I want to...
Know how God is changing lives in Thailand
Learn more about Thailand's spiritual needs
Learn more about OMF Thailand
Learn more about our ministries
Thailand's spiritual needs
Thailand is home to many people groups. Numerous animist minority peoples (hill tribes) live in the North. The Muslim Malay populate the South. However, the vast majority of people who live in Thailand are the Thai Buddhists. Out of Thailand’s total population of 70 million, about 93 percent, or 65 million, would fall under that broad category of “Thai Buddhist.”
Did you know that per head of population, Iran has more Christians than Thailand? China has about 8 times more, and the Democratic Republic of Congo has about 22 times more Christians (as a percentage of population)!
Today the Thai Buddhists are one of the most accessible, least reached, large people groups on this planet! As of 2024, only 0.76% of the population of Thailand know Jesus. And many of those Christians belong to the ethnic minorities in the North. Thus, among the Thai Buddhists, only 0.48% are Christians.
There have been turnings to Christ among the minority people groups in the North. And presently there is an encouraging movement of people coming to Christ in some provinces in the Central area. But the challenges remain tremendous.
Who we are
What we aim to see happen: Our Vision
Our vision is to see a movement of indigenous, biblical churches reproducing among their own people in Thailand and reaching out in mission to other peoples.
What we exist for: Our Mission
Our mission is to glorify God by the urgent evangelization of Thailand.
What makes us tick: Our Values
Ministries: What we do
The core of our ministries – no matter what we do – all aim at Evangelism, Disciple making, and Church planting. This can happen by verbal communication of the Gospel in personal contact or events, by visiting and praying for people, or teaching the Bible in small groups. All of this helps people to grow in their faith and to continue to share the Gospel. But many other ministries work in with this as well. Soccer ministry, pregnancy crisis counselling, prison ministry and creation care – all these ministries are possible as we focus on the core of bringing people to faith in Christ and helping them grow in him. In this way, people experience the love of Christ, receive truly holistic help, their life is turned upside down and they become part of a life-transforming community of Jesus-followers.
In many cases Thai Christians take the lead, yet we are still called to grassroots involvement in this ministry for two reasons. Firstly, because there are so many unreached areas in Thailand that pioneer work is still very much needed. And secondly, we can only train and equip Thai Christians if we have relevant experience ourselves. That’s why we prefer that missionaries focus on language learning and EvDmCp ministries for their first term. Once a missionary is skilled and experienced in these core ministries then the sky is the limit!
OMF Thailand has workers involved of all of the ministries listed below. Click on a ministry to read more.
Holistic ministries - integral mission
Providing drinking water in slums, rescuing victims of sex trafficking, developing better income for poor farmers, helping prostitutes to leave that trade, fighting corruption, caring for the HIV positive, providing justice for marginalized and education for the underprivileged – OMF missionaries have been involved in all of these in Thailand at some time or other.
But to just focus on these things would not be holistic. If there ever was a person with a truly holistic ministry focus, then it must have been Jesus Christ himself. Jesus cared for people’s physical needs but at the same time that he was calling them into the Kingdom of Heaven. As he asked his disciples: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” That’s why holistic ministry (or integral mission) always has to include and even build on the message that Jesus came “to seek and to save the lost”.
As a consequence, OMF Thailand’s main focus is not in addressing particular social issues or felt needs. We address these issues as we go along as we share the message of Jesus – as a simple outpouring of God’s love that is in us. So, one team might be involved in giving shelter to a person coming out of prostitution while another might help poor farmers develop organic fertilizer. Another team might provide basic care for shunned HIV patients or help neglected kids with a homework club.
We do these things to display the love of Christ and in response to his love for us, not out of a sense that first we need to do some ‘useful things’ before we can even mention the message of Jesus. Hand in hand – the message of the Gospel and the love of God shown practically – that’s a winning combination!
Urban poor ministry
Even though there are churches in all major districts of Bangkok, thousands of communities remain untouched by the gospel due to social barriers. The urban poor ministry team (RakChumchon) is reaching out to these marginalized people.
A team member shares: “We build relationships with neighbors and work together with the community leaders for the common good of the people. The problems of the poor in Bangkok are very complex. They have enough to eat, clothes to wear and also mobile phones. But their lifestyle is very unhealthy. Living among them gives us good opportunities to love and help them in a natural and personal way. We are looking for opportunities to start cell groups or churches. When Jesus reveals himself to us and we follow him, a holistic transformation to the community can happen in a sustainable way. Most of our neighbors are Buddhist. They have not rejected Jesus, but have never been exposed to the Gospel in a way that gave them a chance to understand it. They need a Christian neighbor they can get to know, observe and whom God can use to touch them.”
