In the previous two posts, we looked at moralistic preaching and allegorical preaching.  In this post, we will look just briefly at gnostic preaching. Another unintended consequence of not preaching what is actually found in a passage is that listeners are given a gnostic view of Scripture.  The Gnostics were were a cult group in the early church who claimed secret knowledge that gave them their unique understanding of Scripture - a knowledge to which others were not privy.  I have not studied how the gnostics in the early church preached but would like to appropriate the term “gnostic” to describe a particular preaching abomination that I have often witnessed. Gnostic preaching happens when a preacher uses the text of Scripture as a springboard to preach about something that is not actually found in the passage. His listeners are left with the impression that if they didn’t have the preacher to tell them the meaning of the passage, then they could never have understood it for themselves.  The preacher must have some special knowledge that enabled him to pull THAT meaning from THIS text.  Here is Thailand, it is often assumed that the preacher must have gotten that special knowledge from his classes at Bible college - knowledge to which the common man does not have access.  Therefore an unhealthy dependence on the preacher is fostered.  People are lulled into thinking that they NEED the preacher to understand the Scripture because the Scripture itself is not clear enough taken on its own.  At the end of a gnostic sermon, the listeners say, “Wow!  I would never have figured that out from reading this passage of Scripture if the preacher hadn’t told us what it meant.”  At the end of a Biblical sermon, the listeners say, “Wow!  I don’t know how I didn’t see that before.  What the preacher said is all there so clearly in this passage of Scripture!”

In my previous post, we looked at moralistic preaching and now we turn to the second of three common forms of unbiblical preaching - allegorical preaching. At a retreat for pastors and missionaries, we heard a sermon from a pastor who is serving on the leadership board for a certain Thai church denomination.  He preached on 1 Samuel 17 - the story of David and Goliath.  After the reading of the passage and giving a winding conversational introduction, he started going through the passage, telling us what was there in the story.  Each part of the story of David and Goliath was used allegorically to emphasize some spiritual or practical truth that is needed in order to be successful in ministry.  

In my last post, we began to look at the problem of preaching that uses the Bible but misses the point of what the Bible is saying.  In the next three posts, we will look at three common forms of unbiblical preaching - moralistic preaching, allegorical preaching, and gnostic preaching.  There is a lot of overlap between these three but they are distinct enough to put them in separate categories - even though they may all show up in a single sermon.  In this post, we’ll take a look at moralistic preaching.Moralistic Preaching and BuddhismMoralistic preaching is all about getting people to be good.  Thai Buddhists believe that the point of every religion in the world (including Christianity) is to teach people to be good.  And if they listened to the sermons in many churches on Sunday morning, their belief would be confirmed.  Instead of telling listeners about Christ, the cross, and the drama of redemption which winds through the whole of Scripture, moralistic preachers tell people, “Be good and God will bless you.”  The need for forgiveness is not emphasized nearly as much as the need to try harder to be a better person.  This type of preaching is familiar to people from a Buddhist background because it is the same type of sermon that Buddhist monks give.  

It is often asked whether handing out tracts, Gospel portions, and other Christian literature is effective.  It usually doesn’t seem to bring visible results and for that reason some people have abandoned it altogether.  However, I recently received the following story from our friend and co-worker Tam who is on staff with Thai Christian Students (TCS) in nearby Lopburi.  To read Tam's story in Thai, scroll to the bottom of this post.  Translated from Thai, Tam says

“Last week we handed out John’s Gospels and informational flyers about the Lopburi Youth House at various schools.  We were all very tired afterwards but praise God for his greatness that when we went to hand them out, there was one student who took a John’s Gospel home and gave it to her mother to read.  When the mom finished reading it, she called the national office for TCS in Bangkok.  She said that she was a sinner, that she wanted to become a Christian, and wanted to go to church. TCS Bangkok then called me and told me this story.  I got in touch with a local church leader for her so that she could go worship at church.

In December 2009, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), together with major Thai church denominations, sponsored and promoted the "My Hope Thailand” evangelistic project.  They produced an evangelistic TV program that aired several times on Thai national TV just before Christmas. The program featured testimonies and music videos from Thai pop stars who became Christians, as well as preaching from Billy Graham and Franklin Graham, dubbed in Thai.

