Who are the Baptists?
Asia
See also special studies on Baptists in the Philippines
A Mission History of the Philippine Baptist
Churches 1898-1998 from a
Philippine Perspective, by Nestor
D. Bunda (Verlag an der Lottbek,Germany, 1999 - ISBN
3-86130-057-5)
A short history of Baptists in Asia
mod 150604 - 27/02/01
During the last thirty-five years, Baptists have experienced
significant growth in Asia. In 1965 they numbered one million.
Today they include four million in over 25,000 congregations,
extending across the continent from Yemen in the southwest to
the Far East of the Russian Republic in the northeast.
Because of Asia's vast population of over three and a half billion,
Baptists (one Baptist in every 922 persons) appear to be a small
minority. On the other hand, congregations are in every Asian
country except in nine Moslem nations, six of which are in the
Arabian peninsula, and Laos. Large concentrations of Baptists
are in southern India with practically a Baptist belt extending
from northeast India across Myanmar (Burma) into northern Thailand.
Significant numbers are in the Philippines and Korea.
The first Baptist foreign mission field was India. In 1793
the newly formed Baptist Missionary Society of England sent William
Carey and John Thomas, who opened a field in Bengal. Because of
his advocacy of Christian missions and personal example, Carey
is known today as 'the father of modern missions.' He was noted
for his evangelism, training of workers, establishment of schools,
and efforts in social reform. Numerous other Baptist missions,
particularly from the U.S.A., also came to India. Today there
are 1,850,000 Baptists in India but divided into about forty different
conventions and associations. Baptists are the largest Protestant
body in the country and also the largest body of Baptists in any
country except the U.S.A. Baptists have been particularly successful
among the Telegus of southern India and the hill tribes of northeast
India.
With the opening of Nepal on India's border to Christian
missions, Baptists have established a growing work here, increasing
to 10,000 since 1989. In neighbouring Bangladesh, Baptists were
the first Protestants to enter the territory and today, although
small in numbers, are the largest Protestant community, with its
greatest success among tribal peoples. Small Baptist groups are
also in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Myanmar (Burma) was also another early Baptist mission
field. In 1813 Adoniram Judson and his wife, Ann, arrived from
the U.S.A., the first American Baptist missionaries to serve abroad
and two of the most revered mission figures in Baptist mission
annals. The Myanmar Convention, the largest Christian denomination
in the country and composed of sixteen member bodies, numbers
630,000 in over 3,600 churches. Its members are primarily tribal
peoples.
The predominantly Buddhist country of Thailand has approximately
36,000 Baptists in 335 congregations, divided into five groups.
Although a distinct minority, Baptists make up one of the largest
Protestant groups, composed primarily of Chinese and Karens as
well as other tribal peoples. In 1831 William Dean formed in Bangkok
the first Chinese Baptist church in Asia. To the south of Thailand,
Malaysia and Singapore each has a Baptist convention of some strength.
To the east of Thailand, Cambodia, which after the genocide
of about 30% of its population and control by Vietnam, has become
increasingly open to evangelical activity. Beginning in 1991,
Baptist work has been most successful - growing from six churches
in 1992 to over 200 churches and 10,000 members by 1999, and becoming
the largest Protestant body in the country.
On the other hand, because of communist control, Vietnam and
Laos have been difficult fields for Baptists. The Foreign
Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention initiated work
in South Vietnam in 1959 and Laos in 1971. With the subjugation
of South Vietnam to communist forces, only one church, Grace Baptist
Church in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) survived; today it has around
500 members. This church and three underground Baptist churches
each individually relate to a network of house churches, totalling
ninety-four, with all but three in the south. The work in Laos
did not survive.
As with India, China was a premier mission field for Baptists
with missionaries coming from the U.S.A. and Great Britain. At
the time of the establishment of the People's Republic of China
in 1949, Baptists had grown to 123,000, about ten per cent of
the Protestant population. Under the cultural revolution all churches
were closed, but Christianity survived in thousands of house churches.
In 1979 a new era of religious toleration began with the reopening
of churches, but under government control and the forcing of all
Protestants to give up denominational divisions. House churches,
however, continue along with the registered churches. All Protestant
congregations practice believer's baptism with immersion as the
mode for about third of them.
Although there is no Baptist convention or union in China today,
the World Christian Encyclopaedia (2001 edition) reports
six independent Baptist groups composed of national minorities
in southwest China. Besides, there is a group of 11,000 Baptist
Lahus. There is organized Baptist work in Hong Kong/Macau
(56,000 members) and Taiwan (26,000 members). Baptists
entered Mongolia in the 1990s. In 1994 the government granted
them recognition, the first for a Christian church in the country.
American Baptist missionaries formed the first Baptist church
in Japan in 1873 in Yokohama. Although a great influx of
Baptist missions entered Japan after the Second World War, thus
adding to the mission forces of the two earlier Baptist missions
from the U.S.A.--American Baptist and Southern Baptist - Baptist
work has been slow, as with other Christian groups. Today there
are about 50,000 Baptists in the country divided into numerous
separate bodies.
In contrast to Japan, Korea has been a country of explosive growth
for Baptists, as with other Christian groups. In 1949 the Church
of Christ in East Asia, which began with Baptist roots in 1889,
became the Korea Baptist Convention, forging a partnership with
Southern Baptists in the U.S.A. Today it reports 680,000 members
in 2,145 congregations. One of its leading pastors, Billy Kim,
is today president of the Baptist World Alliance.
Two years after the acquisition of the Philippines by the
U.S.A. in 1898, Baptists from the U.S.A. opened a mission field
in the country. Because of the work of numerous American mission
societies and with division, there are at least eighteen different
Baptist groups with a total membership of over 350,000 in over
4,100 churches.
Another fruitful Baptist field has been Indonesia which
has around 140,000 Baptists in over 800 churches in six groups.
The most successful body is the Fellowship of Iran Jaya Baptist
Churches in the western part of the island of New Guinea with
around 15,000 members; it began In 1956 through the work of Australian
Baptist missionaries.
Baptists are represented in each of the former Soviet republics
of Central Asia. The Baptist Union of Kazakhstan has over
11,000 members; the Baptist Union of Kyrgystan has over 3,000;
and the Union of Middle Asia, including Uzebekistan, Tajikistan,
and Turmenistan, has 3,800. In addition there are Korean Baptists
in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, numbering around 1,950, and Independent
Reform Baptists in Kazakhstan with possibly 3,600 members. During
the Soviet period, Baptist churches in the area were composed
primarily of Slavic and German peoples, but since the collapse
of the U.S.S.R., numbers of them have emigrated. On the other
hand, Baptists are now gaining members from the indigenous population,
especially Kazakh and Kyrgyz.
To the north in the Russian Republic's areas of Siberia and
the Far East, Baptists are well represented. The majority
of Baptists here are members of the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists
with headquarters in Moscow.
Western Asia, a strongly Moslem area extending from Turkey
to Afghanistan, and including the Arabian peninsula,
has been a most difficult field. Baptists have congregations in
only six of the fifteen nations, and two of them have only one
church each - Turkey and Yemen. Nevertheless Baptists maintain
a vigorous witness in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan with each nation
having around 1,500 or more Baptists. There is a weaker presence
in Syria.
A great majority of Asian Baptists continue to maintain ties with
mission agencies in the Western world. Some Asian Baptist groups
are now sending their own missionaries. Asian Baptists have formed
their own Asian Baptist Federation which is part of the Baptist
World Alliance. However, the unions of Central Asia are members
of the European Baptist Federation.