Church Planting
Church planting – What exactly does that mean? We do everything we can in order to build relationships with the people around us, so that we can share the good news of Jesus Christ.
From help fixing the toilet of a poor granny out in the rice paddies to teaching theology to masters’ students in bustling Bangkok. From prayer walking to soccer coaching to lay-leadership training to microfinancing a fishpond to distributing tracts in the market, to teaching English to maintaining website posting to… you get the picture. It depends on the situation of the person we meet. It depends on the abilities each one of us have. All with one goal: people experience the love of Christ, receive truly holistic help, their life is turned upside down and they become part of a life-transforming community of Jesus-followers.
Through all of this, the overall goal is to see the Gospel communicated, new believers gathered into new or existing church congregations, believers taught and matured in their faith and leaders trained to continue all of this work.
And that’s what we call church planting.
Leadership training
Leadership training at all levels is of utmost importance! This goes from modelling personal evangelism or leading a Sunday school group to teaching seminary students. The Church will only multiply to the degree that leadership is multiplied. A number of our members are involved in leadership training from informal to non-formal to formal training settings. As with other ministries: we aim at not just training leaders but do so in ways and with the resources which are reproducible – thus enabling these leaders to then train others as well.
Theological education
Churches need to be planted across Thailand but leaders also need to be firmly established in the Word of God. Therefore, Bible schools and seminaries can play an important role in providing biblically grounded pastors and elders for the Thai churches, whether they serve full-time or are bi-vocational. As the church in Thailand began to grow, we had an important part in starting three theological education institutions in Thailand, and we continue to place staff there who can contribute to the spiritual and theological development of the students.
Sports ministry
Sports ministry is an excellent way of connecting with and serving a community. ‘Sattha Sports Ministry’ seeks to provide the local church with a tool to reach families and their communities with the Gospel of Jesus Christ by creating an environment for relationship through the common ground of sports. While soccer (football) is the primary tool we currently us, there is scope to develop more ministry opportunities using a variety of sports that are popular in Thailand.
Student ministry
There are about 2.2 million Thai students in higher education in Thailand. Ministry opportunities are immense. Presently, OMF has student ministry in the university town of Mahasarakham (North-East Thailand) and in Bangkok where we are working together with TCS (Thai Christian Students). Our main focus is on campus ministry but we are also involvement in high school and graduate ministry.
Digital media ministry
Thai people rank very high in internet and social media usage. There are incredible opportunities with digital media. This is a newer ministry we hope to expand significantly. Currently we are running ads on Facebook in conjunction with Kavanagh Ministries’ “Discover Jesus Initiative” in order to connect with Thais seeking Jesus.
Prison ministry
While a number of our workers visit prisons as the opportunity arises, there is a specific Prison Ministry Team operating in Lopburi. They aim to see prisoners come to faith in God through Jesus Christ while in prison and then to continue to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ after being released. The team aims to help former prisoners rebuild their lives, physically, emotionally and spiritually, in order that they may return to stable lives in society.
Adventure camp ministry
Adventure Camps are run by OMF church planters based in Nakhon Si Thammarat, South Thailand. The camps started in Krabi province on the west coast of Thailand but now camps are being run in Uthai Thani, Central Thailand also. The adventure activities create an open environment where the Gospel can be shared naturally. Another goal of this ministry is to develop a new generation of Thai Christian leaders.
Creation care
This is a ministry that is becoming integrated into the daily life of our workers rather than developing it into some standalone ministry.
One of our workers writes: “Creation care, like many things, is complex. It is easy to be overwhelmed by all the information, approaches, issues, products etc., but I also believe as a Christian I am charged with caring for creation. I have chosen not to get overwhelmed by the complexity and to start caring for creation in ways that are the easiest for me or that I am most motivated to do. My creation care journey was restarted after I learnt about minimalism and started putting these principles into action.”
In all the ministry areas we are involved in there remains a lot to be done to make to creation care an integral part of our witness.
Support ministry
A crucial but often overlooked ministry area is that of support ministries. Members in these ministries aim to provide care, leadership and administrative support for all people working on the OMF Thailand field, sharing the same vision and values. The support team includes the field medical advisor who provides advice about medical issues and does bi-annual medical review with all our workers. The member care and personnel managers care for the emotional well-being of our workers and provide personal development reviews. The administration/finance manager provides crucial support in financial matters and in visa and work permit applications and renewals. Two Mission Homes provide space for training events and/or for personal holidays.
Ministry: How we do it
Click the links below to investigate current opportunities for service in Thailand
Resources
Stay Connected
Follow us on Facebook for latest news, events and blog post updates or watch testimonies and other video clips on YouTube. Have questions? Email us at th.info@omfmail.com.
