them and befriended the local chief or “big man,” Zake. Even sorcerers trusted him and introduced him to their secrets.
Keysser’s familiarity with the worldview of the tribe convinced him that mission should not begin with the preaching of salvation through Christ. The people had no sense for it. The stories about creation and the heroes of the Old Testament were much closer to them.92 God was already there before the missionaries arrived. Missionaries needed to have a thorough knowledge of the language and customs of the people. Two key elements of this knowledge were the community of the tribe and the dualism between good and evil powers from birth to death. Thus the mission had to confront the people in their own living conditions and not try to convert them to the Western civilization.
This mission method was approved by the Missionary Field Conference in 1915 under the leadership of inspector Steck, who declared that the form of the mission and church should be Melanesian, not European. Missionaries needed to rethink their mission methods, suiting them to the Melanesian situation.93 Keysser was the first to view the converts as part of the clan. Their actions and their conscience were formed by the tribe. Instead of seeking individual conversion, the whole tribe had to be converted. Due to his extraordinary familiarity with the local Kate customs, Keysser organized traditional feasts during which he confronted the clan with its sorcery and posed the alternative to continue with sorcery and payback killings or to accept Anutu, the Christian God, as new God of the clan by becoming His vassals. When the tribe decided to leave their gods and sorcery and seek the protection of the Christian God, Keysser knew well that the initial conversion needed continuous encouragement.
A congregation is not a single individual, therefore it can only be awakened through years and decades of care. . . . The NEW in itself cannot produce life, but it is apparent that it provides a favorable opportunity for the life. . . . The simple, preached Word usually takes too much for granted as far as our primitive New Guinean is concerned. . . . The acted out Word, however, was not only better understood but it captivated the will and provoked decisive action.94
The way to secure the victory of Anutu was to base it on a new order of life for the community. Preaching God’s grace too soon would quench the new seriousness of faith. Baptism should happen only after approval of the clan or as part of the clan’s baptism. Together with local elders Keysser developed a Christian tribal order replacing the traditional clan orders. It introduced a new settlement policy in villages and regulated community obligations, property and succession laws, marriage rules (prohibition of bride-price and prohibition of corporal punishment of wives), and judicial power. These reforms were inspired by Christian ethics, but Keysser safeguarded the continuity with the pre-Christian order, since the new order was protected by the ancestors.95 Everyone knew that if the laws are obeyed, the community will benefit in food and well-being; if not, the community will be punished.
This order for the Sattelberg congregation served as model for many others. New Christian taboos replaced traditional ones. Instruments of discipline included shame and punishment if the law was broken.96 The Christian tribe and its order coincided with the local church. Authority in the congregations was exercised by the elders, who served as spiritual and disciplinary leaders. The delegation of responsibility for worship to the local elders should prepare the congregations for independence.
Tribal conversion had to be followed by instruction in the new faith, namely baptismal instruction, confirmation instruction, and schooling. Of great importance was the common responsibility of the converted community for mission, by sending out young volunteers of the congregation to not-yet-converted tribes. This spreading of the gospel by local evangelists became a ground-breaking success. The evangelists were not supposed to start any formal preaching or worshipping, but they shared their life as witnesses of the gospel until the time was ripe that the whole tribe decided to convert to Christianity. These indigenous evangelists became the agents of conversion for many tribes of the mountains and Highlands. They had received only very basic training but, due to the lack of missionaries, they would often give baptismal instruction. Keysser advised that this instruction should be simple and short. Sending evangelists strengthened the reciprocal ties between parent and child congregations, united the congregation in support of their mission, and raised a generation of church leaders through mission. The congregations which had received the gospel reciprocated it by passing it on to others.97 This mission work continued until the late 1970s. Its end threw some congregations into decline.
There can be no doubt that Keysser’s method paved the way for a truly indigenous Melanesian church from the coast to the densely populated Highlands in the 1930s. Peace and unity were achieved among formerly hostile clans under one God. An old man from the Hube area, the mission field of Keysser’s congregation in Sattelberg, remembers:
We won friendship with others and with people from other places. We were free to go where we want. We aren’t afraid to go to places where once we were afraid to go to. There is peace and cooperation now. Every time we go to a new place, we say one name: God or Jesus Christ. The people in that place say the same name and we are happy to be together. The word has put a big impact on our daily lives with one another by sharing the same faith and confessing and proclaiming the name of the Triune God in unity.98
The words “God” and “Christ” became the passwords to new fellowship beyond the former tribal borders. The new Christian order shaped the form and organization of Christianity for the first two generations. It marked Christian life with a strict ethos and served in the formation of a new Christian character. It brought never-before-experienced liberation from fear. However, despite its success the method of Keysser also raised criticism, which I will briefly discuss.
The main theological objection is that this mission method was based on laws rather than on the gospel of forgiveness of sins through the cross of Christ. The order itself became the way to salvation.99 In order to evaluate this criticism we must first understand the Lutheran element in Keysser’s method. Lutheran theology has one center: salvation as justification by faith, grace, and Christ alone. The law can only lead us to the recognition of sin; it will never lead us to salvation. The ethical use of the law and the law as means of salvation or way to God need to be strictly separated. The grace of God comes through the proclamation of the word of God. The first aim of mission is to spread the word of God to those who are living without it.
Keysser was influenced by the Neo-Lutheran emphasis of the nineteenth century on the people as God’s way of creating a Christian community. Mission aims at converting not individuals but a community. This can also be regarded as an expression of the priesthood of all believers, which was rediscovered by the Reformation. Therefore the missionary had to understand and find the right access to the people and their culture. In comparison to other missions it is remarkable that a number of Lutheran missionaries wrote ethnological studies about the people whom they converted.100
These people’s churches followed the German model, which had its roots in the time of the conversion of the German tribes.101 The place of God’s action was seen not as the congregation of the elect but the community of the people. The instruments of mission were the word of God, the sacraments, and church discipline. The latter was the responsibility of the people themselves, not of a higher office or clergy. The ideal was a self-governing, self-disciplining congregation with some freedom to choose the forms of their spiritual life. However, practical necessity and respect made the missionary the spiritual father who had a lasting influence in all forms of church order.
Like the Methodist missionaries, Keysser acknowledged that at the beginning of conversion there was no point of contact with the gospel of the cross. The people declared that they were not sinners and did not need the cross.102 Keysser succeeded in impressing the victory of Christ over the Melanesian spirits. However, the new Christian goal to serve God and to gain eternal life could be underpinned with the traditional Melanesian goal to achieve well-being in this life. The new
