Across the Asia-Pacific Region, leaders are finding new and innovative ways to expand the kingdom of God. One of these leaders is Daniel Saguichai from Thailand. Aside from serving as the Chapman International College (formerly Southeast Asia Nazarene Bible College) Thailand academic supervisor, Saguichai also serves in what he calls the Mobile Church.

The Mobile Church began with CIC students who wanted to plant a new church but had difficulty finding a property for their congregation. 

“We came back and asked ourselves, ‘what are we going to do with the mission we have as church planters?’” Saguichai said. “Since we could not find a place for our meetings, for weeks we kept moving from house to house. All of that house-to-house moving eventually became our identity.”

Although it has been a challenging model, Saguichi said that the response from the Mobile Church congregation is positive. 

“The idea of Mobile Church is a new idea here, but people seem to be taking it very well,” Saguichi said. “Even though the Gospel came to Thailand over 200 years ago, there are still relatively few Christians. So, we decided to try a new model, and at the moment it seems to be working. We get to have contact with more people, and the response has been positive.”

Saguichai shares that a vital part of the church has been its leadership team. 

“I chose eight people to be the core group,” Saguichai said. “I selected these people based on their maturity. Some of them have been with me for all these years, and I have observed their growth. Basically, I’m training them to be the next generation of leaders.”

This effort to train the next generation of leaders is vital to the health of the Mobile Church.

“We have a lady who is a business person, and she has been helping her employees to come to know Christ,” Saguichai said. “My role is to support her by providing materials and trainings. As a result, some of those employees are now our members.”

Thanks to the success of the congregation’s workplace evangelism, the Mobile Church has chosen to focus its discipleship efforts on the middle class in Thailand. 

“We [as trained pastors] sometimes have trouble reaching out to people who are unchurched,” Saguichai said. “By using middle class people and training them to be evangelists, we are able to reach out to people whom we could not reach otherwise.”

Saguichai and the Mobile Church congregation have big plans for the future. 

“The vision we have for this group is that one day we will be able to establish a church by sharing this mobile mentality with a new generation of people,” Saguichai said. “If you want to start a church, you don’t have to have a building. All you need in order to see people come to Christ is the heart to serve God.”

--Church of the Nazarene Asia-Pacific