Utilizing partnerships with like-minded Christian organizations, The Tide® is expanding its gospel footprint in Thailand by delivering “Walking with God,” a short daily devotional, on social media.
We’re continuing to partner with New Zealand Baptists in an initiative to deliver 7- to 10-minute daily devotionals via LINE, a popular social media app in Thailand. The arrangement does more than just steward financial resources as each ministry shares expenses; it allows the ministries to analyze demographical data of the daily gospel messages.
“The majority of our followers (70%) are located in the northeast (Isaan) region of Thailand,” the analytics revealed. “Approximately 23% are located in Bangkok, the capital city (where many Isaan people work). The location of the remaining 7% are listed as ‘unknown,’ although we know that some are living abroad (the more specific location descriptions only include areas of Thailand). The majority of the followers (75%) are female, which is true of the demographics of the church at large in Thailand.”
While early data revealed 126 people are faithfully using “Walking with God,” the data understates the bigger impact of the initiative. The Tide believes that among the 126 users are pastors who forward the daily devotional to others, expanding the outreach to groups of 18 to 30 people per pastor, pushing the numbers of recipients well over 200.
The point, however, is not social media data insights but getting the gospel message to the lost sheep of Thailand, says Director Don Shenk.
“Having data to analyze can be helpful, but we don’t look to numbers on a spreadsheet as our indicator of success in ministry,” Shenk said. “The Tide mission is fulfilled one person at a time as individual people choose to embrace Jesus as their Lord and Savior who seeks out, loves and interacts with each one personally, regardless of where they live or what language they speak.”
The analytics also revealed that “Walking with God” is being received in five provinces in the Isaan region of Thailand, as well as in Bangkok and even in some neighboring countries. In addition to partnering with New Zealand Baptists, The Tide ministry is working with Isaan Christian/YWAM Mahasarakham to produce and record a new set of 365 daily devotions ready for use in 2021.