Family Altar as a Papuan Contextual Missiology Education in Christian Family Environment

ABSTRACT


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renewal and development within society. Additionally, Christian education within the church can serve as the foundation and means for actualizing Christian missions (Tafonao, 2020;Widjaja & Boiliu, 2019). It can be achieved by shaping and developing students' attitudes to behave wisely and responsibly (Nainggolan, 2020;Abdul, 2007). The Christian Religious Education curriculum is oriented toward missiology (Sembiring & Simon, 2022). Therefore, education can assist in developing a curriculum that aligns with the local church's mission. As an educational entity, the church is responsible for providing education and instruction to all its learners (Rumangkang, 2021;Betu & Arifianto, 2022). In this context, the learners are all members of the congregation of the Lord who are nurtured within a specific local church environment. Thus, Christian Religious Education within the church is an educational activity specializing in the congregation's members served by a particular local church organization (Rumangkang, 2021).
Some of the results of the missiological-contextual studies that have been presented point to the culture of local communities that are addressed with local contextual theological efforts that provide Christian values in behaving and behaving as a community. In contrast to the current research, which is an effort to understand the local cultural context of family institutions, how to live, behave and act? And now, there needs to be a value transformation in adapting to a plural society that is very dynamic in various aspects of life today. Here, the researcher points to the local tradition of 'votive plate ritual,‛ synonymous with 'family altar.‛ When Ottow-Geissler started missionary work, they said the first prayer, 'In the Name of God we tread on this land‛ in Papua, but when the Moluccan teacher-preachers came to Papua around 1920, they applied family rituals, vows, giving votive money as a surrender of life.
Family to God. This tradition then grows to color the patterns of attitudes and actions of the Papuan people, who have a background of family problems of almost the same character, such as facing strong animism and dynamism beliefs, how to deal with evil spirits/demons that bring havoc to the family, threats from enemies, as well as security, health and welfare problems. Thus, belief in the spirits of family ancestors contributes to overcoming family problems. Contextual local theology of family votive plates -family altars as an effort to answer the above family problems. The transformation of traditional values that have been consumed by time drowned in the conditions of a multi-ethnic, multicultural and even multi-religious society today, thus encouraging researchers to conduct research on the current state of the family in the GKI Sentani City service environment and find this tradition pattern has been transformed following the biblical family altar tradition.
The family altar in the contextual missiological study emphasizes the holiness of the family and the role of the mission of the Papuan Christian family. Researchers examine the noble values families practice in the context of local Papuan culture. The study covers the beginning of the family altar practiced by church/school teachers from Maluku who evangelized and served newly established churches/schools in North Papua, which later became known in the practice of the GKI (Evangelical Christian Church) fellowship in the Land of Papua. Reviews, local theology such as Anak Perdamaian, Koreri that experienced contextualization in Papua found the formulation of Papuan theology. Here, local theological content emerges that is very relevant to the Christian life of the adatic community. Likewise, the family altar in Papua also explores how the Word of God in the Bible touches and is present in the lives of Papuan Christian families. That is where local culture becomes urgent and raises the scientific relevance of contextual biblical theology.
The church as an organization has an interest in implementing the content of contextual missiology into something valuable in the congregation (Christian family). From this activity, there will be an internalization of biblical values that color local culture and align with indigenous peoples' life patterns. Contextualization of the family altar in Christian life that was once actual and the fruit of evangelism is now eroded in the life of a multi-cultural society. What should be the church's concern so that the local culture of the family altar can be understood and benefited in Christian life? Researchers encourage the development of various studies on family altars in Papua, such as the local culture of indigenous initiation houses, karwar houses, and others.

