Earlier this year Nathan from our National Team visited Central Baptist Church in Sydney to find out more about their thriving Thai congregation. Watch the video above to hear how sharing God’s love in practical ways helped form the Thai congregation.

At Central Baptist Church there are four congregations, the Cantonese, Mandarin, English International and Thai congregation. Pastor John, the senior pastor at the church shares, “The congregations are all different, they speak different languages and have different cultural bases behind them, but they all love Jesus.”

Pastor Nun, now the pastor of the Central Baptist Thai congregation, reflected on the beginning of the congregation in 2020.

“The lockdown in Sydney left many Thai people without jobs and I could see the struggle of these people,” says Pastor Nun. “We organised outreach in the church carpark and gave food and everyday essentials to those in need. We also invited them to church. And so, the gathering of Thai people at Central Baptist grew and in 2023 we became our own congregation.”

Pastor John wants people to know that the Thai congregation isn’t a monocultural gathering. “There are Thai speaking Thais from Buddhist backgrounds and many congregants come from the various hill tribes,” says John. “They have different languages, different cultural perspectives and different ways of even seeing each other in Thailand as I understand it. In many respects, our Thai congregation is a work of grace.”

When asked what she would say to a pastor or church seeking to reach out to a diverse local community, Pastor Nun replied:

“Pray first. Let God open your eyes to see opportunities for outreach and Gospel sharing. Be humble and listen to God.

The second step is to get out of your comfort zone and see which community needs Jesus. Then start with simple things. Pray together. Take the kids to the playground. Walk with people. Pray with people. In Thai culture, we love eating. So just cook for people. Invite them to come to church or your house and then cook for them.

God will open your ministry. God will work. So don’t be scared. And be there, ready to share the Gospel.”

Pastor John, shared his prayer for the future of Central Baptist, “With all our diversity, I pray that we’d be remarkable. That the light of Jesus would shine out from us and people would think, ‘God is at work’.”

This is an abridged version of the full length conversation Nathan shared with the Central Baptist Church team as part of our Across the Street series. Explore the full resource here >>