Analysis of Church Suffering in Society of Indonesia

Herman Eha, as the servant of God, who experienced persecution at GKT Bandar Jaya, said, “the throwing incident of the church building that we used for worship in June1998 (Singh, 2011), which resulted in broken glass windows, and heard the screams of the rioters to crush and kill the Chinese people, has resulted in some of our congregations who suffered from retreating from participating in these activities worship and church formation (Singh, 2011). They become afraid, preferring to stay silent at home rather than participating in worship and formation activities inside the church and outside the church. There are even congregations who do not dare to make their house a place for fellowship activities anymore, because this activity is carried out in the houses of the congregation”. In line with that, Sugi Hasan (Yu Yu), a former head of the GKT Metro youth commission for the 1998-1999 period, said that as a direct result of the rioting, part of the youth and youth development program had stopped, for example, a retreat. This program is always not approved by the assemblies due to the security situation and conditions. In addition, some parents of members of the association do not allow their children to participate in these activities. Majelis Lim Bun Sui, a member of the congregation council, said that currently it is quite difficult to invite new people, especially Chinese Hoa, to come to church. This is due to two reasons, first the enthusiasm of some congregation members has begun to slack off to evangelize and invite their friends to come to church, secondly the current situation and conditions are very frightening for new souls, especially Chinese Hoa people to come to church, because the church is often terrorized by certain groups to destroy and destroy. Brother Aan, a Sunday school teacher at GKT Metro, said since 1997 until now, after the riots and destruction of church buildings that were rife in the country had a negative impact on Sunday school children at GKT Metro, the attendance of Sunday school children in the church had decreased. Some children are afraid to come to church, besides that there are parents of Sunday school children who do not want to take their children to church. Based on the results of the interview above, the writer concludes that after the riots, there were several members of the Metro Trinity Christian Church whose majority members were Chinese Hoa people who felt anxious about presenting themselves as Christians, this kind of phenomenon is very sad and heartbreaking, and will have a more impact far if this situation is allowed to continue.