专题1:如何在信仰上赋能于原住民教会?Special Topic 1: How do we empower the Indigenous Church in its spiritual walk?24/2/2022
为何原住民教会如此重要?原住民教会对马来西亚教会的未来至关重要。纵观整体,基督徒占了马来西亚人口的9.2%,而沙巴和砂拉越的原住民基督徒就占了其中的70%。这意味着,每9至10个基督徒当中,就有7位是原住民。因着庞大人数及土著身份,原住民在国家的发展中扮演着重要的角色。 Why Is The Indigenous Church So Important?The Indigenous Church plays a pivotal role in the future development of churches in Malaysia. Statistics taken from the 2010 showed that there are 9.2% Christians among the Malaysian population, of which 70% comprised of Indigenous Christians from the states of Sabah and Sarawak and the Orang Asli in Semenanjung. In other words, for every 10 Malaysian Christians, 7 are Indigenous people. In view of this significant representation and their identity as bumiputera, the Indigenous Christian community plays a prominent and pivotal role in the development and growth of Christianity in our country. click here for english version
Why Is The Indigenous Church So Important? 1. Nominal Christians
Nominal Christianity, is a situation where the Christian faith is only regarded as a religious or cultural identity by a person who professes to be a Christian. That person may have called himself or herself a Christian only because he or she simply followed the religion of his or her parents but have never learnt or understood the real truth. And without sound biblical foundation, many nominal Christians simply drop out from the church at a young age. There are several factors that have led to this situation: Firstly, many indigenous Christians who are working could not attend church services on Sunday due to their work commitments. Secondly, many indigenous Christian students who attend boarding school face opposition and obstacles when they want to join church services and activities. Many of the hostels are located far from the church, and without any means of transport , distance became both a valid reason and a ready excuse for many young Indigenous Christians for not going to church. Thirdly, many indigenous Christian youth who have left their villages to study or work in other towns and cities find themselves easily influenced and led astray by the temptations found in there. They spend their hours loafing around entertainment outlets and pick up all kinds of bad habits and ungodly lifestyles. Also, some young Christian girls who are careless in their relationships get themselves entangled emotionally and many get pregnant out of wedlock, forcing them to get married with men of another religion which caused them to give up their Christian faith. 2. Proselytisation Efforts Of the Major Religion
In the past few decades, indigenous Christians have been faced with increasing challenges and temptations to abandon their faith. All kinds of proselytising efforts are aimed at them from a major religion and many of them find themselves unable to stand up to these challenges and they eventually succumb and leave their Christian faith. One of the most effective proselytising strategy used against them is through education system at different levels. The basic level is through the use of kindergartens. The education department concerned would set up kindergartens and education centres in the indigenous villages, providing the children with free education. Many indigenous Christian parents innocently send their young children to these kindergartens, only to realise later that their children were being taught the practices and lifestyles of the major religion such as their way of praying. The proselytising strategy is also carried out at secondary schools level. This is mainly done through the boarding schools. As there are not many secondary schools in the interior, and most schools are located far from the villages, most indigenous students who want to continue their secondary education have to stay in the government school hostels. In these hostels, the proselytising efforts are carried out relentlessly. The school authorities may actively encourage the students to join the activities of the major religion, or require them to attend their religious classes. Also, sometimes the Christian students are not allowed to join church activities or attend church services or some activities are arranged so that they are unable to go.. Other tactics used are making Christian students change their religion as a requirement to be eligible for a place in the hostel or to enjoy other benefits. At the tertiary education level, all universities have made the study of the civilization of major religion as a compulsory subject. Additionally, there is even a project called “Project Love” (Projek Cinta) in many campuses, where the goal is to make female Indigenous Christian students fall in love to male students of the major faith, and once they are entangled emotionally or physically, to convert to the major religion through marriage. Apart from using the education to proselytise indigenous Christians, there are aggressive and concerted missionary campaigns that target the interior villages. Large number of proselytisers are sent regularly into the villages to convert the indigenous villagers. Also, in almost every district, training centres have been set up to educate these new converts and train them to proselytise their own people. Another unethical tactic used to convert indigenous Christians is to register them as belonging to the major faith in their identity cards without their knowledge. What Are The Factors Causing Christians To Be Weak In Their Faith And Losing Their Faith?The main factor is the weak spiritual foundation of many indigenous Christians. Many indigenous churches are often without pastors, teachers, or leaders, who can teach their members Bible truth effectively, resulting in a poor and shallow spiritual foundation among the believers. Most of them are happy just to attend church services and programmes passively but are not growing in their spiritual lives.
