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Strategy to Multiply Rural Churches STRATEGY TO MULTIPLY RURAL CHURCHES A CENTRAL THAILAND CASE STUDY By Alex G. Smith O.M.F. Publishers 111/9 Pan Road, Silom, Bangkok 5, Thailand Printed in Thailand by O.M.F. Publishers May, 1977 Dr. Alex Smith Northwest Director OMF International Convinced that Asia is the greatest challenge facing the Church in the 21st century, Alex Smith, with his wife, Faith, is committed to mobilizing a whole new generation of pioneers to reach East Asia’s peoples for Christ. Dr. Smith is the Northwest Director of OMF International in the USA. He travels and speaks extensively. Born in Brisbane, Australia, Alex accepted Christ as a school boy. He was trained as a Chartered Accountant and as a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force. He and his American wife, Faith, met at Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta, Canada. Joining OMF in 1864, the Smiths spent 20 years in Thailand, serving in pioneer evangelism, church planting, training national leaders, teaching church growth, supervising new missionaries, coordinating field evangelism and directing the Thailand Church Growth Committee. Alex earned his Doctorate in Missiology at Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission in Pasadena, California (MA, D. Miss) and his Master of Divinity at Western Evangelical Seminary associated with George Fox University in Oregon. He also graduated from Daystar’s International Institute of Christian Communication in Nairobi, Kenya. He authored two Thai books on church growth and evangelism, as well as several English titles, including Siamese Gold: A History of Church Growth in Thailand, Strategy to Multiply Rural Churches and The Gospel Facing Buddhist Cultures. A frequent lecturer at seminaries and colleges, Dr. Smith also teaches courses concerning Perspectives on Missions for the U.S. Center for World Mission. He is adjunct faculty at Multnomah Bible College and Seminary in Portland, Oregon. He served as Northwest Vice President of the Evangelical Missiological Society, and as Buddhist Track Chairman for Regent University’s Unreached Peoples Consultation. Alex and Faith have three grown sons, Tim, Dan, and Jonathan. FORWARD Strategy to Multiply Churches in Rural Thailand should be carefully read by Thai church leaders and missionaries. It describes years of actual church planting. It is experience, not theory. It tells exactly what happened. It is an accurate, true account. It is not unenlightened experience. A veteran missionary with church growth insight describes what happened. His intentions from the beginning were that the Gospel be proclaimed and men and women be encouraged to become disciples of Jesus Christ and responsible members of His Church. As he steadily carried out that intention, in the Thai society he so well describes, he met the successes and failures he describes. Here we have intermingled three elements needed for successful propagation of the Christian Faith: a) A purpose in harmony with God’s unswerving purpose to save men and women. b) Activities intelligently designed to achieve that purpose. c) An honest accounting of how well the intention was achieved. Stated in theological language, this book tells us what methods of evangelism God is blessing in rural Thai society, in bringing men from unbelief to faith in Jesus Christ as God and Savior, and in multiplying churches. Good reading lies ahead. I commend the book. February 1, 1977 Donald McGavran School of World Mission Fuller Theological Seminary Pasadena, California TABLE OF CONTENTS FORWARD 3 INTRODUCTION 1 A. PROBLEM 1 B. PURPOSE 2 C. METHODOLOGY 3 D. SOURCES 4 E. LIMITATIONS 4 F. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 I. THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR CHURCH PLANTING STRATEGY 6 A. GOD’S GOAL-ORIENTATION IN MISSION 6 B. GOD’S INVOVLEMENT IN CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION 20 C. GOD’S STRATEGY FOR MISSION 31 II. THE RURAL SETTING FOR CHURCH PLANTING 46 A. BACKGROUND OF THAILAND 46 B. ORGANIZATION 47 C. THE PEOPLE 49 D. RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 53 III. HISTORICAL PROGRESSION OF CHURCH GROWTH 65 A. OVERVIEW OF MISSION HISTORY 65 B. THE OMF CHURCH IN CENTRAL THAILAND 76 C. INDEPTH STUDY OF CHURCH GROWTH IN UTHAITHANI 82 IV. CRUCIAL CONSIDERATIONS IN COMMUNICATING THE GOSPEL 115 A. THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE MESSENGERS 115 B. THE PROFILE OF CONVERTS 117 V. STRATEGY FOR EFFECTIVE CHURCH PLANTING 133 A. PRELIMINARY FOUNDATIONS FOR ESTABLISHING STRATEGY 133 B. EVALUATING PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF EARLIER MISSIONARIES 136 C. PROPOSED STRATEGY FOR CHURCH PLANTING 139 D. CONCLUSION 168 APPENDIX A 169 STATISTICAL TABLES 169 TABLE 1 170 SELECTED STATISTICS OF THE C.C.T. 170 TABLE 2 171 C.C.T. MEMBERSHIP BY DISTRICTS 171 TABLE 3 172 FOREIGN MISSIONS IN THAILAND 172 TABLE 4 174 ANNUAL BAPTIZED MEMBERSHIP OF CENTRAL THAILAND (O.M.F.) 174 TABLE 5 175 ANNUAL GROWTH RATE OF CHURCHES IN