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My Experience With
Thai-Lao Baptist Church
By
Rev. Dr. Savang Rojratanakiat Lin, D.Min (Can.)
 I came to the U.S.A. in 1981
after finishing my master degree education in medical social work
from Thammasat University and some graduated theological education
from Thailand Baptist Theological Seminary. I came to help Thai and
Laotian churches to find the ways to reach out to a big group of
about 200,000 Laotian refugees, which came to resettle in America
after the Communists seized power in Laos. I considered myself a
missionary from Thailand who came to America to help Thai and
Laotian people. I spent my first six months traveling all over
Southern California, Texas and New Mexico to consult with many
churches and social agencies and started a working plan for them to
reach out to Laotian refugees. I finished my project in six months.
After that project, I decided to go to The Catholic University
of America in Washington D.C. to take more social-work courses to
equip myself for the new challenge. I hoped to get a doctoral degree
or at least some doctoral education so I could go back to Thailand
to continue my work as a social worker and to do some teaching in
college. While in Washington D.C., I felt a strong call from God to
enter the ministry full-time as a minister not as a social worker.
After praying and searching my soul for several months, I made
another decision to come back to California to start working as an
assistant pastor for a Thai church in Los Angeles
and enrolled in Fuller Theological Seminary.
A few months later, a Thai Southern Baptist church convinced me
to transfer my study from Fuller Theological Seminary to Golden Gate
Baptist Theological Seminary. I began at the Southern California
Campus of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, and eventually
moved to the main campus of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary
in Mill Valley. I studied three more years at Golden Gate Baptist
Theological Seminary to finish my Master of Divinity and Master of
Religious Education.
"And I tell you that you are
Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of
Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom
of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven," (Matthew
16:17-19, NIV).
While I was studying at Golden Gate Baptist Theological
Seminary, I had a dream of starting a Thai church in San Francisco
since there was no Thai Christian church in Northern California. I
found out there were about 5,000 Thai people live in the San
Francisco Bay Area, and they had four Thai Buddhist Temples, one in
San Francisco, one in Berkeley, one in Sunnyvale, and another one in
Fremont. I began my Thai church in San Francisco on the first Sunday
of September 1983, at the age of 28, with five female members.
We had to move the Thai ministry from San Francisco to San
Rafael in the second year because of the insufficient space to grow a
church and we also found out that Thai people did not concentrate in
San Francisco, but they scattered around the Greater Bay Area. Along
the way, we also expanded our vision to work with Laotian people
alongside the Thai people. Since both Thai and Laotian people are
very close in culture, history, language and origin, so it is
logical to reach both groups in the same time.
Most of our church growth came from five Home Bible Fellowship
Groups that I planted along the years, one in San Francisco, one in
San Rafael, one in Richmond, one in Rohnert Part and the last one in
Fairfield. I tried so many church growth methods from textbooks,
such as knocking-doors ministry, telephone ministry, letter-writing
ministry, visitation ministry, etc., but none of them work with Thai
or Laotian people in America. However, over a period, I found that
friendship, kinship and fellowship worked very well in our church.
I started Home Bible Fellowship in members' house. I asked each
owner to invite his closest friends and some close relatives to join
in our fellowship of dinner, group counseling and religious
discussion on the topics that related to their lives from the
Christian perspectives. I would build friendship and fellowship with
those non-believers for one to two years before I invited them to
visit our church in San Rafael. That might seem too long for
American standard, but Thai and Laotian people would never trust a
stranger, especially a Christian. Because of this approach, many of
our members became Christian in America and converted to
Christianity through our Home Bible Fellowships. After 15 years, I
still go out four evenings every week to lead those Home Bible
Fellowships because this strategy still works very well for Thai and
Laotian people in America.
Even though Thai and Laotian people in our church are very
close in culture and history; there are still some differences which
we need to work out all the time. Most of Thai people in America
immigrated here in the last 20 years. Most of them came from
well-to-do families which lived in big cities and were well
educated. Many of them were business owners or professionals in many
fields. All of the Laotian people were refugees who ran away from
their Communist government. They lost everything when they came to
America. They came from all occupations with all levels of education
and all kinds of backgrounds.
We use Thai language as a main language in our church and use
Laotian and English languages as needed. Most Thais do not
understand Laotian but all Laotian understand Thai. Many Laotian
people were refugees in Thailand for many years before they
immigrated to America so they picked up Thai language while they
lived in Thailand.
Most of our members came from Thailand and Laos but they also
came from dozens of ethnic minorities from both countries. Some of
us are Chinese descendants from Thailand and Laos and speak many
dialects of Chinese. All of the ethnic minorities from Thailand and
Laos in our church have their own ancestors' languages and cultures.
So far, we have managed our differences well and live happily
together in the same church.
For most Thai Christians, and me the difference in
denominations do not mean much in theology or doctrine, show more in
the differences in styles of worship, tradition and the clothes of
ministers. I began my Christian journey as a
fundamental-conservative Chinese boy in Thailand and grew up to be a
moderate-conservative Thai preacher in America. Now, as a middle-aged
man, a large part of my Theology is still based on conservative
doctrine, while some of my teaching come from moderate theology.
Future Ministries:
One of my biggest dream is to develop theological books in
Thai and Laotian languages. Since I started the Thai-Lao School of
Theology 12 years ago, I went back to Thailand several times to
search for Thai and Laotian theological textbooks. I found just a
few of them in Thai and none at all in Laotian. There is no
incentive for professors of seminary in Thailand to write and
develop any theological books. They do not have time to do this work
and this kind of work will not pay them enough. I just began the first step of turning this dream into a reality
by printing out my lecture notes from the courses that I taught in
the Thai-Lao School of Theology over the past 12 years. Now, I use
these books as handbooks for my students and give them out free to
theological libraries in Thailand. The second step is to rewrite
those lecture notes a few more times in the next 10 years. The
third step is to try to find a Christian printing house in Thailand,
which is willing to print some of these revised lecture notes for a
larger group of readers in Thailand and Laos. I have never intended that those theological books, which I
plan to produce, will make me any money or much fame because there
are just a tiny group of Thai and Laotian Christians. Beside that,
most Thai and Laotian people do not like reading anything too
serious, but they love reading something easy. I will have a hard
time trying to distribute those theological books to the larger
audience. Finding a publisher who will be willing to take a chance
of losing a lot of money by printing serious theological books will
be even more difficult. One day on my last trip to Thailand, I talked with a Christian
printing house about the possibility of printing my theological
book. He told me that there were only two options for my project. He
said, "If you were very famous, then I would finance your project."
That was his first option. The second option, as he continued, "You
must be very rich to pay for all the expenses of your project."
Neither well I am rich nor famous so I do not qualify for either
option. One of my Thai friends gave me a practical suggestion when I
met him in Bangkok. He said, "Savang, the only way Thai people will
buy your book is to give away a free ticket to see a soccer game
inside each book." What he tried to tell me were Thai people wanted
ticket to see soccer game, the most popular sport in Thailand. They
did no want my theological book. However, I still dream this
impossible dream almost every day, and by God's grace and mercy, my
dream will become reality one day.
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