What led Thai-Buddhist background-believers to become Christian? A grounded-theory study

Participants

I interviewed thirty people, both male and female (14 males, 16 females), who identified as evangelical believing Christians, ranging in age from 21 to 71 years old. The mean age was 43. Participants came from various Protestant churches with varying theological perspectives, from Baptist to indigenous Thai denominations to Pentecostal. Participants were from various regions and provinces in Thailand, from Bangkok, to the Northeast, to the North. All participants were Thai nationals and identified as Thai. Four participants identified as fully or partially ethnically Chinese. One participant was half-Thai and half-European. One participant identified as Thai-Yai (ไทใหญ่) or Shan, a part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic group. However, all participants were born, educated, and raised within the Thai cultural context.

Some may question my decision to include mixed race people in the study. Thailand is a mix of cultures and Thai people are not homogenous. For a broad perspective of Thai culture in general, I only included those who identified as Thai, but included people who are part of the broader Thai community.

About half of the participants identified their families as strict Buddhists with three participants identifying their families as “true Buddhists,” meaning they do not worship idols and follow strictly the teachings of Buddha. “Buddhists like me do not worship idols or pictures of monks or anything else . . . True Buddhists are like that” (Prem). Two of the participants were raised in the temple as child monks. “I grew up in the temple because there was no food at home and no opportunity to study. I was a temple boy [เด็กวัด]” (Chai).

Two families followed a mix of Thai and Chinese Buddhist beliefs. “My family was Buddhist, but Chinese Buddhist. They combined it with Thai Buddhism” (Daquen). The other half identified their families as cultural Buddhists. “We were normal Buddhists. On Buddhist holidays we would go to make merit” (Satar). Buddhist practices were followed, but their families were not overly strict in practice. Pseudonyms for participants are used.

Data collection strategies

According to Charmaz (2014), grounded-theory study begins by gathering rich data. “Rich data are detailed, focused, and full. They reveal participants’ views, feelings, intentions, and actions” (2014: 23). Participants were found through my connections as a professor at a Thai seminary and my connection with pastors and leaders throughout Thailand. The selection process excluded those from tribal backgrounds or those who did not identify as Thai persons.

Interviews were semi-structured and done in the Thai language. I asked participants to tell me about their family’s religious background and to tell me the story of how they became Christian. Follow-up questions were asked to discern the factors or influences that brought them to a decision to become Christian. Interviews were recorded and then transcribed at a later time.

Data analysis

In the beginning, I, as well as some assistants, translated the transcripts into English for coding purposes, but I found it easier to code in the Thai language myself and then translate the relevant portions into English. When a phrase or word was in doubt, I consulted with a Thai professor at a prominent Thai university who is fluent in English.

Constant comparative analysis was completed step by step through analyzing the initial codes and identifying the most salient items using grounded-theory process as defined in Charmaz (2014).

Limitations

A qualitative study is generally limited by the perspective of the participants and their ability to express and remember their experiences. Such a study cannot prove causality, but only share the perception of the participants. This study is also limited to the experiences of those who self-identify as Thai and cannot be universally applied to all cultural contexts.

Evangelistic methods

Participants encountered the Christian message in various unsurprising ways: missionaries, family, friends, church camp, radio programs, Christian movie, tract, English classes offered by a church or Christian organization, and a village Christmas festival.

One participant recounted an interesting story about his sister. “My sister listened to the radio. She studied the Bible through listening to the radio program . . . She studied herself and studied through the mail. No one helped her and after she had studied two years, she believed and baptized herself. Because at that time there were no Christians” in her village (Prem). No single method of evangelism was found to be significant in bringing Buddhist background-believers to Christ.

The significant findings in this study were feeling dissatisfaction, encountering cognitive dissonance between Buddhist and Christian worldviews, and the prevalence of supernatural encounters with God. Furthermore, in every situation, the participant made a decision to seek God or to find more information about God (see Table 1).

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Table 1.

Perceived factors of participants in accepting Christianity.

