Pastors meet for prayer at a Regular Baptist International conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
What Your Church Needs to Know (and Do)
Most of us will never meet Pastor Nang Za Thawn, but we’re related.
He recently led an outdoor baptism service in the Chin Hills region of Myanmar while members of Evangelical Baptist Church watched from the shore. Despite his remote location and reduced access after a military coup, he would never describe his ministry as isolated. He stays connected through Regular Baptist International, a worldwide network of Baptist ministries.
Nang also serves as president of the Evangelical Baptist Conference of Myanmar and director of the Sophia Home and Academy for orphans and for children from poor families. These ministries work in partnership with a loose coalition of international associations, mission organizations, social agencies, colleges, and seminaries.
Regular Baptist Ministries began with a passion for autonomous churches. Baptists love the idea of “loose coalitions,” but that independence can lead to a problem: many Regular Baptist churches in the U.S. are disconnected from the association’s long heritage of international missions and church planting. Now, nearly a hundred years after the movement began, Regular Baptist churches have a lot of grandchildren they’ve never met.
And my, how those grandchildren have grown! People ask how many churches are represented by Regular Baptist International, but the question defies easy analysis. Maybe ten thousand, but nobody has stopped to count.
As a helpful reminder of Regular Baptist International’s ministry, here’s a quick photo tour around the world.
- You have reached the end of this article preview. This article was published in the Spring 2024 Baptist Bulletin. Subscribe to the Baptist Bulletin or purchase a gift subscription. If you already subscribe to the print edition, sign up for free digital access.
Kevin Mungons is the backlist curator for Moody Publishers. Darrell Goemaat, coordinator of Regular Baptist International, also contributed to this article.