METHODS
This research uses a qualitative approach with a qualitative analytic description method (Moleong, 2002). There are features in qualitative research, including a natural setting or relying on an ethnographic approach. The ethnographic approach is intended to analyze culture or aspects of culture (culture). John Creswell (2019) formulates the ethnographic approach, which means writing and identifying groups of people about how they live at home, at work, and how they behave, think and speak.
Data and data sources research data, according to Creswell (2019), are words and actions. The rest is additional data (Moleong, 2018). Primary data sources in this research are participants/respondents who hear, know, and practice the Family Altar. Secondary data sources are scientific written data. The researcher determined randomly and appointed freely (purposeful sampling) participants/respondents consisting of functional church workers (pastors, elders, shamas), as many as ten families, and the youth category as many as five youths.
Data-information collection techniques are practiced by logic (Moleong, 2002). John W. Creswell (2019) explains data collection techniques and procedures through qualitative observation and interviews. Researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with participants. Data Analysis Procedure is a data analysis process simultaneously with research development. The research took place from October 2022 to March 2023, and the structure of this article consists of an Introduction, Research Methods, Research Results, Discussion, and Closing.

RESULTS
Research Findings Through observations and interviews conducted by researchers on the participant's environment in the context of researching GKI Klasis Sentani congregations in the Sentani City service area, the following results were obtained:

Contextualizing the Family Altar
The research results indicate that Christian character education can shape and develop students' inner attitudes to behave wisely and responsibly. In education, the role of a teacher as an instructor, educator, and agent of renewal and development is of utmost importance. Therefore, education can assist in cultivating teachers capable of becoming agents of renewal and development within society. Additionally, Christian education within the church can serve as the foundation and means for actualizing Christian missions. It can be achieved by developing a curriculum that aligns with the local church's mission. As an educational entity, the church is responsible for providing education and instruction to every learner. The research results also show that Christian education can benefit family life, such as living in the worship of God, striving to exhibit respected Christian attitudes and behaviors, and always caring and sharing within the church and the community. Therefore, the values in rituals must continue to serve as a guide for life so that the community does not slide into traditional beliefs that contradict the Christian faith. In the context of missiology, Christian education can help develop a Christian religion curriculum that aligns with the local church's mission, shapes students' attitudes to behave wisely and responsibly, develops quality educational personnel, and cultivates teachers as agents of renewal and development within society.

Family Holiness
Participants explained that family altars are not strictly performed. It means that there have been changes in the practice of this ritual. Changes due to cultural acculturation and assimilation. Papua has a very heterogeneous population. Almost all tribes in the Indonesian homeland live here, including the many indigenous Papuan tribes. Each ethnicity has its own culture or customs. The acculturation process or positive friction among this multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society can be predicted. In addition, there are streams of people from various Protestant church denominations living here. If the acculturation process occurs, characterized by meetings between cultures, it will experience positive IJAE Page 171 friction so that cultures with highly beneficial values will become a reference trend to be followed by many people, especially young people. Now, in every family home, when doing prayers, the nuclear family always prepares an offering container, which is believed to be a votive plate. And the offering money is placed in a special place and on the family table/altar. Relating this to missiological education, it is evident that the evolving practices at family altars reflect the ongoing cultural dynamics and shifts within the society. As acculturation and assimilation influence these practices, the mission of preserving and imparting Christian values within this diverse cultural context gains importance. Missiological education can be pivotal in understanding and navigating these cultural shifts, ensuring that core Christian values are upheld and shared within the family and society.

Realizing the Family Mission
In the context of missiology, Christian education can assist in developing a Christian religious curriculum that aligns with the local church's mission. Additionally, Christian education can shape the inner attitudes of students to behave wisely and responsibly. In this regard, Christian Religious Education teachers play a crucial role as instructors, educators, and role models. The research results indicate that Christian character education can benefit family life, such as living in the worship of God, striving to exhibit respected Christian attitudes and behaviors, and consistently showing care and sharing within the church and the community. In the context of missiology, the movement of nations coming to Israel for salvation is called centripetal or centripetal conversion. In this context, families have an elegant centripetal mission pattern, where the news of the rejection, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus cannot be kept silent. This news captures the community's attention as it brings a life filled with joy, hope, and victory. Therefore, Christian education can assist in developing an elegant centripetal mission pattern within families, where the values in rituals continue to serve as a guide for life, ensuring that the community does not slip into traditional beliefs that contradict the Christian faith.

