Christianity’s trajectory in Indonesia has mostly been defined by arrival across nearly five hundred years: foreign missionaries traveled to the islands, and local churches expanded through their efforts. A coalition of Indonesian churches and mission organizations now aims to reverse that direction, with the goal of seeing 30,000 Indonesian missionaries serving other nations by 2033, Christian Daily International reported.
The effort is coordinated by ALUSIA, the Indonesian Alliance for World Mission, formed in 2023. On Oct. 21, 2026, ALUSIA chair Dr. Bambang Budijanto spoke to Indonesian diaspora church leaders in Queens, New York.
Building a Sending Movement from Decades of Revival
Budijanto, who also serves as the general secretary of the Asia Evangelical Alliance, recounts Indonesia’s history of revival and considers it as preparation for sending. He points to the 1965 revival in Soe on the island of Timor, followed by movements among the Dayak people of Borneo in the 1970s and subsequent growth in major cities like Jakarta, where he noted more than 5,000 prayer groups operated by 1984.
In the 1980s, Budijanto worked as a translator for Brother Andrew, the founder of Open Doors. At a time when Indonesian churches were divided and often competing with one another, Budijanto recalled an instance where Brother Andrew asked pastors to pray that God would send persecution, so that the Church would be united. Subsequent years brought waves of anti-Christian violence, during which more than 500 churches were burned and many lives were lost in conflicts such as the one in Maluku.
Out of that period emerged a national prayer movement. It began in 1991, with seven coordinators who met monthly and held prayer gatherings in different provinces. Across a total of 500-plus Indonesian cities—specifically 534 according to his figures—perpetual prayer is sustained through initiatives known among participants as “towers of prayer.”
Overcoming Past Stalls and Shifting Mindsets
Earlier attempts to build an Indonesian sending movement repeatedly faltered. From 1992 to 2002, Budijanto ran a five-week summer mission school in the Netherlands, working with Fuller Seminary. That early effort, alongside an attempt to send two missionaries to China, ultimately dissolved because the organization did not last.
In 2023, Budijanto invited leaders from about 14 Indonesian organizations that already had experience sending missionaries abroad. The group met in Bandung to define its vision and how its members would work together.
The alliance now functions to activate churches, connect them with each other and with the wider global Church, and provide resources, including research data and training tools. ALUSIA defines a missional congregation by five proposed criteria: financial support for global mission, participation in sending personnel, intercession for international missions, development of missional capabilities via programs or instruction, and partnerships with external ministries or fellowships. A church that meets four of the five would qualify as a missional church following this definition.
Counting the Force and Engaging the Diaspora
Baseline figures from 2020 show Indonesia had about 800 missionaries, with more than half serving Indonesian communities abroad rather than people of other nations. The target of 30,000 missionaries by 2033 amounts to about 0.1% of Indonesia’s roughly 30 million Christians, an objective Budijanto describes as not easy, but doable.
Due to the fact that individuals frequently operate as professionals, laborers abroad, or in alternative capacities, Budijanto noted that enumerating contemporary missionaries presents a challenge. For that reason, ALUSIA treats 30,000 as an aspiration.
With more than 500 Indonesian diaspora congregations worldwide, and more than half of them in the United States, Budijanto views overseas communities as “the low-hanging fruit” ahead of the 500th anniversary of that arrival, which falls in 2034.