 

As a result of the program and associated church based events, nearly 12,000 people made "decisions for Christ".  Many in the Christian community (both in Thailand and abroad) were overjoyed by the number of “new Christians” produced by My Hope (such as here and here) but I have a more mixed review of the project.  But before I get to the negatives, I want to say up front that there were some really good aspects about the My Hope project:

Statistics don't tell the whole story but can be helpful to get a general idea of what is going on.  Missionary Dwight Martin collects data on the Thai church and recently released the data on Thai church growth in 2009.  Here is an excerpt from his report, along with some links for more information:

"At the end of 2009 there are 339,048 Christians, which is 0.54% of the total population.  Even though this is a very small percentage, the good news is that the percentage of growth is seven times faster than the biological growth rate of the country.  The number of churches continues to grow as well.  There were 170 new churches started last year (2009).   The need is still great in Thailand.  Over 47% of the sub-districts in Thailand have no Christian presence at all. This means there are 21,814,049 (about 1/3 of the population) people who have very little opportunity to hear the Gospel Message.  Please pray that God's word will penetrate this whole nation.

I couldn’t believe my ears.  A founding member and leader of a large church in Bangkok was telling me about “The Salvation Room” (ห้องรอด) at his church.  Each Sunday, visitors are encouraged to come to a special room on the side of the sanctuary during the service and over the course of a few weeks (assuming they come back), current church members explain the Gospel to them and try to get them to say the sinner’s prayer.  I asked, “Is it effective?  Not everyone who says the sinner’s prayer really becomes a Christian, you know.”  His answer surprised me. “No, that’s not right. Eventually, they all become Christians.  We know that not everyone who prays is converted yet, but if we can get them to say the prayer, then that is the foot in the door.”  “But,” I replied, “how do you know that they will come to faith eventually?”  With a gleam in his eye and a smile on his face, this respected church leader asserted confidently, “They just do.  Saying the sinner’s prayer is what breaks Satan’s power and guarantees that they will eventually be saved.”

The Thai church is growing faster than it ever has in the past and there is much reason to rejoice at how God is working in Thailand.  Yet, as a new year begins, there is still much need for prayer.  Still less than 1% of Thai people are Christians and the challenges to the spread of the Gospel and growth of the church are many. 

 

For those who want to pray for Thailand in the new year, I have put together a brief list of prayer needs. This list is not exhaustive but I believe that it hits upon some of the major needs of the nation and the church.  Read it below or download the PDF, print it out and stick it in your Bible to pray for Thailand this coming year. 

When new believers disappear from church and seemingly give up the Christian faith, it is often a disillusioning and discouraging time for those who introduced them to the Gospel, and perhaps even led them in saying the sinner’s prayer together.  Great expectations and high hopes are dashed.  Why do people seem to come in and come out of the faith so easily? As part of a series of lectures on communicating the Gospel to Thai Buddhists, Thai pastor Wan Petchsongkram offers some helpful observations on the true motivations of those who seemingly become Christians.  Pastor Wan comments,“And here is another important point about Thai people becoming Christians.  Out of all the people who become Christians in 1 year, about 80% of those disappear.  Have you seen this?  People who become Christians and then disappear.  We need to understand why this is so.  I feel like this is a real problem for Christians in Thailand.  When Thai people become Christians, they do so with certain reasons and because of certain factors and they remain Christians because of those reasons and factors so long as those reasons and factors still apply.  But when those reasons are no longer there, they stop being Christians.  Because of this, when they are still Christians and we know they are Christians because these reasons are still in effect, you should jump on the opportunity to teach them, no holds barred.  If you don’t hurry up and teach them while these other reasons are still in play, then when those reasons are gone, they will stop being Christians.”

While the sinner’s prayer is designed to help people become Christians, here in Thailand (as in other places) it many times has the opposite effect of confirming people in a fundamentally animistic worldview.  At its core, animism is the using of religious rituals and ceremonies to manipulate the spirit world into doing what the animist wants it to do, whether that be warding off evil or inviting blessing.  Thai Buddhism is a mix of pure Buddhism and local animistic beliefs in spirits, omens, relics, sacred objects, fortune telling, astrology, sorcery, and so on.  This mix of spirit beliefs and Buddhism forms an important part of the worldview and belief system of Thai people, and it is this understanding of spiritual reality that Thai people bring to the table when they come to an evangelistic rally or hear a Gospel presentation.

Every year there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Thai people who pray to receive Christ but never become involved in a church.  Or if they do, it is only for a very short time and then they are gone.  Many people have suggested possible reasons, such as they need more follow-up or more encouragement in order to start and continue with the Christian life.  Granted, following-up new believers is important but what if a majority of these “new converts” were never converted to begin with?  What if they had received a superficial Gospel and were prematurely led to say a prayer of conversion that they didn’t understand?  Is it possible that the sinner’s prayer, which is supposed to signal conversion to the Christian faith, actually fails to challenge the animistic worldview of Thai people?  What if instead of helping them find new life in Christ, it confirms them in their basically animistic worldview, but merely adds a temporary Christian veneer on the top of their existing beliefs.