Adaptation of Contextualized Missiology
Historical notes by Dr. F. C. Kamma (1994) explain the continuous wave of evangelism by zending/missionaries arriving in Papua after the Papuan apostles Ottow and Geissler. Closely related to this research is the evangelistic movement of young evangelists/teachers from Ambon Maluku. They wholeheartedly, in obedience to Christ's evangelistic command, departed for Papua, which at that time was referred to by the zendeling as a dark or satanic land full of mysteries. History records that on March 28, 1908, Yohanes Paulus Patiluhu was the first teacher with his wife Albertina Latuheru, who brought the Gospel of Christ to Tanah Wondama, especially in Kaibi. Subsequently, many Ambon Maluku teachers were periodically sent to Papua.
GKI in Tanah Papua is part of the result of evangelism and church development of congregation teachers who are also formal school teachers. These preachers and teachers from Ambon-Maluku fully contributed to the formation of human civilization in the Land of Papua. Of course, it is clear that in this evangelistic work, the influence of local Moluccan culture adorns the teaching at that time, such as the Nazar Plate, a Christian culture enforced in the lives of GPM congregation members. Even this tradition is still actual today, such as the release of Pastor Elifas Tomix Maspaitella about the practice of vows in the context of rebuilding the Ebenhaezer church building, and the research results of Sendy Meylani (2014) a student from the Maluku Protestant Church who researched the Nazar Plate Ritual in the practice of the lives of Moluccan students attending school in Semarang City (UKSW).
The practice of votive plate rituals was initiated by Maluku congregation/school teachers from the past who evangelized and served in Papua. The practice of Christian rituals based on local Ambon-Maluku culture is a strategy to strengthen the faith of the teachers' families in facing the challenges of service in the territorial area.

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Traditional Papuan beliefs. Customary beliefs are often at odds with Christian beliefs. Such as the belief in the power of magic (black magic) in the form of hobatan to attack opponents to experience distress, pain and even death. Of course, wrestling with various ministry challenges, Ambon-Maluku teachers, in particular, actualize the votive plate ritual -a donation table, donation money and the Bible as a liturgical circle that symbolizes the holiness of God and even the Lord Jesus Himself is present in the family home. In this ritual place, the teachers communicate with God, who sent them to Papua. This communication is done every day, both day and night.
Geertz defines culture as a pattern of understandings or meanings that are thoroughly intertwined in historically transmitted symbols and are conceptions inherited in symbolic forms with which humans communicate, preserve and develop knowledge attitudes of life (Sedmak, 2002). It is inevitable that if there is a meeting between tribes (nations), their cultural customs will directly intersect and interact. The result is a process of cultural acculturation and assimilation between Christian teaching and family altar practices.
This ritual practice becomes a routine activity in every family that greatly honors cultural values and guides attitudes and actions. Therefore, the term ritual is always identified with habits or routines. Rothenbuhler (1998) explains, "Ritual is the voluntary performance of appropriately patterned behavior to affect or participate in serious life symbolically." In comparison, others understand rituals as habitual (hereditary) and formal actions and contain transcendental values. These views reflect that rituals are related to voluntary performances performed by the community for generations (based on custom) regarding patterned behavior.
