope.
The rapid flow of urbanisation greatly affected GKI Delima as a transit church in the metropolitan city. This phenomenon makes the people who come to GKI Delima more diverse because they come from different regions, ethnicities and even Christian denominations. Unfortunately, GKI Delima was unable to manage these differences. Ethnic differences manifested in cultural differences are a challenge for GKI Delima. In addition, differences in denominations also affect church habits. The problem arises from the number of young people who are millennials who have different ways of thinking and lifestyle than older people. On the one hand, active members of GKI Delima are dominated by old people. On the other hand, the non-members who attended the GKI Delima service were dominated by the millennial generation. As a result, GKI Delima has a very large generation gap. Miroslav Volf’s (
The oneness of the church imitates the oneness of the triune God. The church is one because the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God. Because the Trinity is three distinct persons, the church is understood as universally one church but locally diverse. Miroslav Volf (
To think consistently in trinitarian terms means to escape this dichotomy between universalization and pluralization. If the triune God is
The trinitarian framework offers an understanding that breaks down the dichotomy between universality and plurality or between unity and multiplicity. Both need to be understood in a complementary relationship. Regarding this understanding, the trinitarian perspective could be a fundamental basis for understanding the relationship between the universal church, the particular church and the local church. This perspective could also help us to understand the intertwining between unity and multiplicity in each layer of the church, whether universal, particular or local.
Volf (
Conceiving the structure of the church in a consistently trinitarian fashion means conceiving not only the institution of office as such, but also the entire (local) church itself in correspondence to the Trinity. (p. 218)
Furthermore, Volf (
The various gifts, services, and activities that all Christians have correspond to the divine multiplicity. Just as the one deity exists as the Father, Son, and Spirit, so also do these different divine persons distribute different gifts to all Christians. That these gifts are distributed for the benefit of all, however (1 Cor 12:7), corresponds to the divine unity; the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God (the Father) are active in all these different gifts. The symmetrical reciprocity of the relations of the trinitarian persons finds its correspondence in the image of the church in which all members serve one another with their specific gifts of the Spirit in imitation of the Lord and through the power of the Father. Like the divine persons, they all stand in a relation of mutual giving and receiving. (p. 218)
Instead of focusing on ‘unity’ in the Trinity, Volf focuses on plurality in divinity. Thus, the various gifts of the Spirit, ministries and activities that all Christians possess are understood as embodiments of divine multiplicity. The symmetrical reciprocal relationship between the persons of the Trinity is manifested in the image of a church whose members serve each other with their respective gifts.
Based on the above understanding, the relationship of each member in the local church could be understood to have a trinitarian character. Each member of the ecclesiastical fellowship relates to one another, giving and receiving. What is shared with each other is not only in the form of service or assistance in the form of material, energy or thought contributions but also each of themselves. They become one without losing their respective identities. Thus, this fellowship model could be an appropriate model for an intergenerational church. Each generation could share and learn from each other.
An apostolic church means it is built on the teachings of the apostles. The apostolic church is a church rooted in tradition. Hans Küng said, ‘The apostles are dead; there are no new apostles. But the apostolic mission remains’ (Küng
Talking about apostolic mission cannot be separated from God’s mission because the apostles were sent by Christ. Jesus said, ‘As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you’ (Jn 20:21). God’s mission can be understood as God’s purpose or will. God’s mission is focused on the world or more precisely on his creation. For that, God is pleased to be present as a historical person, namely, Jesus. The world could see God through Jesus (cf. Jn 14:9), so the world could know God’s purpose for the world through Jesus. From a biblical perspective, the coming of Jesus on earth can be understood as the coming of the Messiah. For Israel, especially after the exile, the Messiah is a figure who is always expected to bring justice and peace. Therefore, the hope of the coming of the Messiah becomes an eschatological hope because it expects something to happen in the future, that is, God’s salvation.
In his ministry of proclaiming the coming of God’s Kingdom or the real reign of God, Jesus brought the good news of deliverance, although it was unlike Israel’s triumph under David’s leadership. Jürgen Moltmann (
The eschatological fulfillment of the liberating lordship of God in history is termed the kingdom of God. The Greek word basileia could mean both the actual rule of God in the world, and the universal goal of that divine rule. … The liberating rule of God could thus be understood as the immanence of the eschatological kingdom, and the coming kingdom could be interpreted as the transcendence of the believed and experienced rule of God in the present. This understanding forbids us to banish the lordship of God to a future world totally unrelated to our earthly, historical life. But it also forbids us to identify the kingdom of God with conditions in history, whether they be already existing or desired. (p. 190)
The Kingdom of God is the eschatological fulfilment of God’s liberating lordship in history. The word ‘kingdom’ refers to God’s government as well as the purpose of that divine government. Thus, God’s liberating reign could be understood as the ‘immanence’ of the eschatological kingdom, and the future kingdom could be interpreted as the ‘transcendence’ of God’s reign believed and experienced in the present. Therefore, God’s reign is very historical and earthly, that is, it is being realised ‘now’ and ‘here’.