Feeling Dissatisfaction	Encountering cognitive dissonance between worldviews	Encountering the supernatural
Dissatisfaction with life	Impressed by Christian behavior	Prayer challenge
A search for forgiveness/love	Confused by Christian teaching	The presence of God
Dissatisfaction with Buddhism		Unasked for blessing
	Deciding to seek

Feeling dissatisfaction

An important and pervasive factor was a sense of incongruence or dissatisfaction in life that led to a seeking after something more. Pop exclaimed, “Nothing was good in my life. I was just trying new things . . . I had tried everything already. I went to the temple . . . fortune teller. . . . Hindu temple.” The reasons for dissatisfaction were numerous and varied, a general dissatisfaction in life or emptiness, economic trouble, bankruptcy, addiction, problems with family. “I was addicted to gambling. I could not stop until I had lost everything” (Jaidee). Satar recounted, “After school, I would go and drink beer with my friends. I felt like I was not a good person, but I wanted to go to heaven.” Net expressed his dissatisfaction with life: “I still felt that no one understood me and my relationship with my father was not good . . . I had lost hope and strength. I didn’t think life was worth living.” One participant expressed a need for forgiveness for past deeds. Others were searching for love or true friendship.

For a very few, only three participants, the dissatisfaction was with Buddhism. Some participants saw monks not respecting the teachings of Buddha, not taking Buddhist practices seriously, or showing favor to the rich over the poor. They lost trust in the institution of Buddhism. This dissatisfaction in life came into contact with the different approach to the life of Christians and the teachings of Christianity.

Encountering dissonance between Buddhist and Christian worldviews

Many participants encountered a dissonance between the actions and teachings of Christianity and Buddhism. Sarakit and her husband opened a CD shop and a pastor became a member. He invited them to church, and they decided it was an opportunity to see something new. When they finally went, they were shocked! “There were no idols!” (Sarakit).

Kaeo went to an event at his village church. No one invited him, but he drove there to watch a movie about Jesus.

I was about 17 years old . . . The thing that I saw was the picture of Jesus when Jesus was dying on the cross and Jesus prayed for the people who were doing violence to him. I was interested in why Jesus was able to love those who were killing him . . . I was impressed . . . I sought out Christians in my village and talked to them. Who is Jesus? . . . I talked with them every day for three days to have them answer my questions . . . That was 20 years ago. (Kaeo)

Another participant narrated, “So, I went to Nakhon Sawan and there I met some Christians proclaiming the story of God. I was interested . . . so I went with them. I thought, ‘Is Jesus real?’”

Encountering the supernatural

Significantly, 23 participants expressed some sort of supernatural encounter with God as a significant part of their decision to become a Christian. I defined a supernatural encounter with God as an experience or surprising coincidence that was attributed to the God of the Bible.

Seven participants did not recount an event that I could classify as a specific supernatural experience that influenced them to become a Christian. However, each of these seven participants recounted an experience with God that was expressed as “joy in my heart,” “a supernatural change of life,” “life change,” “feeling in my heart” at or after conversion.

One of the seven recounted several supernatural encounters with ghosts and spirits before becoming a Christian, but the decision to follow Jesus was based on her belief that no one else could save her from her present difficult situation, which God did. She did not recount a specific supernatural experience with God as a factor in becoming a Christian. Another recounted an attack by an evil spirit that was repelled by calling on Jesus. But this encounter happened after becoming a Christian.

Seventy-six percent of participants recounted a specific supernatural experience as a factor in their decision to follow Jesus.

Prayer challenge

This supernatural experience often took the form of a prayer challenge. Chai wanted to have a true experience with God. He challenged God to heal his hand that had been hurt in a work accident. He could no longer grasp a hammer. After prayer, he recounted, “When I started to grab the hammer and then began to hammer nails, the swelling disappeared. I shouted to the people in the factory that God is real! This God will be my god for the rest of my life” (Chai).

Jaidee’s sister told her to pray to God for help. Jaidee prayed, “If Jesus is God over all humans on this earth, over all the other gods . . . then help me stop gambling.” She stopped gambling and has not gambled for 20 years. Na described how she was about to lose everything, her house, her finances, her family. She was ready to take pills and die, but a friend brought her to church. The pastor and people in the church prayed for her and her situation turned around miraculously. She then removed all the idols from her home and became a Christian. Net prayed, “If Jesus is real, please help me stop smoking. After I prayed, in about one week, I stopped.” Gop prayed a similar prayer to stop smoking and God responded. James’s mother had recently become a Christian. She prayed for him before he went into surgery for an appendectomy. After she prayed, he was healed and did not need surgery. This started him on the path to seek the God that his mother had found.

