Thailand has a small Christian population and a long Christian history, and finding a congregation there is easy in some places and genuinely difficult in others. A few local facts make the search much faster.

Where congregations are

Bangkok has the widest choice, including Thai, English, Chinese, Korean and Filipino services. Chiang Mai has a long-established Christian presence and a large number of congregations relative to its size, partly through historical mission work in the north.

Christian communities are proportionally strongest among northern hill peoples, particularly Karen, Lahu and Akha, and many congregations in those areas worship in their own languages rather than in Thai.

In much of the south and the rural centre, the nearest congregation may be a long journey away. That is worth establishing before you move rather than after.

A search problem worth knowing about

The Thai word for a religious building covers Buddhist temples as well as Christian churches, and Catholic churches in Thailand commonly use it. Searching for it alone will return mostly temples.

Search instead for the Thai word for Christian church, and try both Thai and Latin script. Many congregations register a formal Thai name, advertise an English one, and are known locally by a third.

Thai, English and Chinese services

English-language services exist in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket and a few other centres, and they serve a mixed international congregation. They are a reasonable landing point on arrival, though a church where you are one of the few foreigners will connect you to the country faster.

Chinese-language congregations exist in Bangkok and a few other cities, often meeting in the buildings of Thai churches at their own hour, which is why they can be hard to find in any listing.

How to search here

Use the directory filtered by country and then by city, and use the map for anywhere outside the main cities, since small congregations are more likely to appear as a pin than as a well-known name.

Ask people. Thai congregations are often small, meet in shophouses and homes, and leave no trace in any dataset. Our help board is where to ask, and it is frequently the only method that works outside the cities.