If God’s mission is understood as the fulfilment of God’s Kingdom and the church inherits God’s mission from the apostles sent by Christ, then the church has a mission to participate in the fulfilment of God’s Kingdom. Moltmann describes this view as messianic ecclesiology. Messianic essentially means Christological and Christological foundations are always directed at the eschaton (Kärkkäinen
Moltmann uses the concept of the Exodus Church to describe a church that is always walking and moving towards the fulfilment of God’s Kingdom in the last days, the eschaton. From the resurrection of Christ to the
Moltmann realised that the modern world with its potential and limitations could be compatible with God’s kingdom or against it. The church is still a ‘contrast society’, in the sense of contradiction with modern society, which has not demonstrated the values of the Kingdom of God. Meanwhile, the church as an exodus community is always moving towards the Kingdom of God. The church is called to be a moral community that is an example in society (Paeth
The Exodus Church has the role of witnessing the Gospel, namely, to transform together with society towards the fullness of the Kingdom of God by playing an active role in supporting efforts towards a new world. Therefore, the church must always be ready to engage in community problems and provide the best solutions creatively. Moltmann views the critical role of the church in society, not as separate from society, but as a partnership, in which the church calls on the community to realise the fulfilment of its vocation (Paeth
As Nicholas Healy stated, the response of the concrete church to its context is very important in building an ecclesiology that could help the concrete church to carry out the task of witnessing and pastoral care. Therefore, GKI Delima as a transit church must respond to its context to build a relevant and significant ecclesiology. It could construct its ecclesiology by embodying the four characteristics as the manifestation of the four marks of the universal church as follows.
Firstly, as part of the catholic nature of the church, by using Adiprasetya’s theory of
Secondly, as part of the holy nature of the church, by using Pete Ward’s liquid church theory, the transit church could embody the relevant ecclesiology. One of the implementations of the holy character of the church, according to Koffeman, is the church order. Meanwhile, the church order of GKI Delima limits the participation of transit students. Therefore, GKI Delima needs to understand its holiness in a liquid perspective. Thus, the transit church needs to be a relevant church for its context. The transit church could provide a safe space for transit students to participate. Transit church membership must be liquid. The church must have the courage to adjust regulations related to the management of the commission so that it could make local regulations that are relevant to the context. It needs to provide opportunities for non-member participants who are committed to become the daily governing body. In the end, transit church membership is understood not as something that has to be binding or formal, but in terms of a committed relationship.
Thirdly, as part of the one nature of the church, based on the church as the image of the Trinity according to Miroslav Volf, the transit church could realise an intergenerational ecclesiology. Thus, the transit church needs to create a comfortable space for intergenerational interaction. This could reduce the gap between generations, especially between senior church members and students who are the millennial generation. The activities carried out by the transit church must embrace diversity. The generation gap is a problem that needs to be solved with intergenerational services. However, more than that, intergenerationality must be an internalised mindset in the transit church. Thus, whenever it holds an ecclesiastical programme, the involvement of various generations becomes something that is always preferred.
Fourthly, as part of the apostolic nature of the church, by using Jürgen Moltmann’s theory of the exodus church, the transit church could realise a missional ecclesiology. Thus, the transit church needs to instil a missional mindset. It should be done by challenging the dichotomy between heaven and earth, or material and spiritual. The transit church does not view the world as earthly, profane or unholy. It needs to understand itself as a transit church that is present in the midst of the world and not as a church that has to convert the world. Therefore, it must be actively involved in the daily problems of the community. In particular, it pays attention to the problems and needs of transit students in their calling in their respective fields. The transit church lives together with others to jointly realise the fullness of God’s Kingdom in the world.
Finally, being a transit church is a process that never ends. The church is always
The author thanks GKI Delima for the support in conducting this research.
The author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
M.S. is the sole author of this research article.
This article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.
People who can serve in daily governance body are only the members of the congregation who got confirmation in that church. ‘Those who can be elected and appointed as chairperson, secretary and treasurer of the church service body are members of the confirmed congregation, who are not under a special pastoral care’ (Church Order of GKI, No. 198, Implementation Guidelines no. 26, article 8, point 2).
I interviewed the first member of GKI Delima, Mr. Tedjalaksana (born in 1934), and the fourth member, Mr. Ukky Sidarta (born in 1939). Based on the interview, I found that they were worried that GKI would lose their identity (Tedjalaksana & U. Sidharta, pers. comm., 08 July 2018).
Koffeman (
GKI Delima once created a New Student Admissions Team in 2016–2018, whose task was to improve hospitality and the involvement of transit students. Unfortunately, it did not go well.