Mennonite World Conference’s President is a tall, long-fingered Indonesian of Chinese ancestry who picked his own name. Chinese-Indonesians are a racial minority in Mesach Krisetya’s country. His chosen faith placed him within yet another minority group; Christians are about 12% of the population in Indonesia, while Muslims are 87-90%.

The meaning of Mesach’s name reflects his clear-eyed understanding and his commitments—“a fireproof man loyal to Christ.” The name may be more fitting than Mesach realized when he chose it. Today there are growing threats against Indonesian Christians’ lives; here and there women have been raped and churches burned. Christians are perceived to be disloyal to the government and the majority religion.

Raised in a family that practiced Confucianism and ancestor worship, Mesach was growing up as World War II rumbled through the Pacific and as his own country tried to foist off Dutch rule. “Schools kept changing during those years from being run by the Dutch, to being run by the Japanese, to being run finally by the Indonesians. My high schooling got delayed; I didn’t graduate until I was 21.” He persisted because of his own interest, but also because his parents planned that he would go to medical school to become a doctor.

He didn’t object to the goal, but he couldn’t shake a pair of questions—Who am I? What will my future be? “I was never satisfied, even when people said I was doing well,” Mesach recalls.

A Surprising Encounter with Christians and Mennonites
In the middle of all this uncertainty, “a good friend invited me to attend a Bible camp with him. I had no idea what the Bible camp was, but he was a friend, so I thought, why not? I went with all my stress about my identity, all my questions about why I was born, why I was here.

“There were Bible studies and revival meetings and sermons at this camp run by Mennonites. I don’t remember what they covered, but I do remember one verse—Matthew 6:33: ‘But strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’

“That suddenly became my answer. It focused my thinking so much that I went forward at the altar call. I surprised my friend!

“Then he asked me through my tears, ‘Do you want to go to seminary?’ I said, ‘Seminary’—what is that?’ He said, ‘To become a pendeta’—a Hindu word for ‘pastor.’ I said yes. But now I needed to ask my father who would have to pay for this instead of medical school!

“To my surprise, he said yes. But he added some advice: ‘Don’t retreat. Whatever you start, keep going.’ ”

It may have been a miraculous sort of entry into the Christian world and way of doing things, but some hurdles lay ahead. Two weeks later Mesach’s friend took him to the seminary to apply for admission. “I saw the prerequisites—I had to be baptized and to have related to a church for two years—and I saw I was disqualified. But I decided to take up my verse, Matthew 6:33. I applied anyway.

“Then I had to be interviewed. It was my first direct experience with a white man. He looked at me with those eyes. I didn’t know how to answer his questions about my church membership. Finally I asked him, am I accepted? Well, he said, he would have to consult with his ‘team.’

“Within a month I got a letter. I opened it with a lot of anxiety. I was the first student to be accepted at this Baptist seminary before being baptized.”

A Risky Invitation
To fulfill his course requirements, Mesach served in a Mennonite church—the Semarang, Demak and Blora congregations—on weekends. When he graduated, his home congregation—Jepara—invited him to become their full-time pastor.

The setting was Indonesia, but the human dynamics were universal. Mesach recalls his dilemma: “I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it. It was my hometown. I knew a lot of people in the church, including some relatives. But, I thought, if they call me…”

The “call” itself, however, was the subject of controversy within the church. “The congregation was 35 years old but had never had a ‘called’ pastor. I was the first person with theological education to be invited; the young people wanted a trained pastor. There was considerable conflict within the church about the whole matter, even on the board.”

Two factors finally nudged Mesach to say yes to the invitation. “I appreciated the old pastor; he had provided good leadership for 35 years. And my parents were not yet Christians. I wanted them to find faith.” Everything seemed to be in place for Mesach’s move into leadership. But the old pastor had one more qualifier: “He said I had to be married before I could be ordained! He had a pretty strict moral code. If I, a single pastor in my mid-20s, visited a single parishioner, it would raise questions.”

Mesach and Miriam met in the Semarang church where he had done some weekend practicums. “When we became engaged, she went to seminary for a year to see what this world was like.” They were married in the fall of 1965.

Choosing New Names
A political development left its mark on the newly married couple. In 1967 the Indonesian government decided to clarify the loyalty of its people. “The government did not believe in dual citizenship, so all Arabs, Chinese, Indians and others who were residents of Indonesia had to choose their homeland. My family, with Chinese origins—and many others—had been there for four or five generations, but our citizenship was ambiguous. Most of us chose Indonesia.

