Abstract
This study aims to examine the patterns, factors, processes, and substantive theory of the commitments that appear among Batak tribe missionaries in Indonesia and their missiological implications. This study used the grounded theory method, and the central question of this study is how the Batak missionaries commit themselves to be missionaries. Through in-depth interviews with 30 Batak missionaries, about 1,300 pages of interview data were collected, and qualitative data analysis was conducted in the stages of conceptualization, categorization, structurization and theoreticalization, with 343 concepts, 42 subcategories, 11 categories, and 3 pattern was derived. The central phenomenon is ‘outgoing-immersion-communication’. The analysis results were verified by the study participants, qualitative research experts, and fellow missionaries. The commitment pattern of Batak missionaries is outgoing, immersion, and communication, and the commitment process consists of patterns of outgoing, immersion, and communication. The substantive theory of the commitment of the Batak missionaries was presented as a core category, storyline, and integrated model. The core category is ‘Communicating with God’s altruism beyond the boundaries of the one’s comfort zone’, and the integrated model is explained as spiritual transformation, altruistic transformation, missional transformation, and lifetime transformation. The missiological implications of Batak missionaries’ commitment are organized by outgoing, immersion, and communication patterns. This study provided a missiological and strategic perspective to Batak churches, prospective missionaries, and mission organizations by deriving a substantive theory of the missionary commitment of the Batak tribe, which has been rare in research data, and explaining it in connection with the missiology theory.
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