We are usually in Thai speaking churches but on occasion, we have had the opportunity to worship at an English speaking church while in Bangkok.  I don't know enough about any of them to give an unqualified endorsement, although at the ones we have had occasion to visit, the experience has been positive on the whole.  Check out their websites for more information, directions, and worship times. Chaengwattana Community Church (http://www.cccthailand.org) is a standard evangelical type church, with a very American feel, located in northern Bangkok on Chaengwattana Road (not far from old Don Muang Airport) The Evangelical Church of Bangkok (http://www.ecbbangkok.org) is located more downtown and I am told that it is quite international in terms of worshippers and overall feel, but I have not been there myself Christ Church Bangkok (http://www.christchurchbangkok.org) is an Anglican church in downtown Bangkok, in a large building that looks like it was imported straight from England.  Decent sermon when I visited a couple years ago on Easter.

 

International Church Bangkok (http://www.icbangkok.org/) describes themselves like this: "ICB's morning worship is in a traditional Presbyterian style. Evening worship is sort of InterVarsity meets casual contemporary. We seek are a church where anyone (Christian or non-Christian) can come and draw close to Jesus in an atmosphere that is safe, honest, and open. We come from a wide variety of countries, cultures and ways of thinking about just about everything. What we have in common is a love for (and an interest in learning about) Jesus. He is at the center of everything we do."

There are other English language churches around, but these are the ones that I know of.

 

 

 

For English speakers, there is a massive amount of Christian books and resources available but for many other languages in the world, it is simply not the case.  Two recent experiences really drove this truth home, as it relates to Thailand.  I had the chance to visit Bangkok Bible Seminary (BBS), take a tour, and talk to some teachers and students.  When we went up to their small library to look around, I was surprised to see that only about one-fourth of the library was Thai Christian books and the rest were in English.  The students all know some English but the majority really don’t know enough to make use of these English books at any significant level.  So, about 75% of their seminary library is functionally unusable for the majority of the BBS student body.  If the English level of the majority of students is insufficient to make good use of the resources in the library, why not add more Thai books?  Because they just don’t exist.

Despite 180 years of Protestant missions in Thailand, there are still relatively few churches and few Christians (less than 1% of the population).   Missionaries are still needed but we are just temporary catalysts in helping the Thai church attain to sufficient numbers and maturity so that missionaries won’t be needed.  And in many places, the LORD is raising up quality mature Thai believers preaching the Gospel of Christ.  I wanted to share a video of one such believer, my friend Off who is on staff with Thai Christian Students (TCS).  TCS is part of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES).

 

The following video was taken this past August during an open air evangelism event at the market next to the Tesco Lotus mall in Lopburi, Central Thailand.  There were songs, skits, games, and more direct Gospel presentations.  Lots of tracts and nearly 500 Gospels of John were handed out.  The goal of this kind of evangelism is not to get people to decide for Christ on the spot, and as such there were no altar calls or decision cards.  The goal is to sow seeds and to get people thinking about spiritual realities that they may not have considered before, starting from what people already believe and moving them towards considering the claims of the Bible.

 

The whole presentation is about 15 minutes but I had to break it up into two segments in order to put it onto YouTube.  So, watch Part 1 and then move on to Part 2, which is the continuation of Off’s message.  If you’re interested to learn more about what Off and the other folks from Thai Christian Students in Central Thailand are up to, please visit their blog at http://tcscentralthailand.wordpress.com

 

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If you have trouble viewing the above embedded videos, click here to watch directly on YouTube

 

From time to time, I have been asked by new missionaries which Thai Bible translation they should buy?  There are not that many available but for the newcomer to Thailand, and to the Thai language, it can be confusing to know which Bible is best to get.  Therefore, for the sake of those who are new to Thailand, or are interested in Bible translations in general, I wanted to give a brief survey of what’s available.

In a number of Thai churches I have noticed that the type of worship songs selected fall into three general categories: 1) “I offer you my life” 2) “Pour out your Spirit” and, 3) “I want to be close to you”.  This emphasis is hardly unique to Thailand as much of modern worship songs here are heavily influenced from the West.  These type of songs have a time and place yet it seems that in some churches, these are almost the only type of songs that are played.  As we sing the same basic things over and over again, I have begun to wonder, “Where is Christ? Where is the cross?”.  It seems to be a glaring oversight to not have songs about Christ and his finished work on the cross as a mainstay of Christian worship.  When I come into the weekly worship meeting, the first thing that my heart wants to sing is usually not “I offer my life to you” or “You are my every desire.”  Why is that?  Is it because I am not spiritual enough?  Yes, in fact, that is exactly the reason.  If I am honest to myself, my motivations are usually mixed and Christ is not my every desire.  When songs come up that require me to sing lyrics like “You are all that I want”, I will often go silent or sing very quietly, praying in my heart, “Oh LORD, make me desire nothing but you.  This song is not me.  Change my heart God, and increase my love for you.”  If I sing songs that say more than is really true, then I feel like I am lying to God and everyone around me.