Other contributing factors include being attracted to worldly temptations, the effect of globalisation, the corruption of faith through mixing of different spiritual beliefs (syncretism), and the highly effective proselytising efforts and attacks on the Christian faith by the majority religion. So, How Can We Help The Christian Indigenous Community To Be Stronger In Their Faith?Pastor Lam in his talk has shared a number of proposals:
1. Provide training, materials and resources in Bahasa Malaysia to indigenous pastors and leaders to empower them to teach the Word of God and disciple their people effectively. 2. Seek and reach out to the indigenous youth who are lost in the cities and urban areas and lead them back to God and shepherd them in the church. 3. Help the indigenous Christians to build family altars by teaching the parents to take the lead and become godly models for their children. 4. Provide training in apologetics so that indigenous Christians know how to defend themselves and be strong in their faith when they are being attacked or challenged by the major religion. 5. Establish Christian hostels, to provide indigenous Christian students with a safe and good environment to stay and study away from the continuous proselytising influences of the major religion. Message Shared by Pastor Lam Kee Hing Written by Isaac Goh Translated by Earnest Chiam 原住民教会在信仰上面对的两大挑战 一、名义上的基督徒 名义上的基督徒,意味着基督信仰只是一个宗教或文化身份。他们从小就随着父母成为基督徒,却不明白真理。因此,原住民教会流失了许多年轻基督徒。 有几个因素导致许多原住民年轻一代离开信仰: 星期日需要工作,无法参与教会聚会。至于住校生,校方会想方设法阻止学生到教会聚会,加上没有交通工作,路途遥远,成为了许多年轻一代的原住民不去教会的藉口和理由。他们容易受都市世界的诱惑,经常与朋友在娱乐场所游荡,沉迷于不好的恶习和嗜好。由于交友不慎,一些少女未婚怀孕,最终被逼嫁人,有些还因配偶的宗教不同而被逼改教,放弃基督信仰。 二、被改教的诱惑 近十多年来,原住民都面对被改教的诱惑和挑战。对方的传教策略来势汹汹,许多原住民基督徒都招架不住,最终选择放弃基督信仰。其中一个最关键的策略,就是透过教育体制。 有关当局在每个原住民乡村都设立幼儿园,并提供免费教学。但许多原住民基督徒父母把他们的孩子送去这些幼儿园后,才发现孩子被灌输采用其他宗教方式生活,如:用其他宗教的方式祈祷。 对于小学和中学教育,有关当局则透过学校宿舍进行改教策略。由于偏乡的学校选择不多,而且位置较远,所以许多原住民学生只能选择住在学校宿舍。加上住校生可以享有各种免费的生活福利,许多原住民父母更是愿意孩子们住在校舍。 这时,各种改教的策略便在校舍中如火如荼地展开。有关当局开始要求学生参加其他宗教的活动、一起上非基督教的宗教课、不允许基督徒出外参加教会活动等。有些手段则更极端,他们要求基督徒学生放弃基督信仰而改信某宗教,成为被录取得到住宿和福利的条件。 而在大学教育的层面,除了要求每一个大学生必须修读其他宗教信仰有关的科目,大学也执行了名为Projek Cinta(恋爱计划)的计划。这是诱导原住民基督徒女大学生恋上其他宗教的男性,并且改教和结婚。 除了透过教育体制改教,各种传教活动也如火如荼地在偏乡展开。许多传教士被差到偏乡地区去带领原住民改教,并且在当地成立培训中心。此外,改教策略也渗透在有关当局的行政部门,比如:许多基督徒原住民无意中发现自己的宗教信仰被擅自更改,从原本的基督教变成其他宗教。 是什么因素导致原住民教会面对以上的两大挑战 最主要的因素,乃是原住民在信仰根基上的脆弱。许多原住民教会没有牧者牧养他们,也没有好的教师或领袖教导圣经真理。因此,信徒的信仰根基非常肤浅,停留在出席宗教活动。其他的因素也包括受到世俗的诱惑、全球化的影响、信仰的混杂主义(基督教信仰仍混杂于传统民间泛灵信仰),以及其他宗教组织的有效策略与手段。 那么,我们可以如何在信仰上帮助原住民? |