When: 2024
Summary: Being Barnabas to Pastor Pat* — a visionary pastor and leader who has a passion for seeing all people in Thailand come to know and worship Jesus.
Pastor Pat’s current vision is to see 100 churches planted by 2030, and there are currently 14 daughter churches already planted in his network.
Our team has been connected to Pat since the fall of 2020 when one of our teammates moved from Central to North Thailand to begin pioneering the work of mobilization in the North. During this time, a number of our teammates were stuck in the US while the Thai borders were closed due to Covid. This teammate began networking and making connections with believers and pastors in North Thailand by starting with relationships that the Lord had given our team during our five years of ministry in Central Thailand previously. One of the first people she was introduced to was Pat.
It didn’t take long for her to realize that Pat is exactly the kind of person that we want to partner alongside. Pat loves Jesus deeply and is humble, kind, and caring. He is a gifted evangelist and teacher. He has a really clear apostolic vision to see churches started in every village spanning from the main city back to his hometown in a nearby province. He also cares well for people and shepherds the members of his church and basically, any believer he comes in contact with 🙂 He has led at least 40 people to faith in the past year and is eager to see new believers empowered to share their faith. He is vision-driven and is challenging the leaders of the 14 daughter churches to plant multiplying house churches in their areas.
Over the past four years, our team has had the honor and privilege of getting to know, encourage, and come alongside Pat as the Lord is leading him and giving him a clear vision and direction for the future. We share in the heartbeat of his vision, and he is receptive to our input, so as a result, we can invest more deeply with him. In coaching meetings with Pat, we help him think critically about how his vision could become a reality, brainstorm strategy ideas, and help him decide on practical steps he can make going forward. In 2024, our team has plans to train each of the leaders of the 14 daughter churches and a group of key leaders that Pat is raising up. We will train them in simple methods for planting reproducible house churches that can multiply. We are praying for each of these daughter churches to begin to multiply to the 1st and 2nd generations and beyond.
At the end of each sermon on Sundays, Pat reviews the church network’s goal for 2030 and the strategy behind it, “disciples making disciples, churches planting churches, and leaders developing leaders”. Please join us in praying that there will be a hundred churches planted and more by 2030.