It’s not new.  It’s not innovative.  It’s not trendy.  It doesn’t produce immediate results.  But it is a key element to church planting and the long-term sustained growth of the church.  It’s pastoral visitation.  As part of church planting efforts in the rural community of Nong Doan, Pastor Jareun and I have been visiting Mr. Ting, teaching him chronological Bible lessons and addressing various issues that come up.  Sometimes he gets it and sometimes he doesn’t.  “My sister is Catholic and worships Mother Mary.  Is that the same as what we do?” “I know Jesus rose from the dead but we still go through many reincarnations, right?”  It takes a long time to help inquirers and new Christians to get their mind around what the Bible teaches about God and ourselves.  Preaching and church attendance are an important part of the discipleship process but regular visits at home to go over the Scriptures and discuss matters more personally are an invaluable aid in helping people move from a Thai Buddhist worldview to a Thai Christian worldview, anchored in the Bible. 

Although widely accepted as institutions of “traditional” evangelicalism, the altar call and the sinner’s prayer did not always enjoy such favor.  When first introduced in the early 19th century, these innovative practices provoked great controversy and debate.  However, as revival meetings and evangelistic rallies brought in thousands of new converts and those numbers were reported in the newspapers of the day, it became increasingly difficult to argue with success.  The large numbers of converts were pointed to as undeniable proof of God’s blessing upon these “new methods” (as they were called at the time).  Those who opposed them were labeled as “anti-revival men” who were “working against the Spirit.”  The altar call and the sinner’s prayer did not win the day because of some new theological insight but on the pragmatic basis of success.  Why would you want to oppose something that works?  People are coming to Christ, aren’t they?

Everyone who becomes a Christian has a unique story.   The ultimate cause of salvation is God convicting a person of sin and graciously turning their heart to himself so that they might exercise faith and repentance.  However, the secondary reasons that people are initially attracted to the Gospel are much more varied.  For some people, a crisis in their life leads them to reach out for help.  For others, they are impressed by the love and welcome of the Christian community.  And still others have burning questions about the origin and meaning of life.  One of the most unique and peculiar accounts that I have encountered is the story of Nān Inta, the first convert in the ministry of Daniel McGilvary.  Regarded widely as the Father of the Church in Northern Thailand, McGilvary gives the following account in his autobiography:

Like most people, I don’t like going to the doctor or even listening to the doctor because I know that I am going to be told to do something that I don’t want to do.  Like get a test, give some blood, take medicine, or get a further test for something that feels fine (just to double check, of course).  I’d like to think that I have better things to do with my time because unless I am in severe pain, then everything is fine.  For missionaries, or anyone else in Christian ministry, there is the added temptation to ignore doctor’s advice because it will take time away from the Lord’s work.I ran across a story in the autobiography of Daniel McGilvary that reminded me that doctors are sometimes ignored with dire consequences.  McGilvary was a 19th century missionary pioneer to northern Thailand and we pick up the story as he returns home to Chiang Mai from an extended evangelistic tour through the jungles of Northern Thailand.

The idea that “Jesus died for sinners” is a very hard one to swallow for Thai Buddhists because the idea of substitutionary atonement is absent from their religion.  The Buddha taught that you are alone in the universe and that you must someday pay for your bad karma.  No one can pay off your bad karma debt.  You’re gonna get it eventually - either in this life or some successive life.  Everything bad that happens to a person in their life is the result of some bad karma from their past.  From this point of view, as you might imagine, Jesus dying on the cross looks a lot more like Jesus getting his just due for some bad karma in a previous life rather than the selfless sacrifice of the sinless Son of God.

It is always good to know that someone is speaking from experience and not just theory.  Therefore, following on from my previous post about Nevius’ thoughts on finding local leaders, I wanted to share Nevius’ account of how he and his missionary colleagues made the mistake of appointing elders too hastily:“Twenty years ago our mission in considering this subject reasoned on this wise: We are Presbyterians, and our churches should be organized from the first on Presbyterian principles.  If we cannot get men for elders as well qualified as we should like, we must take the best men we can find, men who seem sincere and earnest Christians, and who may develop in character and ability to fulfill the duties of elders by having the duties and responsibilities of this office laid upon them.  With these views and expectations several churches were formally and constitutionally organized.  It was found, however, in not a small proportion of cases that the elders did not, or could not, perform their official duties, and were an obstruction to any one else attempting to do so.  They were placed in a false position, injurious to themselves and the churches of which they had the nominal charge.  Some were hardly able to sustain the character of an ordinary church member and others were in a course of few years excommunicated.  We then took action as a Presbytery, determining that

