# Borneo Evangelical Church

The Borneo Evangelical Church or SIB (Malay: Sidang Injil Borneo) is an evangelical Christian denomination in Malaysia. The church was organised in 1959 from the work of the Borneo Evangelical Mission.
Claiming more than 500,000 members, the SIB is the largest Protestant denomination in Malaysia having evolved from a small missionary presence among the Lun Bawang people of the Kelabit Highlands.

## History

SIB Sabah and SIB Sarawak were founded by the Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM) which itself had been established in Australia in 1928. Its pioneer missionaries came to Sarawak in late 1928 to evangelise the tribes of the heart of Borneo which until then had been unreached by the Christian faith. Aware that they would face competition in the cities, the BEM concentrated on interior rural areas and settled near the fringes of the Murut (Lun Bawang) area. In 1937, the work was extended to Sabah (then known as British North Borneo). From the start there were restrictions imposed by government officers, opposition by pagan tribal leaders, and problems of health and needs faced by the missionaries. From the small beginnings of several individual conversions, God brought about a people movement whereby whole tribes turned to Him. Miracles took place as God delivered many tribal people from the bondage of fear and oppression of paganism. The gospel began to spread from one tribe to another, village to village, downstream and upstream.
Sarawak's border areas were exposed to influences from American missionaries in Kalimantan (then known as Dutch Borneo), and most of the Lun Bawangs became Christian through interaction with their kinfolk, indigenous converts on the other side of the international boundary.
The first missionaries to visit the Kelabit Highlands in the Sarawak interior arrived in 1939, but the internment of Europeans during World War II opened the door to indigenous leadership. When missionaries returned to the highlands in 1947 they found that the Murut church had survived and that most Kelabit people had accepted Christianity through the activities of indigenous converts. Strongly committed to developing indigenous leadership, in 1948 the BEM established a bible school in the Sarawak town of Lawas for training teachers and deacons and translating the Bible into the Bornean languages was made a priority.
By 1958 an important symbolic step was made when it was decided to change the name of the mission to the Malay "Sidang Injil Borneo" (Borneo Evangelical Assembly). With the emphasis on training married couples to extend mission work and Kelabit out-migration to the oil-fields of Miri and elsewhere in search of employment and education, the SIB church spread through Sarawak. Although there was a strong Chinese component in the urban areas, most SIB members were tribal peoples. Local leadership played an important role in the conversion process.
BEM had always been a mission with a strong emphasis of building an indigenous church. In 1950, a 15-year policy had been adopted to work toward a church in Borneo which would be sufficiently grounded and instructed to be able to take over the responsibility of Christian witness and evangelism. Translation of the Bible into the native languages was a priority in this work. A biennial conference elected local leaders for the Combined Executive Council of Sabah and Sarawak. In line with the emphasis of the 'Twin Primary Tasks' of BEM, SIB seeks to be significantly involved in evangelism and to build up churches through Bible teaching and leadership training. BEM, which merged with the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) in 1974; it continues to provide advice and indirect assistance.
SIB Sabah was formed as a separate body from SIB Sarawak in 1976 in response to political circumstances.
In the early 1970s, renewal and revival continued and the gospel of Christ continued to spread among the interior people. Many young people went to towns from rural Christian backgrounds either for study or in search of jobs and this migration opened opportunities to SIB to build new churches in town areas.
Supported by teaching institutions and ongoing church-planting, SIB membership, reckoned at around 1000 in 1962, rose to 75,000 in 1993, and some interior churches can now accommodate as many as 3000 worshippers. The SIB is also well established in urban centres notably Lawas, Limbang, Miri, Kuching, Sandakan, Tawau, Labuan and Kota Kinabalu where many native villagers have migrated in search of work.
In the early 1990s, Pastor Richard Samporoh and late wife, Pastor Stemmah Sariau, native Dusun church members who are emigrants from Kota Belud in the northern part of Sabah's West Coast Division, started a SIB ministry in their house after noting the increasing number of Sabah and Sarawak natives emigrated to the Peninsular either for study or seeking employment. However for many years, the majority of the members were the natives from East Malaysia who pursue higher education in local and private universities in the Klang Valley. In 1993, the student ministry began to receive more students from Borneo which led to the formation of the first SIB (BM) church in the Peninsula known as SIB Damansara Utama (renamed SIB Petaling Jaya in 1997). Over the years, the church began to plant new churches in various locations under the SIB Sabah. In 2005 they became known as SIB Semenanjung.
The church's leadership was handed over to a married couple, Dr. Chew Weng Chee, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Tung Shin Hospital, and Lew Lee Choo, another doctor who studied in the UK. The English congregation grew from 15 people in 1994 to around 130 in 1998. In 2006, SIBKL rented out three floors in a downtown building.

## Structure and organisation

The SIB has been independent from its inception as an organisation in 1959. It has been registered with the governments of Sabah and Sarawak. Its Constitution was officially recognised by its governing body in 1961.
Over 15 local groups are represented. Services are held in Malay, English, Chinese and native ethnic languages including Iban, Bidayuh, Kadazandusun, Kayan, Kelabit, Kenyah, Lun Bawang, Penan, Punan, Tagal, Orang Asli, Melanau and several others. While it had its beginnings in the interior places of Sabah and Sarawak, churches have now been established in the main towns. SIB members and churches are now distributed throughout Sabah, Sarawak, and West Malaysia. In Sabah there are 221 churches, 76 pastors and a membership of 34,260; In Sarawak there are 219 churches, 185 pastors and a membership of 59,674.
Six Bible schools are associated with the SIB.