From Redemption to Innovation (Ep. 307)

What are the steps to become an effective follower of Jesus?  Learn how FEBC Indonesia reaches out to the next generation in new ways that lead to real life in Jesus. This is part 2 of Jonathan Mortiz’s extended conversation with Yancen, our Indonesian Ministry director. Last week we heard about his journey to faith and the way John 3:16 took root in his heart. As a man who understands redemption and Indonesian culture, he also knows how to speak in the language of Gen Z youth. Reaching a generation that feels lost, lonely and uncertain of themselves and God is a difficult task. You will be amazed at the thoughtful and innovative ways Yancen and his staff are helping this hard-to-reach group take root in Jesus, grow in Jesus and become fruitful in Jesus…Until All Have Heard. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

John three sixteen. Who who believe him will live forever. That's my golden verse.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

His golden verse is John three sixteen, and he read that in his native tongue. Bahasan Indonesian. Okay. And uh it just points to the fact that FEBC are indigenous people. And when he's reading the Bible, he understands it best in his local language. All right. So our broadcast to the people are in the local language of Bahasin Indonesian.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

I got the John 3.16 part.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

Yeah. That was him, and it's from his heart. His heart language is Bahasin. So when he speaks about the gospel and the Bible, he'll speak in his heart language.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

His name is Jensen, and we're going to hear again from him as we did last week here on this podcast called Until All Have Heard from the Far East Broadcasting Company. That's Ed Cannon. I'm Wayne Shepherd, and our friend Jonathan Ortiz recently at the Innovation Forum, which was held in Helsinki, Finland, drawing our staff together to talk about innovative ideas. That's where Jonathan sat down and spoke with Jensen.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

He gave a presentation on his philosophy of how we use gospel broadcasting to reach a generation that doesn't necessarily listen to the radio. This teenage, they call a Gen Z generation, are listening differently. They have different listening patterns, different platforms they listen onto, and even program types and the way we reach them with the gospel. Janssen has really made a study of this. They're really working hard in Indonesia because they see a void. You know, FABC is all about reaching the unreached, the hardest to reach. And if we don't innovate to figure out different ways to reach this Gen Z, they're never going to come to here. So we were really proud of his effort. He put a lot of research into it, and he's come up with a program philosophy that he's going to talk a lot about. And so I'll be quiet and let you listen to what Jansen has to say.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Well, as he spoke his native tongue, uh he speaks youth as well. And that's that's the whole point of this conversation that Jonathan Martes had with him. So let's turn to the two of them now.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Now, uh you have you're doing an innovation for for the youth in in Indonesia, and you call it ASIC, right? Um how how do you do it? Uh can you share this to the listeners?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Yeah. Um maybe personally, this innovation is uh reflect on my experience for everything. The answer is just follow Christ. Just follow Christ.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Now, how how do you share that to the youth? Uh you know, how do you share that? Um how can they be involved in in the programs that you are doing?

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Okay. We have three stages. We have three stages. Uh root in Jesus, grow in Jesus, and be fruitful in Jesus. So to be grow in Jesus, you know, uh everybody now now uh um focus on grow how to be grow, how to be uh uh best talent for God, how to use their talent for God, but they uh often forget about uh root so with ASIC acusuka equity christus in English is I love to follow Christ. We want to um make the foundation, share the foundation uh with them. Okay, if you want to grow in Jesus, you have to be rooted first. By what? By reading the Bible every day, by uh speak with him in your praying every day. So that's that's the most important, the basic one. We collaborate with the churches because uh yeah, we we are not churches, F E B C not a church, so we share uh the responsibility with the churches. Yo, okay, uh we will um equip them as a body of Christ so they they um they don't feel that okay I'm alone uh as a church or as an individual, but you have a friend from the other church also. So Yasky or FBC Indonesia uh want to to build the that uh kind of you know um that kind of thing to to the churches so they can uh come and uh to be rooted first after that. We equip them with the classes. There is a seven-field, seven class that we offer to them in in the stages grow in Jesus. So they can come and they can share about their talent, their uh ability to us, and we can equip them uh where they lack of it, like uh broadcasting, social media, storytelling, video content production, um, sing and songwriting, um art, uh something like story story thing about that, public speaking. So after that, uh we can do the mission together. Uh now we are doing uh root stages, we are doing also uh grow stages and be fruitful stages together as a body of Christ. Not uh based on denomination denomination, but uh as a body of Christ.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

What are the ages that you're targeting here?

SPEAKER_01 5:41

15 till 25. 15 to 25. Yeah, 15 to 25.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

And um this is mostly uh online or social media, and and you're doing those trainings that you mentioned.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah. On air, by radio, online, by social media, and on site by uh delivering the message and do the mission together. Uh in the free in the prison, maybe in uh we worship together, we pray together in the public area, so uh the gospel can be shared. Uh others who passing by something like that. Uh yeah, on air, online, and on-site mission. We we are doing with that ways.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Now, with a conference, uh with your experience in the conference, how has being with other FEBC team members uh affected your spiritual life?

