An update from our Xpansion partner, Saturation Church Planting (SCP).
SCP Asia was actively engaged as a new regional project in 2008. There are 5 major regions in Asia, and SCP’s vision is to help form national leaders in 5 pivot nations that will take responsibility for their own nation as well as contiguous nations around them. These regions account for 4.5 billion people of the world’s population. In 2013, an SCP team was started in Bangkok, Thailand to facilitate the work that was going on and to lead the vision throughout Asia.
The Asian team is focused on 3 primary strategies in these pivot nations.
- First, to develop a network of resource churches that can carry the vision for that nation and contiguous nations. This is a process of envisioning, identifying, training and then coaching national leaders.
- Second, is to deliver decentralized leadership development that these resource churches can replicate to use in growing their people. This includes advanced theological training for key leaders and theological education by extension for every level of leadership.
- Third, is to champion and provide seed money to people mobilization ministries. These are low threshold ministries, started and led by lay people as they seek to engage the brokenness of their communities. Some of these include caring for the poor, widows, orphans, homeless, blind, bonded laborers and others.
India is one pivot nation that has become SCP’s largest project where all 3 of SCP’s primary strategies are engaged. Over the past 8 years thousands of leaders have been trained and 11 resource churches in 9 states are postured to carry the vision throughout India and surrounding nations. These Indian churches have also begun to take the vision to Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
In addition to India, the team is at the beginning stages of setting up networks of resource churches in Central Asia, Russia, China and Southeast Asia. As an organization we are committed to seeing the local churches built up to carry a vision for their people. Only God can open the hearts of leaders to this vision. Pray with us that as we have opportunity, God orchestrates the right leaders to receive and be developed in this vision.
With the activity around Asia and the team situated in Bangkok, Thailand, a city of more than 16 million, it has become a felt need to see a model of these principles and vision established where we live. For the past 6 months the team has been working to see a vision for every man, woman & child set in the hearts of leaders of this city. Bangkok is rapidly becoming one of the major global cities of Asia. Less than 1% of the population of Bangkok is Christian and the city is made up of more than 20 nationalities that come to this Asian gateway for various reasons. There are 169 sub-districts of Bangkok and the vision is to see the churches in this city embrace a decentralized expression of the body of Christ that would start by reaching every sub-district with at least one group that would be intentional with reaching that locality with the Gospel. Pray for the SCP team as we seek to be a part of what God is doing to declare His glory in the lostness of this place.
We covet your prayers for the protection, growth, activity and extension of the SCP team in Bangkok, Thailand.
-The SCP Team