THAILAND 175 TABLE 6 176 UTHAI PROFESSION OF FAITH 1964-1974 176 TABLE 7 177 CONSOLODATED STATISTICS FOR CHURCHES IN CENTRAL THAILAND (1954-1974) 177 TABLE 8 178 DISTRIBUTION OF ANNUAL BAPTISMS AND MEMBERSHIP IN UTHAI 178 TABLE 9 179 UTHAI ANNUAL CHURCH STATISTICS 179 TABLE 9 180 UTHAI ANNUAL CHURCH STATISTICS 180 TABLE 10 181 AREA AND POPULATION OF OMF’S EIGHT 181 CENTRAL THAILAND PROVINCES 181 TABLE 11 182 ANNUAL BAPTIZED MEMBERSHIP OF UTHAI CONGREGATIONS 182 AS AT 3OTH SEPTEMBER EACH YEAR 182 TABLE 11 (Cont.) 183 ANNUAL BAPTIZED MEMBERSHIP OF UTHAI CONGREGATIONS 183 AS AT 3OTH SEPTEMBER EACH YEAR 183 APPENDIX B 184 QUESTIONNAIRE 184 BIBLIOGRAPHY 189 iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Figure 1 Three Dimensions of the Functioning Church 14 Figure 2 Map of Thailand 45 Figure 3 Population Growth of Thailand 50 Figure 4 Populations of Major Religious Communities in Thailand – 1970 53 Figure 5 Growth Rate of the Church of Christ in Thailand 70 Figure 6 1973 Protestant Church Membership in Thailand 73 Figure 7 Comparison of Protestant Church Groups in Thailand at September 30, 1973 75 Figure 8 Baptized Membership of OMF Central Thailand 77 Figure 9 Net Growth Baptized Memberships by Stations – OMF Central Thailand 79 Figure 10 Net Growth Baptized Membership – Uthai Station 84 Figure 11 Annual Gains and Losses of Baptized Membership in Uthai 85 Figure 12 Map of Eastern Uthai and Sala Churches’ Location 92 Figure 13 Comparative Size of Baptized Membership in Uthai Congregations 95 Figure 14 Distribution of Evangelistic Influence Reflected in Annual Baptism in Uthai 98 Figure 15 Map of Uthaithani Province 107 Figure 16 Kham Song’s Influence on Family 109 iv Figure 17 Comparative Ages by Sex in Sample 119 Figure 18 Comparison of Years of Christian Experience in Uthai Sample 121 Figure 19 Five Finger Personal Evangelism Strategy 150 Figure 20 Extension Growth of Uthai Churches 163 Figure 21 Extension by “Acts 1:8” Increase 165 STRATEGY TO MULTIPLY RURAL CHURCHES 1 INTRODUCTION One of the major tasks facing the Church of Jesus Christ today is to effectively plant self-propagating churches in the rural areas of the world, especially across the heavily populated plains of Asia. About 65 per cent of the world’s burgeoning population is found in Asia. Of this 65 per cent, eight persons out of ten live in rural areas. However, less than 5 per cent of Asia’s population claims the name of Christ. Only a few countries are more than 10 per cent Christian, e.g. Korea 14 per cent, Indonesia 11 per cent. In these, as well as the rest of Asia, vast rural populations remain untouched and unevangelized. A. PROBLEM Today the continent most ignorant of Christ is not Africa, which, according to David Barrett, is expected to be called Christian within 20 years. Nor is it Latin America, where the Holy Spirit is gathering large sectors of the human harvest into God’s Kingdom. It is Asia that poses the great challenge for evangelization in our generation. Now it must be recognized that anywhere people without Christ are lost in spiritual darkness. They are severed from a vital living relationship with the Almighty. Be they illiterate Indians in the upper Amazon, or cultured elites in the inner suburbs of New York, their condition is the same. Be they educated Africans in Nairobi, or unlearned vagabonds on the streets of India, without the light of Christ they are equally in spiritual darkness. In this sense we may think of Asia, both in its growing urban population and in the masses of its rural settlements, as a dark continent. In these crucial days there is an urgent need for the church to grapple with the specific problems peculiar to this dark continent. Amidst political, economic, and social turmoil the Church across the globe must faithfully bare the cross of her evangelistic responsibility. She must intercede earnestly for Asia. She must send it her best Spirit- anointed manpower. Cultural patterns that complicate and often frustrate the communication of the Gospel must be understood. Solutions to family and kinship meshes that bar Asians from Christ must be found. Practical keys that unlock people bound behind closed doors of spiritual ignorance must be discovered. Such obstacles call for the development of strategies to be applied determinedly to each unreached population until congregations glorifying God’s name are in fact planted. Asia, of course, is not one monolithic giant. It is an incredibly complex assortment of languages, peoples, classes, occupations, ideals, and political systems. I am investigating the christianization of only one of these units. The immensity of the need focuses on two great distinctive sections of population. First there are the huge populations that are within the sound of the Gospel, but are not yet effectively evangelized. They are within some possible contact with the Gospel, but STRATEGY TO MULTIPLY RURAL CHURCHES 2 still are unreached for Christ. Here the national churches are called to accept their God- given responsibility.
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