Every missionary wants to develop indigenous local leaders so that an indigenous church may be established.  When there are not many local Christians to choose from, it can be difficult to find the right people, especially those that are Biblically qualified.  With many years of experience under his belt as a missionary in China, John Nevius had that following to say on the subject:

 

"It is only natural that missionaries should at first seek and employ many native agents.  They are anxious for immediate results, and home societies and the home churches are as impatient to hear of results as the missionaries are to report them.  No communications from the field seem so indicative of progress, and are so calculated to call forth commendation and generous contributions as the announcement that native laborers have been obtained, and are preaching the gospel.  While the missionary himself is for months or years debarred from evangelistic work by his ignorance of the language, a native agency stands waiting his employ.  His circumstances and his wishes add stong emphasis to the oft-repeated truism, "China must be evangelized by the Chinese." So urgent seems the necessity to obtain native assistants that if such as he would like are not forthcoming, he is glad to avail himself of such as he can get.  How many of us have thought in connection with some specially interesting inquirer, even before he is baptized, "What a capital assistant that man might make." (John Nevius, The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches, Monadnock Press, Hancock New Hampshire, 2003, p.21)

 

There is a church that my wife and I know well where almost none of the people on the church leadership committee are qualified to be there (this church uses a leadership committee instead of an elder board, deacon board, or some other form of church government).  Sure they are aware of passages like 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 that lay out the Biblical qualifications for elders but those requirements don't seem to be very important to them.  As in the time of Nevius,

I love reading stories of people and events in church history because many times the past gives me a different perspective on the present.  History helps me to peel back my contemporary blinders a bit and see things in a new way.  I recently finished reading a little book called, “The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches” by John Nevius, first published in 1886.  Nevius was an American Presbyterian missionary working in 19th century rural China.  Although relatively unknown outside of mission circles, Nevius is well known for developing the three self principles of planting churches on the mission field, namely that churches must be self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating.  These principles were applied to great effect in the evangelization of Korea and are well-known in the mission world.  As far as Nevius though, I had heard of him but never read the man himself.  I wish that I had run into his writing sooner.  What I found most fascinating about Nevius’ writings is how Biblical and how practical his advice is.  I find that too much modern missiology is not very well anchored in Scripture, and as a result there is a lot of sociology, anthropology, and psychology but not much Bible.  Nevius speaks from years of experience as a missionary in China and, as most missionaries, is concerned about what are the most effective ways of doing ministry.  However, unlike too many modern pastors and missionaries, his advice about about what should be done about various challenges and obstacles to church growth is informed by the pages of Scripture rather than sociological studies, surveys of the unchurched, or over reliance upon methodology.  He gives practical advice, to be sure, but his advice is hemmed in ahead and behind by Scriptural principles, not the latest business management book or some radical

Siam is the old name for Thailand and I have never known why and how that name change came about. A Bangkok academic is now petitioning the government to change the name back to Siam in order to make a step towards creating greater peace and unity in the nation. For those who are curious about the history of the name change from Siam to Thailand or wonder how on earth changing the country's name could do anything in the way of reconciling a divided nation, check out the Bangkok Post article "What's in a name?" The comments on this article are at least as interesting as the article itself as people weigh in on whether they think the change is a good idea.

 

Siam is the old name for Thailand and I have never known why and how that name change came about. A Bangkok academic is now petitioning the government to change the name back to Siam in order to make a step towards creating greater peace and unity in the nation. For those who are curious about the history of the name change from Siam to Thailand or wonder how on earth changing the country's name could do anything in the way of reconciling a divided nation, check out the Bangkok Post article "What's in a name?" The comments on this article are at least as interesting as the article itself as people weigh in on whether they think the change is a good idea.