In every ritual, some instruments/materials have symbolic meanings. The term "symbol" has various definitions and is considered a distinctive feature of religion because it derives from various religions' beliefs, rituals, and ethics. Symbols are defined as signs that are cultivated in various forms according to the culture and beliefs of each religion. Symbols are used to convey ideas or meanings. Symbols are expressive communication methods that carry messages or information that cannot be said directly. Because they refer to a different reality outside the context of experience, symbols can contain meanings not derived from experience. (John A. Saliban, 1976) In local culture, there are many symbols and ritual activities. Various kinds of symbols very much surround human life. Symbols have many functions, especially in religion. Some of them are religious symbols, which means turning something or action into something else (the holy) that is not visible in worldly (profane) experience (Ivan Th. J. Weismann, 2004). Victor Turner (1978) defines a symbol as something that has many meanings, both social (ideological, moral, normative) and individual (emotions, senses, desires). He also examines the value system of rites from the point of view of the meaning contained in symbols. According to him, rituals and symbols have a functional relationship, where symbols support rituals. Turner also argues that symbols are seen and understood as manifestations of rites. Through symbols, people can express and experience something transcendent. Mircea Eliade (1982) also argues that symbols are a tool or means to recognize the sacred and transcendent.
Christian teaching intersecting and interacting with the local culture of the Family Altar encourages efforts to contextualize Christian teaching to the local culture. As a result, the formulas of the Family Altar have not changed from old ritual practices to Christian ritual practices, but the theological foundation of the Family Altar of being and acting is built on Christian teaching. Thus, this contextualization process will make it easier for people to adapt because Christian teaching still uses elements or attributes of local culture. As revealed by Robert Schreiter, efforts to build local-contextual theology have three components that must be considered seriously. The three components interact dynamically and dialectically (mutual influence) throughout history. They are the Gospel, the church, and culture (Schreiter, 2015;Vaux, 1985). The Gospel settles in the church, and the church even lives from and by the Gospel. Then, the church, in its mission, encounters new cultures wherever the Gospel is proclaimed. We always build contextual local theology continually. We come to faith from the IJAE Page 173 preaching of others, as the apostle Paul terms fides ex auditu (cf. Romans 10:17 Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ).
Stephen B. Bevans (1992) emphasizes that Contextual Theology is an idea of a theological model that is appropriate for today. Efforts in contextual theology are necessary to understand the Christian faith in terms of a particular context. Therefore, theologizing from context facilitates absorption into the faith. Contextual theology opens up space for people to deal with traditional cultural and religious contexts on the one hand, but on the other hand, struggles with the context of modernization that causes changes in values, especially everything related to human dignity. Contextual theology is no longer a facultative option but a theological imperative.
This family altar practice is also continued by Papuan teachers who work to serve congregations and schools together with Ambon Maluku-Sangihe North Sulawesi teachers. It should be remembered that the values of this ritual are being eroded by the practice of ministry, which continues to evolve following today's progress.