These prayers often took the form of a direct challenge: “If you are real God . . .” The prayers were often about difficult family or financial situations and in every case, except one, God answered that prayer. In my earlier study (Hilderbrand, 2016a), I recounted two such prayer challenges that led people to a decision to follow the way of Jesus. In one situation, the person prayed for tickets to a soccer game as a challenge for God to reveal Himself. The prayer was answered. In another, the person challenged God to process a new Thai driver’s license within 30 minutes. Again, the prayer was answered.

One participant of this study recounted how she wanted to stay longer at a church event. “I prayed that if God really existed and knew everything about me . . . please let me know . . . show me something and I will absolutely follow you with all of my heart” (Ann). Her parents had given her a curfew which she was close to violating. She prayed for God to reveal Himself and allow her to stay longer at church. The overpass bridge in front of the church was then hit by a truck and collapsed. No one was hurt, but traffic came to a standstill. Her family could not pick her up from church and she was allowed to stay for the rest of the event.

Satar’s husband was a taxi driver and she continually worried about his safety. Taxi drivers are often robbed or mugged. She thought, “If God was real, he knows what I am thinking” (Satar). Her husband had been gone for a long time and was not home yet. It was late and she tested God with a prayer. “If you are real, bring my husband home safely” (Satar). Before she had even finished thinking her prayer, her husband was outside the door. These types of challenges were not universal, but over half of the respondents reported making a challenge prayer that was answered.

The presence of God

One participant responded that his challenge prayer was not answered. Gang prayed, “If you are real, God, help my family . . . But God did not answer. We went bankrupt.” However, a Christian told Gang that God is a friend. He is a help and a comfort to us even if he does not deliver us from all our problems:

So, I decided to just talk with God . . . I talked to Him about all my many problems . . . I asked God, if you are real, please come and talk with me. There was a voice in my heart, like I had a friend now . . . I felt warm. That was the first time that I felt God . . . That was the first time I felt that I really believed . . . I had a personal encounter with God. (Gang)

Gop kept coming to church because his girlfriend was going to church, but he was still unsure about God. However, on one Sunday, “I felt that someone was calling me.” Lek’s friend challenged her to pray to God. “On the day I prayed, I felt what seemed like a stream of water enter into me . . . I felt a warmth that was greater than what I received from my mother and father.” Encountering the presence of God was experienced in different ways. God spoke to Bun in a dream. Dton saw a vision that pointed him to God.

Sigh recounted a vision that happened when she was 25 years old. “I gave birth at Bangkok Christian Hospital. It was very far from our home. . . . That was 40 years ago. . . . I heard the voice of a man and I saw him floating aimlessly. I heard a resonate male voice. What was this sound? The voice said, ‘Every day will you be a good person?’” At that time, Sigh was a strict Buddhist who followed all the precepts. “I didn’t understand. . . . He said to me, ‘how do you know you are good enough?’ I said, ‘I don’t know? What must I seek?’” Only later, when relatives invited her to church did she understand the vision. “When I went to the church, there was energy in the church, it was energy that I could feel. . . . I was not yet a Christian. When I listened to the pastor preach, my insides were stilled. My ears heard. I looked at the pastor. This is strange. I was happy. Happiness flowed out” (Sigh).

Unasked-for blessing

Not every supernatural encounter was sought after. Several participants had unasked for miraculous encounters, coincidences, or blessings.

I met my friend who was a Christian . . . He gave me a pamphlet. I kept reading the pamphlet . . . I had questions. What is this? How could this be? . . . I wanted to meet God. I found a card that I had earlier tossed away, but I heard a voice tell me to pick it up. It was a card for a cell group . . . I heard a voice. It told me to go and see. Go there. I didn’t know what to think. I heard a voice . . . I went to the address. It was a church, but I did not know it was a church . . . It was a normal house. I entered . . . I saw the guy who had given me the pamphlet! (Ananda)

One participant was not a monk, but a teacher of Buddhist power, a fortune teller, and a master of meditation. He experienced a dissonance in his life. As a master of Buddhism and its spiritual power, he advised and helped others to prosper in life, but now, Daquen was experiencing financial difficulty. He no longer had money to feed his family or keep his children in school. He was in debt and his car had broken down. He could see no way out of his financial difficulty. A former disciple of Daquen contacted him. He had read her fortune, but now she was a Christian. She invited him to church.