Confessions of faith, creeds, and catechisms have largely fallen into disuse among evangelical Protestant churches.  They are still around and used regularly in some churches but by and large have fallen by the wayside as many believers and churches have put more emphasis on experience and just loving Jesus.  Or some have claimed that "we have no creed but the Bible" but as soon as you say "I believe that the Bible teaches such and such" you have made a summary statement about Biblical teaching.  Such a summary is in essence a creed or confession. No statement of faith ever takes the place of the Bible but it can be a good tool to help people get an overview of what the Bible teaches and learning how to express what we believe the Bible teaches. Some confessions or creeds are better than others but a good one should contain nothing that can't be fairly clearly deduced from Scripture.  Along these lines, I wanted to share a brief story from the autobiography of Daniel McGilvary, pioneer missionary to Northern Thailand:

 

"In May 1876, Nan Inta was ordained our first ruling elder.  The story has oft been told that before his ordination the [Westminster] Confession of Faith was give him to read carefully, since he would be asked whether he subscribed to its doctrines.  When he had finished the reading, he remarked that he saw nothing peculiar in its teachings.  It was very much like what he had read in Paul's epistles!" (Daniel McGilvary, "A Half Century among the Siamese and Lao: An Autobiography", Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 1912, p.169-170)

 

Church discipline is not popular and is rarely practiced in Thai churches, and the same can be said for churches in the West.  When it is practiced, it is often for those “big” sins like adultery or embezzlement of church funds.  Other repeat offenses like slander, gossip and divisiveness are unrightly overlooked.  The term conjures up images of judgmental, critical, self-righteous nitpicks who stick their nose in other people's business where it doesn’t belong.  Many Christians incorrectly see the goal of church discipline as punishment, despite the fact that the Bible says that the goal of church discipline is restoration and reconciliation.

When a church building goes up on the mission field, everybody feels good.  The missionary feels good.  The local believers feel good.  The church back home feels good.  Having a church building gives the impression that a church has been established.  It is a visible sign of the Christian faith in a community.  Everybody feels good that the Gospel is advancing and the presence of a church building is a sign of that advance.  Or is it?When the construction of a church building is largely funded by foreign money, the presence of a church building is not a true reflection of the strength and numbers of a local church.  Also, if missionaries (or their home churches) are always standing by ready to supply money for newly established churches on the mission field to build church buildings, then this desire to be helpful can foster two wrong ideas:  1)  church buildings are necessary in order to be a “real” church and, 2) if you need money, look to the missionary (or the well intentioned short-term visitors from their home church).  When the foreign missionaries and their churches are seen as sure sources of money, then the local believers’ motivation to give financially to their own church is lessened and local believers are less likely to make decisions that the missionary doesn’t agree with.  If they do, then there is the fear that perhaps the money supply will be cut off.  In this way, independent decision making and partnership in the Gospel as equals is diminished.  A patron-client relationship harkening back to the days of colonialism is unintentionally nurtured.

There are not a few church groups in Thailand who are desperate to get a building regardless of how small their group is.  Scripturally, there is nothing wrong with having a building in and of itself but when a small group of believers gets the idea in their head that they need to have a building to be considered a “real” church, then much of their time can become focused on finding money in order to get a building.  But does a church need a building in order to be a “real” church?  According to the Bible, the church is the body of Christ, and all believers are members of that body (Eph. 5:29-30).  The church is people.  Nowhere in Scripture do we see the term “church” equated with a building.  Certainly, if a group of Christians wants to get together on either an occasional or regular basis (such as a weekly worship service), they need someplace to meet.  In Acts, we see people meeting both in the temple and in homes (Acts 5:42) but there is no Scriptural mandate or prohibition about the type of buildings that believers should meet in.   As for those groups of believers in Thailand who end up focusing on getting money for a building in order to be a “real” church, their time and money would best be spent elsewhere - specifically, focusing on growing in Christ and sharing the Gospel with others.  Scripturally, evangelism and discipleship are much higher priorities than getting a “proper” church building (which, I might add, does not even make the list of necessary elements of having a church in the New Testament).