Sihombing, Justin (1890-1979)
Indonesian church leader and moderator of the Toba-Batak Church
Sihombing was born in Pangaribuan, Tarutung, northern Sumatra, the son of a Batak medicine man. After serving as head of a village school, he trained for the ministry and was ordained in 1925. Commissioned to evangelize his people, his fervent preaching and compelling insights produced an outstanding spiritual impact. His pastorate in the city of Medan during World War II led to his election as moderator of the Batak church, the second indigenous leader to hold this office. He was reelected for five successive terms, for a total of 20 years. He led the church to join the World Council of Churches in 1947 and to join the Lutheran World Federation in 1952. During the period of Japanese occupation and the national independence movement, Sihombing gave fearless and faithful leadership, based on biblical convictions. In 1951 the University of Bonn conferred on him an honorary doctor of theology degree in recognition of his leadership in maintaining the unity of the church in a time of great adversity and change. Tribute was paid to him as a church father of outstanding wisdom, patience, and dedication to his office and to his people. His published writings were largely directed to the church and its coworkers. With his book Tohonan sidjaga tondi (Ministry of the Spirit), he undergirded Christian discipleship; in Poda pardjamitaon, a homiletics manual, he published his homiletics lectures at the theological seminary in Pematang Siantar. For the centenary celebration of the church in 1961 he wrote Seratus taon Huria Kristen Batak Protestant (A hundred years: Batak Protestant Christian Church).
This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved. By Lothar Schreiner.
Bibliography
Alfred Rutkowsky, “…zu treiben das Evangelium des Friedens,” Berichte d. Rhein. Mission 113 (1963): 193-195
Edward O.V. Nyhus, An Indonesian Church in the Midst of Social Change: The Batak Protestant Christian Church, 1942-1957 (1987)
In die Welt die Welt 15 (1979): 174 (obit.)