The Seventh-day Adventist Church is committed to being a positive force in Thai society, said Pastor Jan Paulsen, world church president, during a meeting last week with Suwit Khunkitti, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand. During the 40-minute visit, Khunkitti thanked the church for its “important contribution to the Kingdom of Thailand” through its hospitals, nursing school and other educational institutions, as well as the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).

Paulsen expressed appreciation to the government for its protection of religious minorities, and for promoting harmonious relations between the majority religion—Theravada Buddhism—and other religious groups.

This protection is particularly significant to the small Adventist community in Thailand, which over the past 90 years has struggled to grow, especially in urban areas. There are currently just 10,000 Adventist believers in a population of more than 65 million.

During his four-day visit, Paulsen also spent time with church members and leaders in both the northern city of Changmai and the capital, Bangkok. At different gatherings, he urged believers to renew their dedication to making personal witness a part of their everyday lives. 

“Please, let us not turn sharing our faith into a complicated science—it is not!” Paulsen told more than 1,000 church members at Bangkok’s Ekamai International School Feb. 8. “Sharing Jesus Christ with our friends and neighbors was never meant to be difficult. I believe we sometimes try to make it far too complicated.

“Just tell people about Jesus, about hope, and about how they can have confidence in the future,” Paulsen added. “And most importantly, demonstrate in your own life that you have found this hope, and that you have faith in God’s future. And let us do this in humility.”

At Chaingmai Adventist Academy, Paulsen was greeted by some 450 students and their teachers waving Thai and Norwegian flags. “Jig” Penomwan, principal of the academy, explains that although the vast majority of students who attend Adventist schools in Thailand are Buddhist, they come to school knowing that they will learn within a Christian environment. She says that many of today’s church leaders and pastors are Adventist because they attended a church-run school.

Surachet Insom, communication director for the church in Thailand, says there are many barriers to church growth in his country. He explains that Buddhism is not just a religion—it is a way of life, and an expression of national identity. For many people, becoming a Christian is seen as a betrayal of their heritage, he says.

Surachet believes that the church must do better at contextualizing the Adventist message to make it more easily understood and accepted by Thais. He says Adventist education and person-to-person contact have been the two most effective means of sharing Christianity within the Thai culture.

Paulsen concluded his visit to Thailand at Mission College, located two hours north of Bangkok at Muak Lek, where he spoke to some 2,000 students and faculty about the common identity of the Adventist Church around the world. “Whatever tribe we come from, whatever language we speak, whatever race we belong to, we share one faith, and we are blended together in Jesus Christ,” he said. Paulsen commended Mission College for its part in “educating men and women to be useful in the here and now, as well as educating them to be members of God’s kingdom.”