The church landscape in every country looks a bit different, depending on local conditions and the missions history of that nation. Here in Thailand, Catholics have been in the country since the 1600s, and Protestants since the early 1800s. The Christian groups recognized by the Thai government, registered through the Department of Religion are the Catholic Church, the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT), the Thailand Baptist Convention, the Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand (EFT), and the Seventh Day Adventists. The Hope of Bangkok church denomination (Pentecostal) and the Rom Glao (ร่มเกล้า) church association falls within the broadly Protestant evangelical fold but are not registered through the Department of Religion. The Hope of Bangkok churches are registered as a foundation and I am not sure how the Rom Glao churches are registered. The Hope Church denomination had a big split last year regarding the political ambitions and financial dealings of one of their leaders, and is rumored to be splintering further. I am afraid that I don't have details so we'll have to wait a few years and see how the dust settles and affects the overall landscape of evangelical Christianity in Thailand. There are other church associations, I am sure, but the ones mentioned above are the biggies. It should also be noted that the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witness

 

English edition available from: Amazon  Double A Book Tower (Bangkok) DCO Books

 

Fascinating autobiography of Daniel McGilvary who was the father of missions in Northern Thailand, whose ministry spanned over 50 years from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s.  McGilvary interweaves into his first hand account many stories about the people and places that he knew, all the way from the rural Thai countryside to the royal palace in Bangkok.

 

 

English edition available from: Amazon  OMF Books

Thai edition available from: Kanok Bannasan (OMF Publishers Thailand)

 

A classic on the man of God who pioneered missions in inland China, trusting God to provide for all his needs and those of the mission that he founded, China Inland Mission (now OMF International).  Inspiring and challenging.

 

 

English edition available from:  Amazon Banner of Truth

 

History of revival in 18th and 19th century America.  Extremely helpful in understanding the nature of true revival ordained by God versus man-made revival that depends upon emotional and psychological manipulation through salesmanship techniques. Man can not bring about revival but he can give many people false assurance of salvation and fill society with unconverted professors of Christianity who bring dishonor to the name of God. A must read for anyone who wants to see true revival.

 

 

At one point in the history of missions, it was rather difficult to get approved for missionary service unless you were an ordained pastor (or married to one). There were exceptions, of course, for those who were going to serve as school teachers, doctors, and other types of ministries that did not primarily involve Bible teaching. However, where we find ourselves today, in many cases, is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Churches and mission organizations vary in their requirements, from very stringent to very lax, but since I got involved with missions about twelve years ago on a short-term trip to Poland, I have heard many times over, from various places, something along the following lines, “If you love Jesus and are willing, then you’re ready to be a missionary.” Granted, loving Jesus and being willing are very important but is that all that is needed? I was reading the book of Ezra today and came across this verse:“For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” (Ezra 7:10)I am not convinced that every single person who wants to be a missionary should go to seminary and get a Masters of Divinity, but at the same time, every missionary candidate should have a desire to really study the Word of God, and DO IT. I think that those who say that all you need to do in order to be a missionary is love Jesus are perhaps reacting to a perceived over emphasis on academic head knowledge in the missionary preparation process. There are lots of things that are studied in seminaries and Bible schools that don’t “seem” to be applicable to

On of the most difficult aspects of being on the mission field is that we are half a world away (literally) from family. If you fly from Thailand to New Hampshire, USA you can't get any further apart without starting to go back around the globe again.When our family made the choice to go half way across the world to make known the truth and grace of Christ, we knew that separation from family was one of the costs. It is a cost we are willing to live with because the proclamation of Christ to those who do not know him is extremely important. We want other families in spiritually dark parts of the world to have the same hope and comfort of Christ that we do. However, despite the importance of the task and our commitment to it, it doesn't make the distance and separation any easier. We praise God for technologies like Skype and blogs that make staying in touch somewhat easier but it is never the same as being there.It has been particularly difficult for my Mom to be separated from her only grandchild, Joshua, whom she knows almost exclusively through the pictures that we post on the Joshua blog and the stories that we tell her in phone calls and emails. When she was rediagnosed with cancer a few months ago, she really wanted us to come home. We weren't due for home assignment until the end of 2010 but as it became obvious that Mom's condition was much more tenuous than

The city of Lopburi recently celebrated their annual Narai festival, in honor of King Narai who reigned over Thailand from his palace here in Lopburi about 400 years ago. Part of the story of King Narai includes ambassadors from France who came to visit the king and initiate diplomatic relations between Thailand and France. Later on, the ambassors, together with some Jesuit priests, all got knocked off because some higher up folks in the royal entourage were afraid that the priests were getting to close to converting the king to Catholicism. So, for the Narai festival parade, the organizers needed some white guys to be the French ambassadors. I thought it would be fun, so I volunteered. It was, kind of, but I felt somewhat ridiculous in my ambassador's costume, especially the wig. Even more ridiculous than the guy with the cone on his head in the picture below.

 

I was a serious French ambassador marching in the hot sun. I look silly enough being a white guy in Thailand, so why not put on some funny looking clothes to top it off?