“Then all of us Chinese were to select names that were Indonesian. It became an opportunity to choose ‘Christian’ Indonesian names. In our area, the Christians all chose names that incorporated the name ‘Christ.’ I became ‘Mesach Krisetya.’ Mesach was one of Daniel’s friends in the Old Testament book of Daniel. He was a fireproof man. ‘Krisetya’ is a two-word term. ‘Kris’ means ‘Christ’; ‘Setya’ is a Sanskrit word for ‘loyal’ or ‘truthful.’ So my name means ‘the fireproof man loyal to Christ.’ I hope that I can be one.”

Turning a Corner Vocationally
Forever identified as a Christian, Mesach has also decided to continue with the Mennonites. “Where I was born anew was with the Mennonites, so I stuck with the Mennonites.” Not only has he pastored in Mennonite congregations, he has become a Mennonite professional. Some of his training and internships were done in North American Mennonite institutions. (He has an M.Div. degree from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries [AMBS] and a D.Min. from the School of Theology in Claremont, California. He interned at Prairie View Hospital in Newton, Kansas, and at the Vellore Medical College Hospital in India.)

“While in the Baptist seminary in Indonesia, I became quite interested in counseling because I had been helped by that. While I was studying at AMBS in Elkhart, Indiana, a professor told me that he thought practical theology was for me, based on what he knew of me and some testing I did there. So I let New Testament Studies go, which I had thought was for me.”

The switch in vocational direction seemed to fit Mesach well. Today he is vice-president of the professional association, the International Council on Pastoral Care and Counseling, and lectures around the world on issues related to that field. He is on the teaching faculty of Satya Wacana Christian University where he also heads the department of Pastoral Care.

Imagining a New Place for Mennonite World Conference
Mesach’s first brush with Mennonite World Conference (MWC) was in 1972 when he attended the worldwide Assembly in Curitiba, Brazil. C.J. Dyck, then his professor at AMBS, found a sponsor for his trip and sent the fledgling churchman to the international event.

He brought his scalpel-sharp observations to the MWC Executive Committee when he joined it some 20 years later. There he has become a voice for ever-increasing mutuality among MWC member churches around the world. He is prophetic with a touch of fearlessness.

“Mennonite World Conference is the only organization where Mennonites and Brethren in Christ from around the world can say what they want to say on an equal basis.

“I am still dissatisfied that MWC is seen primarily as an organization who’s supposed to arrange the next Conference. I want ‘Communion.’ We ought to pick up ideas that create relationships, that create mutual influence. For example, Joram Mbeba [a Mennonite bishop from Tanzania and fellow MWC Executive Committee member] recently asked me to come to Tanzania to provide some pastoral care and counseling. This is the kind of exchange that can happen with global coordination. Then the world becomes very small.

“Prophetic voices are coming from the Southern Hemisphere, and I believe they will begin to change the church. I believe inter-dependence will begin to happen, that there will be a new mix. There is a changing mentality in the North. The Northern Hemisphere churches who have never had much experience in suffering now want to share in our suffering.”

Mesach has too little time these days. His own people are under threat as Christians in Indonesia, and he works constantly with other leaders there to address fears and prepare for increasing pressures and unknown dangers. Yet he continues his advocacy for global linkages church-to-church, a growing necessity, he believes.

He isn’t imagining a backslapping family reunion among Anabaptist Christians. “We will need to decide whether we can agree that we have differences, and that our differences will not separate us. We should not impose our traditions on each other or let doctrine divide us, because doctrine does divide. “Mennonite World Conference’s emphasis should be on service. We do need a common belief and hope—and we have that—then together we serve.”

There appears to be nothing so defining for human beings as hard times. Mesach Krisetya became a church leader during political upheaval in his country, and he continues in a church that is under duress. From there he speaks to the global fellowship, not as a critic but as an encourager. His disarming sense of humor and his years of speaking English in North America have prepared him also for a worldwide audience. He addresses it with wisdom and surprising twists on well-known English-language idioms.

He grants that he hasn’t learned how to relax, but he can’t stop imagining all that could be done, both at home and in churches elsewhere in the world. “I would like to pay more attention to the welfare of the people,” he says.

Now Mesach, the fireproof man who is loyal to Christ, is needed both locally and globally. His and Miriam’s two sons are raised, he’s had the deep satisfaction of seeing his parents become Christians, and he enjoys his job. But the Indonesian churches are leaning on his wisdom and strength in their live danger, and Anabaptist Christians in many parts of the world are beginning to pay some attention to the prophetic call for a Mennonite World “Communion.”
— Phyllis Pellman Good, MWC News Service