Family Holiness
For this reason, it is necessary to understand the existence of the Christian family, the form of the Christian Family, when God created humans as male and female. Genesis 1:26,27 God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, that they may have dominion over the sea fish, the birds of the air, and all the earth. So, God created man in his image. He created him in God's image; male and female, he created them. This text comes from the priestly tradition. It tells us that from the beginning, God created human beings as distinct sexual persons, male and female. Both were created according to tselem and demut. Tselem, which means image or carved fruit. Tselem is something physical, tangible, or visible. So, the image of God should not be understood as a spiritual thing only, but rather, the complete human being is physically and mentally created in the image of God, according to God, with the same morals, talents, character, or character as God. In comparison, demut means likeness or likeness.
The meaning of this text is that man as a whole is the image of God, which is entirely imitated according to the original. Man is a copy of God, just as the son is a copy of his father (compare Genesis 5:3). Man's existence is thus more focused on the task assigned to him that 'they may have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and all the earth.' Humans are positioned as God's mandate on earth. Humans are in charge of God's sovereignty and are responsible to God to manage the universe, including all its contents. Here, humans must show the nobleness of God in their life behavior. The conclusion is that human beings are persons of noble dignity, and human beings are sexual persons, a man, and a woman, as equally noble creations; they were created with equal dignity and equality (Genesis 1:27) (Singgih, 2011).
God blessed the man and woman to become a family that would continue their descendants and be responsible for managing the universe. To fulfill their needs and glorify God (Genesis 1:27-31). The family is also a sacred institution in society. The family institution must obtain legality culturally from the indigenous community, while it is confirmed in a church holy marriage service from the state through the government. When adat-culture, government, and religion give legalization, the family institution gains juridical validity in adat-culture, government, and religion.
Thus, the quality of family life has fundamental characteristics that strengthen the family to serve and witness. The characteristics of a Christian family will show the quality of the household, where it can present reference values, role models, and capabilities during society, thus contributing to the creation of a peaceful and safe family. Characteristics of a Christian family include: God ordained the formation of a family, so the Christian family is very good, the Christian family is monogamous, the equality of men and women in the family, and a noble Christian family life goal.
As in Genesis 1:29; 2:15, the purpose of family life is to maintain a holy relationship with God and glorify God, and work responsibly to manage everything around them for the welfare of their family life and positively impact others. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew term aboda means worship, sincere work, or worship service. The Hebrew term Avad, the English term serve, means to serve or worship, IJAE Page 174 which is used in Joshua 24:15 at the end, saying "but for me and my house we will serve Jehovah," meaning "but I and my household will serve the Lord." The word serve is avod (Jhon D.W. Watts, 1975).
Worship is the response of a believing heart to God. Old Testament worship is related to cult, which means there is a ritual or a liturgy. Cult is the term used for the Old Testament's formal and ritualized aspects of worship. Cult or ceremonial worship is only the Old Testament people's response to God's revelation. Worship expresses the whole life of the people who are in the power of God. The people expressed awe, reverence, and praise to God, the Creator who always revealed His presence through His Word, Theophania (Theophany), and miracles. Worship usually expresses an inner reality: repentance and faith in God are affirmed through worship ceremonies (William Dyrness, 1993).
Several terms are used in the New Testament in connection with congregational worship, including Latreia, which means hired work, service, and the worship of a god, God (compare Romans 1:25) (Abineno 1960). According to Romans 9:1, in the OT cult, one of God's gifts to His people is latreiaworship. All work related to worship-cult/ritual is called latreia. Soma is a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Latreian here means offering the whole existence as a sacrifice to God. Latreuein is everything that members of the congregation/family do in their lives for God, such as "in thought and prayer" or "in word and deed." Romans 12:1 The apostle Paul urgently exhorts with parakaleo authority that you offer your bodies ta somata, or your whole spiritual being, to God. And that is your true worshiplogiken latreian-English reasonable service-meaning responsible service or reasonable worship (Dyrness, 1993).
Therskeia means worship adoration. Therskeia has more of a cultic flavor than latreia. Acts 26:5, the apostle Paul used this word in his speech before Agrippa. The apostle James used it for ministry with the meaning of worship-threskeia does not restrain his tongue in vain. The holy worship that pleases God is caring for orphans and widows in their distress and abstaining from the filth of the world (James 1: 26-27). Threskeia It is completely cleansed of its cultic and ritual nature. It is similar to the social-love work in writing (Abineno, 1960).
Douleuein means to work or serve as a servant. The word is widely used in the New Testament and often in serving as a servant. Douleuein states that service or worship does not have a cultic nature but has more of an ethical (moral) character.
Leitourgia means the work or service of the nation. It means work or service done for the nation as a political community. The term leitourgia -liturgia is better known for implementing congregational worship. Political patterns are still visible in the sacrifices and hymns given for the salvation of the nation and the state.
From the description of the terms associated with New Testament worship, a formal understanding of New Testament worship can be given, which is as follows (Abineno 1960): 1. New Testament worship is contrary to pagan worship and differs from Old Testament worship. Old Testament worship has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 2. New Testament worship has no sacrifices. The servants of Jesus Christ were not called to offer sacrifices to God but to preach the Gospel in word and deed. The sacrifice was offered once and for all. They often used Old Testament terms of worship in their preaching, but these terms were given new meanings by their preaching. 3. Preaching is not only within the house of worship. Preaching is also carried out outside, namely into the world and to the end of the world (Acts 1: 8). New Testament worship is always open, and the church's liturgy is continued in service to fellow human beings, diakonia, and apostolate.