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Yeah, again, uh I'm not alone. I have a friends uh who can feel me uh better than before. And and the most important is I have a friend in the the the other side of this this world that pray for me and I pray for them, something like that.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Now who who are these? I mean, what countries are they coming from? So they you know our listeners in the US will will know.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Uh yeah, I have uh friends from from America, like uh US, uh Canada, something like that, and Europe, and you're from uh Finland, uh from uh Russia, many, many countries.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

So these are all represented from FEBC families, right? So these are your your contacts now when you ask them questions and yeah. Um why why do you think this gathering, this media innovation forum is important for the health of your ministry? Why do you think it's important?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah, because uh we believe that uh we need innovation. We need innovation and we believe AI. AI is uh abba innovation. Abba is Father, Father is uh you know, God, the Lord, our Lord Jesus, and um yeah, till now we need Jesus innovation to uh we need him to tell us about the innovation. So yeah, uh in spite of we we are doing innovation, we have to ask him, okay, if there is this struggle, there is this condition, what will I have to do? What will we have to do? And he give he give he will give us an an innovation that that the the the the way that we are thinking about innovation. So uh I'm I'm glad I'm glad that in this innovation forum, in this forum innovation forum, not only uh not only session about practically way, but also there's a praise and worship time, praying time, something like that. And there is a word that uh served every day in the beginning uh of our session in this forum, and that's all inspiring us as a foundation to do innovation.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Is there anything about the situation in the region you serve that you would like prayer? What would you like uh for for the American audience to pray for in Indonesia?

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah, um many, many things, but uh especially I hope uh you all pray for us about uh our young generation because uh you know there is uh for big struggle of our young people in Indonesia, the first is self-acceptance. Um they have lack of self-acceptance, even they are Christian. Why? Because the second one is they distrust, they have a distrust, distrust to their parents and their elders. That's why they lose and that's why they feel lonely lonely. And finally, they feel no God in his or her life. That's the fact now in young generation in Indonesia, especially uh Christian young people. They are very active in digital world, they are very active in their social media, but no God. Distrust to the parents and lonely feel lonely and feel no uh lack of self-acceptance.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

That's our FEBC staff member in Indonesia, Jansen, telling about his vision for reaching the youth there. Ed, when was the last time that we prayed? When was the last time I prayed for Indonesia? We need to put that on our list, don't we?

SPEAKER_03 10:55

Yeah, and especially as he has specifically asked for the youth of Indonesia. You know, there's a movement in that country even away from their Muslim faith. It's not that the young people are just turning away from the Christian faith, they're turning away from faith in general, which we do see some around the world, but particularly in Indonesia, it's it's a problem. The young people just have no interest in God regardless what they think of God as. And his point of the lack of self-acceptance is also a serious problem.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

You've seen that?

SPEAKER_03 11:30

Yeah. We we've talked with uh youth groups there in Indonesia, and it's sort of self-confidence, you know. I can't trust my parents, so I can't even trust myself. I don't know what to believe in. Uh it's uh life is hard there. There's you know it's difficult to get good jobs, uh college educations aren't necessarily even helping them advance uh in their careers, um, they're discouraged, they're depressed. Um it's a real problem among the youth there with just he he calls it self-acceptance. I think it's more like self-confidence, but it's more we don't have any idea what to put our faith in, because from what we've seen, nothing really works.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Aaron Ross Powell Well, I'm so thankful that FEBC is there through staff members like Jansen who are uh pointing to Christ as the answer to this need here. So thank you for this report today to Jonathan Mortiz.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

Aaron Powell Yeah, and what he's done, he's really laid this out strategically. The three stages he talked about rooted in Jesus, growing in Jesus, and fruitful in the world.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

That's pretty solid, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 12:35

So it's first understand and then grow and advance your knowledge so that way you can be fruitful in him. So that's the kind of message that he has come up with that appeals to kids. You can have a fruitful life by rooting yourself in Christ. And in order to root yourself in him, you need to grow in him and learn. And the way you do that is to spend time in scripture and in prayer. And what a solid message, not just for the youth of Indonesia, but for the youth in the entire world. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Well, I'm thankful for this podcast, which gives us the opportunity to uh drill down a little bit into some of these cultures and learn about them so that we can pray more effectively and be willing to support them in what they're doing there.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

Yeah. So pray for Jansen, his boldness, uh, his um his wisdom. Pray for the broadcasters there at Yasky in FABC's ministry in Indonesia, that they would be faithful and that they would be effective. And pray for those individual listeners, that those young people there who are discouraged and um looking for a real answer, that they would hear the truth on Yasky Radio and that they would place their trust in Christ.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

If you weren't with us last time on this podcast, we heard Jansen's testimony. So if you missed that, you can go back in the archive and listen to that and get a new appreciation for this young man who's been called of God for this ministry at the Far East Broadcasting Company. I think that'll do it for now. Thank you, Ed. Thank you, Wayne. And our producer Joe Carlson, thank you for your help with this program. And it all comes to you from the Far East Broadcasting Company. More, including our monthly prayer target available to you at FEBC.org. Thanks for listening.