Heroic Nommensen Created a Lively Church on Sumatra

WHAT IS KNOWN about missionary Ludwig Nommensen can be summed up in this story: One day, several Batak chiefs entered Nommensen’s hut on Sumatra (an island in Indonesia), intending to harass him until he lost patience. Again and again they demanded that he entertain them. Nommensen, who had once shamed himself by throwing an intruder out of his home, responded with a different attitude this time. He told them Bible stories, played his violin, showed them a magnifying glass, and even offered them food. Late at night he said he had to sleep. The chiefs did not leave but lay down, too. In the morning they woke to find he had covered them with blankets as they slept. They left his hut, ashamed. 

Born in Denmark on this day 6 February 1834, Nommensen was raised in a Lutheran household. When he was just twelve, a cart crushed his legs. His parents assured him he would recover, but he knew they did not believe it. A year later, still bed-ridden, he was reading his Bible when he came across Jesus’s promise in the Gospel of John “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14). “Is it true?” he asked his mother. 

“It is true, because it is God’s word,” she replied. Nommensen took God at his word and promised that if he were made healthy again, he would become a missionary. By the time he was sixteen, he was able to walk. He entered a church to thank God for his healing and asked in prayer if God indeed wanted him to become a missionary. He felt convinced that the answer was “yes.” However, because his father died around that time, he had to support his family, and was twenty-four years old before he could begin training with the Rhenish Mission Society. In 1862, he sailed for Sumatra where he spent the rest of his life. 

For several years, the fruits of Nommensen’s efforts appeared negligible. Witchdoctors attempted to poison him. Not until 1865 did he baptize his first convert. The trouble in Sumatra was that anyone who became a Christian lost their place in the tightly-integrated clan structure. Nommensen quickly recognized that the best model for a Batak church would be one which adapted to the clan structure, placing all power and responsibility into the hands of the Batak themselves. He translated the New Testament into their language. 

When a few chiefs converted to Christianity, entire clans followed. Fourteen years after Nommensen’s arrival on the island, there were two thousand Christians. The numbers accelerated in the years that followed, and by his death in 1918, there were one hundred and eighty thousand converts. Now, the problem was not how to convert the Batak, but how to train so many. The Dutch assisted Nommensen’s efforts by having school teachers teach Batak students the catechism. 

Despite the growing number of converts, Nommensen wanted more. He moved into a remote mountain area of the island to claim its inhabitants for Christ. When the Dutch left Sumatra in World War II, the native church stood the test, increasing fourfold. 

In 1881 Nommensen visited Germany with his wife. He had to leave her behind when he returned to Sumatra, for she was gravely ill. She died before he could see her again, which caused him deep pain. He also lost four of his children to early deaths. By his own death, he had overseen the creation of schools, hospitals, and a seminary to serve the Batak believers. Although now surrounded by Muslims, Sumatra’s church remains lively to this day.

—Dan Graves