Stephen Tong

Stephen Tong (, born in 22 March 1940) is a Chinese Indonesian Reformed pastor, evangelist, teacher and musician.

He heads the Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia, which houses the megachurch Messiah Cathedral, and is the largest Christian Church building in Southeast Asia.

He has preached in countries around the world, and guest lectured at theological seminaries and schools.

Tong was born in 1940 in Xiamen, China, from Tong Pai Hu, a businessman whose family was highly regarded by the Qing government, and Tan Tjien Nio (Indonesian: Dorcas Tanjowati).

He is the sixth of nine children, only one of whom was a girl.

his father died when Stephen was 3; his family wealth had eroded during the years of Japanese imperialism.

At that time, Tong's mother fostered their brothers and sister alone.

In 1949, he with his mother and siblings migrated to Surabaya, Indonesia, to find a better place of living during the Chinese Communist Revolution.

Though he had not graduated yet, he had been teaching as either assistant or formal teacher from 1957 till 1960 at Zhong Guo Nui Xue School and Yi Xing Night School.

When Tong was 15 years old, he had strong beliefs in communism, which he called "Karl Marx's dialectical materialism".

He ascribed to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and had a deep hatred towards Christianity, which he regarded as "the foolish religion which came from the devilish West and has illogical teachings".

However, he respected that his mother had a devoted spiritual life: "When I was small, the first words I'd hear in the morning were those of my mother while she prayed. She prayed for each of us children by name, and asked God to guide us.".

In 1957, his mother asked him to attend a Christian Youth Conference that was conducted by the Southeast Asia Bible Seminary (SEABS) (Madrasah Alkitab Asia Tenggara, now Seminari Alkitab Asia Tenggara, SAAT) in Malang in 1957.

On 9 January, the last day of the conference, when Andrew Gih gave a revival sermon, Tong became a Christian.

He began to share the Gospel, and taught children in Christian schools.

He completed primary education at Min Guang Primary School and he graduated from Chung Hwa High School (中華高中學) in 1958.

In 1960, he enrolled in SEABS, and later graduated with a Bachelor of Theology in 1964.

He then joined SEABS's faculty, and taught theology and philosophy classes from 1964 to 1988.

While he was a teacher at South East Asia Bible Seminary, Tong served as an evangelist at THKTKH (Min Nan: Tiong Hoa Kie Tok Kauw Hwee [中华基督教会]); (Gereja Kristus Tionghua, now GKT (Gereja Kristus Tuhan)), transliterated "Church of Christ The Lord", and travelled weekly between Malang and Surabaya.

Around at that time, he had tried leading some Gospel Rallies in various cities in Indonesia.

Then since 1969, he received invitations to lead Gospel Rallies in various countries, including Europe, America, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, etc. It is especially for Chinese and Indonesian speakers.

In 1974, he started to hold seminars in Surabaya to provide truthful doctrinal understanding for churches in Indonesia.

In 1978, he along with Jahja Ling established Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministries International (STEMI).

One of its goals is to equip people for full-time ministry.

He preaches at cities across Southeast Asia.

In 1982, he received his ordination as pastor.

He served at GKT (Gereja Kristus Tuhan, "Church of Christ The Lord"), then ministered in GKA (Gereja Kristen Abdiel, "Servant Christian Church").

He has conducted services in Mandarin and Indonesian, but some of his speaking engagements have been in Fujian and English.

Since then, he has guest lectured in Theology and delivered sermons in various prominent universities at the China Graduate School of Theology (Hong Kong), China Evangelical Seminary (Taiwan), Trinity Theological College (Singapore), Regent College (Canada), and universities in the United States, including: Westminster Theological Seminary, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, University of California Berkeley, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Cornell University, etc.

In 1984, he started the Reformed Evangelical Movement with the purpose of restoring the understanding of theology based on God's revelation in the Scripture and igniting people with zeal for evangelism.

The movement is "aimed at meeting the challenge of the Charismatic movement as well as liberalism."

He conducted theological seminars such as the Christian Faith Development Seminar (Seminar Pembinaan Iman Kristen, SPIK), to introduce Reformed theology to the people in Jakarta.

His first seminar, "Faith and Religion", was attended by about 1,200 people.

He would later adapt the seminars into books and multimedia, which he publishes in-house.

Since the GRII has found in 1989, his services have extended to many major cities in Indonesia, including Surabaya, Medan, Malang, Bandung, especially during the Christmas and Easter seasons.

To maintain contact with the cities outside Jakarta, he established STEMI branch offices in each of the areas.

He added offices in the United States and the European Union.

Since 2000, he travels weekly to around 5 countries (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan) to serve for approximately 6000 audiences.

In 2009, Ric Cannada, Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary, noted in his school's newsletter that Tong's weekly preaching schedule included "two Sunday services in Jakarta; every Sunday evening at two services in a church in Singapore; every Monday evening at a church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; every Tuesday night at a church in Hong Kong; and every Wednesday night at a church in Taipei, Taiwan."

Tong observed that many churches have been influenced by worldly philosophy, and ones that were loyal to the genuine teaching of the Bible were rare.