He continued his story, “I had no way out . . . I told myself, am I following all the [Buddhist] principles? Why does my life have all these problems? How come I cannot solve my problems. I advise my disciples and they are able to solve their problems . . . I am the master and I cannot answer these questions. So, I decided to go to church” (Daquen). Amazingly, the pastor had also been a fortune teller and master of Buddhist meditation, in the exact same tradition. The pastor was someone who could answer all his questions. He decided to explore Christianity. Within three months, Daquen believed and was baptized. Within six months, all his financial problems had been resolved. Daquen exclaimed, “God answered all my prayers. God cleared all my problems. Every one of them. Including my debt . . . This is what God did for me.”

Other participants also reported unprayed-for blessings. Once they began the process of seeking God, doors opened. “I didn’t ask God . . . I was dumb. I didn’t think I could do anything, but I got this job . . . I thought this was a miracle of God” (Banjit). In the process of seeking God, participants reported habits changed, family and economic problems overcome.

Deciding to seek

In the earlier study (Hilderbrand, 2016a), I noted that every participant made a choice, but as I have conducted more interviews, I have found that each participant did not just make a choice. To one degree or another, each participant began a search for understanding. Each participant made a decision to seek God in some manner.

Saeng was invited to a Bible study taught by a missionary. She explained that she did not understand the teaching at first, but she wanted to understand and began to ask questions, to search for understanding. Prem returned home after ten years and found churches in his hometown. “Ten years had passed, now there was a church . . . Before that there were no churches . . . [my village] now had churches . . . I asked myself why? . . . Is God real?”

Gung came to church seeking answers. “I had so many questions in my mind. Who is God? Why is there a God? What can God do or help?” She had a notebook filled with questions and asked them of the pastor until she was satisfied. In every interview, the participant made a decision to understand more or to find out if God was real.

Discussion of findings

Patterns

A certain pattern was discerned in the conversion experience. A person had a feeling of dissatisfaction in life or faced some sort of cognitive dissonance in their worldview. The participant then made a decision to search for understanding. Above the process was the Holy Spirit who often inserted himself into the process at some point with a revelation of himself through an answered prayer, experience, feeling, vision, or encounter. Below the process, was the instrument of proclamation, the Christian evangelist, or believer.

Missiological implications

In the pattern presented in Figure 1, much is out of the control of the evangelist. Bosch wrote, “mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God. God is a missionary God” (1991: 389–90). In other words, the salvation of the lost is God’s work. The missionary and the evangelist are merely instruments of God’s activity to save. According to the findings, God must do the work. The missionary/evangelist is an instrument that responds to the work that God is already doing.

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Figure 1.

Process of Conversion.

The life condition of an individual or a society is not under our control. Even more, God’s supernatural activity within the life of the seeker and answered prayers are completely out of our control. What is within our control is living a life worthy of honor and respect, living a life that will attract people to Jesus (Matt. 5:13–16; Col 4:5–6; 1 Peter 2:12).

The necessary factors in conversion seem to be the decision of the seeker to seek and the decision of the Holy Spirit to act. The participant decided to seek out a Christian for answers or to seek out a church. The participant decided to seek God through a prayer challenge, and God decided to answer. However, Thai Christians can participate in this work of God.

Theological implications

Theology should come from Scripture and not qualitative research. However, theology can be informed by qualitative research. These results affirm the necessity of God’s work in salvation. Both Arminian and Calvinistic traditions believe that it is God who calls people to himself. Salvation is God’s work (missio Dei). He is the necessary condition to the work of salvation. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44, ESV). God must act. One participant recounted how he attended church simply to receive rent money while he was attending university. He attended church, participated in church activities, attended Bible studies, and was even baptized before actually believing the gospel message. The church and the Christian community did everything correctly. However, it was a supernatural encounter with God that led to his true conversion. After experiencing God, he finally believed. In summary, God must do the work.

Each participant made a decision at some point to seek God whether by a free choice of will or through the irresistible grace of God. “You will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut. 4:29 ESV). And again, Jeremiah wrote, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13 ESV). It was Jesus who commanded us to seek and to knock (Luke 11:9–13). Those who seek God will find God and he will be found by them. We should not be afraid to challenge people to seek God. We should not be afraid to encourage people to talk to God and ask him to reveal himself. God is a lover of those who seek truth and who seek him. “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me” (Prov 8:17 ESV).