In my recent experience (last three years) with a fast growing Church Planting Movement that is reaching Thai overseas, the overwhelming impression is that the believers involved are new to this type of outreach and are really excited at what God is doing and what He could still do. Their faith is palpable. They expect God to save people. They act accordingly. God is rewarding their faith. They do not have great resources but are trusting God in ways I could only long to see in Australia. In comparison, we in the West appear to be bored with God, His word and His work.
Another key to the growth is the model being used. This Church Planting Movement has grown from a strategic missions partnership with ten organizations involved. The glue that holds the partnership together is a gifted Filipino missionary to Thailand. He is acting as the full time moderator, relationship builder, vision caster, resource gatherer, prayer inciter, bridge builder, researcher and encourager. He leads short term mission teams, visits and challenges local churches and generally inspires people to be part of what God is doing. Maybe we in the West need to see gifted Facilitators, not just church planters, raised up, who will focus on a whole community and bring resources to bear that will cause spontaneous combustion.
In two years this outreach has seen some hundreds of Thai contract workers coming to faith outside Thailand. They are now returning to their homes in the North East of the country. The Partnership Facilitator is guiding them to Bible based churches, challenging some of them to start new churches and is conducting gospel camps where they bring their unsaved family members. At a recent camp three families came to faith and were baptised. The excitement this is generating is having a major impact on a whole denomination in Thailand that for 75 years has not expressed it’s missionary nature. The national church, as a result of this movement will send out it’s first missionary couple to Taiwan in mid 2006. When a church really begins to express its God given missionary nature, God shows up big time! We need to recapture this dynamic in the West.
Blessings
Roger Lang
