There’s a unique contrast of religious belief systems both existing and growing in Northern Thailand.
With a population of 97% Buddhist adherents in Thailand, it is culturally expected that to be Thai is to be Buddhist. So just as you’d imagine, this staunch Buddhist culture is home to thousands of temples. In the city of Chiang Mai alone, including temples in Mae Rim, San Sai, Doi Saket, San Kamphaeng, Saraphi and Hang Dong, 557 temples have been mapped, with hundreds more in the whole province.
See Temples of Chiang Mai Facebook page here.
Check out my 360° panospheres of Thailand temples on Google. Here’s a sample.
The Christian population in Thailand is less than 1%. But there is a strong undercurrent of Christian growth in the midst of historically recognized Buddhist and folk religious systems.
A recent comparison of Protestant Thai Church growth, from 2007 to 2015, saw a 30% boom in Chiang Mai, where there are 302 new members per month.
For Christian presence maps, church location maps, Thailand prayer updates, church directories and more, see eSTAR Foundation.
Alongside ActsCo BookHouse, we have played a small part in helping transform the face of the Christian landscape in Thailand, but there remains much to be done as we bring the gospel to the remaining 5,605 Thailand sub-districts without a church.
For more thoughts on reaching the unreached and finishing the task, check out justinlong.org
God is stirring hearts. I pray many more passionate disciple-makers will respond to the calling to go reach those who have yet to hear the gospel message.
