A portraiture of the history of the Baptist Mission in Vietnam from 1959 to 2015, from a Vietnamese perspective

Abstract

This study attempted to describe a 56-year old history of the Baptist Mission in Vietnam from a Vietnamese perspective from 1959 to 2015. It also sought to identify the Baptist missionaries and Vietnam Baptist Churches (BCV) and the stages that shaped their rich history and devotions to God. The stages included the early stage of evangelization and foundation, dispersion, underground and recovery stage, legal status obtained, stage after obtaining the “Certificate of Operation”, and trends of global missions. It utilized published and unpublished as well as electronic documents, and personal interviews. The Southern Baptist Church was the predecessor of the Baptist Convention of Vietnam. BCV has approximately more than 43,500 baptized members, 504 local churches, 54 ordained pastors, 71 junior pastors, 370 preachers, 41 evangelists, one Doctor of Ministry graduate, and 18 theological centers. BCV’s contributions to the Baptist faith in Vietnam included organizing and establishing of churches, educating pastors and nurturing church members. BCV is confronted with problems and challenges, namely: pastoral skills to meet the demands of the growing churches and ministry; income to meet the basic needs of pastors; unity and coordination among pastors and leaders, theological training for ministry and teaching in Bible Schools; library resources like books, electronic documents and the like; young adults or even Christians move to cities where they can find work; pastors are getting older; outside groups/missionaries (e.g. Korean, American) that offer help to BCV trying to do missions in their own way.