Papuan Christian Family Mission
Missio Dei means God's self-revelation as a God who loves the world, and the church is privileged to participate. Missio Dei is the whole work of God to save the world, such as the election of Israel, the sending of prophets to Israel and the nations, the sending of Christ to the world, and the sending of apostles and evangelists to the nations. God is the Great Sender. Missio Christi is the sending of Christ, namely Christ sent by God, and Christ who sent His disciples to reveal the Kingdom of God. Missio

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Ecclesiae is the missionary efforts of the church that refer to specific forms related to a particular time, place, or need of participation in Missio Dei. Church Mission is the missionary work of the church throughout world history.
Yakob Tomatala (2003) states that mission is related to evangelization, which is preaching the Gospel as one of the essential dimensions, and church growth, which is increasing the number of people being saved. Of course, the mission is broader than evangelization. The mission is the overall task that God has given to the church for the world's salvation. However, it is always related to a specific context (compare Jesus' mission description in Luke 4:18). Mission includes all activities that help free humanity from its slavery before God, a slavery that extends from economic needs to existence without God. The mission of the church is the church sent into the world to love, serve, preach, teach, heal, and liberate. God's mission was originally played by the patriarchs of Israel, culminating in Jesus Christ with his work, and then sent the church (Christians) to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God throughout world history. David J. Bosch (1999) states that Christian faith is essentially missionary.
The Bible shows God's mission (Missio Dei) that drives His people to do mission in the world. The Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, shows that there are aspects (movements) of the mission carried out centrifugally and aspects (movements) of mission-driven centripetally. The meaning of the word centrifugal mission is a movement from the center to the outside, namely the movement of God's mission into this world, or the Church/believers go to preach the Gospel to this world. Conversely, a centripetal mission is a movement of God's mission that occurs in the direction from outside towards the center, namely, people coming into fellowship with God. It seems that the mission has been more centrifugally driven. It can be followed in the development of mission history (Bambang Noorsena, 2005).
A fundamental principle drives these missions, namely the church's fidelity to a command  or the church obtaining a missionary mandate‛. The subjectivity of the church emerges that she is the one appointed by God to save people from destruction. Missions launched concerning missionary mandates and orders have been more centrifugal in nature. As a result, the church has placed mission as a burden rather than joy or mission as a law rather than part of the Gospel. The faithfulness of the church to carry out the command to preach the Gospel according to the missionary mandate in the Gospel of Matthew 28: 19-20 has reaped the development of Christian services reaching many regions of the world, especially areas whose inhabitants still adhere to animism and dynamism or tribal religions.
Furthermore, the centripetal mission is the form or nature of the mission movement in which the nations (goyim) come to God and become God's people (am, qahal Yahwe) or come to Christ and become believers (ekklesia) as Verkuyl says of the mission motif that God saves Israel but also the Gentiles. The movement of nations coming to Israel to be saved is called the centripetal mission or conversion (Yakop Tomatala, 2003).
In the church tradition, mission is seen as fidelity to a command. The church has a missionary mandate. This traditional way of doing missions has made missions a burden rather than a joy. If we examine the New Testament, we get the impression that the news of Jesus' rejection, crucifixion, death and resurrection could not be silenced. Who could have covered up such a devastating fact? News that has attracted the community's attention, not for something bad, but for a joyful life, hope, and victory. It is shown in (Lesslie Newbigin, 1999).

CONCLUSION
Researchers conducted theoretical studies and empirical studies using qualitative methods with efforts to collect data and analyze data so the researchers can conclude the following: 1. The values in the Family Altar Ritual are very beneficial for the faith growth of family members: husband, wife and children. Values such as sincerity and loyalty to prayers worship. Local cultural education is easily digested and internalized in life through the process of informal family education.

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The family fortifies life from various destructive influences. Thus, the family has actively participated in a centripetal mission and contributed to providing goodness for the wider community. 2. The transformation of the value of the votive plate ritual in the GKI Sentani Klasis in the Papua City service environment fundamentally seeks to develop contextual local theo l o g y from the votive plate ritual to the contextual local theology of the altar of worship or the family altar table. What was once an exclusive closed ritual becomes inclusive and open to all family members, also maintaining the value of worship that lives in the presence and presence of God. God's holiness does not emphasize mysticism but realizes rationality-emotionality in expressing faith.

Funding and Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no funding and conflicts of interest for this research.