Reporting the Truth.
Restoring the Church.
By Rebecca Hopkins
On Oct. 28, 2025, evangelist Stephen Tong preaches at the World Evangelical Alliance General Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo: Facebook/Gospel Herald)
World-renowned Indonesian pastor Stephen Tong, often referred to as the “Billy Graham of Asia,” rebuked pastors who commit sexual sin but continue to preach during his sermon at an international conference this week in Korea.
“Shame on this kind of servant of God,” Tong said. “I have seen so many pastors. They commit sin, but they every week, come up and preach. That is a kind of cheating preacher, a kind of a hypocritical leader of the church.”
Tong, 85, is the founder of Jakarta-based Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia with 90 congregations around the world, including in Japan, China, and Germany. He’s also led evangelistic crusades, speaking to 37 million people on six continents throughout his more than 66 years of ministry, according to his website.
Tong, who still pastors, was one of many who spoke to about 8,000 attendees this week at the General Assembly of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) in Seoul. Speaking in English, Tong told the crowd he normally preaches for at least an hour, with his longest sermon clocked at more than seven hours long. But with just a 15-minute time allotment for the WEA conference, he chose one point: “the holiness of the Gospel messenger.”
“Now I ask you, are you holy?” Tong said. “Is your life a holy life? Is your brain a holy brain? Is your mouth a holy mouth? Are you preaching holy words? Is your hand a holy hand? . . . Then you can be a servant of God.”
Your tax-deductible gift supports our mission of reporting the truth and restoring the church. Donate $50 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you can elect to receive “Redeeming Eden: How Women in the Bible Advance the Story of Salvation” by Ingrid Faro, click here.
On Oct. 28, 2025, evangelist Stephen Tong preaches at the World Evangelical Alliance General Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo: Facebook/Gospel Herald)
He said too many pastors are “womanizing,” lying, and caring only about money. And yet they keep preaching rather than repent.
“If you go to prostitution, you commit adultery, do not dare to stand on the pulpit,” Tong said. “The pulpit is the holy of holy, the place of the holy God.”
Instead, he urged holiness and repentance, rather than selfish ambition, as the secrets to godly success.
“God will greatly use you, anybody in this meeting right now, (if) you say, ‘God, I want to be holy. Please cleanse me. Purify me by the blood of Jesus,’” Tong said.Evangelist Stephen Tong (Photo: Facebook/Gospel Herald)
Founded in 1846 in the United Kingdom, WEA has grown to become the world’s largest evangelical alliance and includes 143 evangelical organizations from 146 countries.
This 14th assembly meeting is the first since the COVID-19 pandemic and the first to take place in northeast Asia. The meetings, which continued until the end of the week, focused on the theme “The Gospel: For Everyone by 2033.”
Tong didn’t stop at chastising immoral pastors. Noting that Jesus’ main message when he was on earth was the importance of the kingdom of God, Tong urged this singular focus for preachers today. Some charismatic teachings have gotten the power of the Holy Spirit wrong by focusing on speaking in tongues, healing the sick, and miracles, Tong said.
“I tell you, to know if one man has the Holy Spirit or does not have the Holy Spirit, the secret is this,” Tong said. “A preacher, he is preaching the holy Bible, he has the Holy Spirit.”On Oct. 28, 2025, evangelist Stephen Tong preaches at the World Evangelical Alliance General Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo: Facebook/Gospel Herald)
Also, Tong urged pastors not to get caught up in preaching about politics.
“A preacher is not sent to preach the politics of communism, capitalism, or Korean politics,” Tong said. “A servant of God should preach only the holy Bible.”
When they’re rooted in the Bible, congregations will understand how to respond politically, he added.
Tong preaches the Gospel and Reformed theology to 2 million Indonesians every year, his website states. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country.
Tong has authored 75 books, is a successful musical composer of 200 hymns, and as an architect, has designed 30 buildings throughout the world. Calvin University recently awarded Tong the 2025 Kuyper Prize. The prize is named after the late Abraham Kuyper, a former Dutch prime minister, pastor, and founder of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands.
Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.
SHARE THIS:
Leave a Reply