Batak Christian Protestant Church
| Batak Christian Protestant Church Huria Kristen Batak Protestan |
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| Abbreviation | HKBP |
| Classification | Protestant |
| Theology | Lutheran |
| Structure | Interdependent local, and national expressions with modified congregational polity |
| Leader | Ompui Ephorus Darwin Lumbantobing |
| Associations | WCC, CCA, LWF, PGI |
| Region | Indonesia |
| Headquarters | Tarutung |
| Origin | 7 October 1861 |
| Branched from | Rhenish Missionary Society |
| Members | 4,500,000 |
| Other name(s) | Huria Kristen Batak Protestan |
| Official website | www |
The Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP), which translates into English as the Batak Christian Protestant Church, is the largest Protestant denomination in Indonesia, with a baptized membership of 4,500,000. Its present leader is Ephorus (or Bishop) Darwin Lumbantobing.
The first Protestant missionaries who tried to reach the Batak highlands of inner Northern Sumatra were English and American Baptist preachers in the 1820s and 30s, but without any success. After Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn and Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk did intensive research on Batak language and culture in the 1840s, a new attempt was done in 1861 by several missionaries sent out by the German Rhenish Missionary Society (RMG). The first Bataks were baptized in this year. In 1864, Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen from Rhenish Missionary Society Germany, reached the Batak region and founded a village called "Huta Dame" (village of peace) in the district of Tapanuli in Tarutung, North Sumatra.
The RMG was associated with the Unierte Kirche, or union of Lutheran and Reformed churches. However, Nommensen and local leaders developed an approach that applied local custom to Christian belief.
Already in 1868, a local seminary for the education of teachers was opened in Sipirok, and in 1877 a seminary for the education of preachers was built in Pansurnapitu. 1881, Nommensen was officially nominated "ephorus" of the Batak congregations by the RMG. In 1885, the first Batak ministers were ordained in Pearaja Tarutung, where the HKBP headquarters is located until this day.
In 1889, the RMG sent out Sr. Hester Needham who started the work with girls and women and later established the first Batak deaconesses.
In the last quarter of the 19th century, further missionaries of the RMG were sent out to the other Batak tribes (Angkola, Dairi, Simalungun, Karo, Pakpak).
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