Church of Christ in Thailand

January 24, 2011  

Today we went to the headquarters of the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT) to learn more about the church structure and history.

It was disturbing to me that we were surrounded by white Jesus’ portraits.   We went through a scripted service.  I don’t really care for written down prayers because I want there to be more room for the Holy Spirit to lead the prayer.  It basically was everything that I despise out the Christian Church. 

I had to try really hard to put my bias aside so that I could hear what we were being told.  CCT has been an independent church for the last 78 years.  There are approximately 100,000 members of this denomination.  Most of the church is made up of ethnic minorities (hill tribe’s people).  In the history presented to us the impact on the American Baptist tradition which is a large part of the ethnic minorities experience is largely absent.   In fact, we were told that within the church ethnic minorities are the largest growing segments of the church.

I asked the question of women in ministry because in an earlier discussion we were told that there are 19 ordained women out of 600 ordained ministers in the CCT.  I wanted to know if within the leadership is there a deliberate and intentional mentorship program for women who want to be church leaders.  My question was not answered at first.  I was told that it would be addressed further in the presentation.  With 20 minutes left in the presentation I brought the question up again.  Still I was not given a clear answer except to say there is very little mentorship of women.

We also got to meet the leaders of the church.  They ate lunch with us.  We sat with the Treasurer for the Church.  Even though the membership is small the Church has significant assets.  We were told that in property that the Church owns about 1/3 of Chiang Mai.  The church also operates many primary schools, a couple of universities and seminaries as well as many hospitals around the country.

While the discussion was informative, it also was sometimes frustrating because I got the feeling that institution of the church is more important than social justice issues.  I will need to continue to process this experience so that I may work in my our church experience to work with the challenges that we face in our own denomination. 

Leadership in CCT - gentleman in purple shirt is the moderator,  gentleman in the middle is vice moderator and gentleman all the way to the right was our presenter Mike.  I have misplaced his card and can't remember his title.

Entrance way to the headquarters.

This gentleman in the general secretary.

Kathy with her mom face.  She is trying to get us to line up for a picture.  This building is dedicated to Tim Downs (leader of the UCC SE conference) parents.  We finally did get a picture of the group.

I thought this picture was funny.  The translation to English is quite laughable.  This sign is across the street from headquarters.