As a church leader, you may face tough challenges sharing God’s love with members of non-Christian religions. Scott Griswold, director of the Buddhist Study Center in Thailand, draws from his mission experience to give you practical tools for building bridges of understanding and friendship with Buddhists in your community
Whether your community has many Buddhists or none at all, it’s likely this information will be invaluable to you soon. For Buddhism is “the integrating and identifying religion of approximately one billion people,” says Dr. Alex Smith (Evangelical Missiological Society, Spring 2000). Between 40-90 percent of Cambodia, Bhutan, Japan, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam are Buddhist. Smith puts the number of Buddhists in the U.S.A. at ten million. This growth has been within the last several decades, especially among young people. Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, France, Indonesia, and Mongolia each have several hundred thousand Buddhists.
“Christians have often found it difficult to share the gospel with Buddhists,” says Griswold. Buddhists have often found it difficult to become Christians. Why is this?
Many Buddhists come from countries where the families and societies are closely knit. A change to Christianity is often seen as a betrayal to family and country. They may view Christianity as foreign, something linked to the politics, materialism, and immorality they see in western countries. Their own spectacular temples, intricate systems of morality, and elaborate ceremonies lead Buddhists to assume that becoming a Christian would be a step down.
Buddhist beliefs about life, death, and salvation are vastly different from ours. Many times they simply don’t understand what we’re saying or find it unbelievable and irrelevant.
So what can we do? We must become BRIDGE BUILDERS. Jesus gave the Holy Spirit as fully adequate for taking the gospel to the entire world, including to Buddhists (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit gives us three bridge pieces that will span the gaps and make it easier for them to experience God. These are:
• CHARACTER BRIDGES
• ACTION BRIDGES
• WORD BRIDGES
A transformed CHARACTER is extremely important because the focus of Buddhism is rightliving, right-thinking, and the denial of desires. Buddhists must see someone living the good news they are seeking.
Compassionate ACTIONS are an important drawing factor because Buddhism is full of merit-making. When Buddhists see us caring for the poor, it will be easier for them to think our scriptures and our God have something to offer them.
Empowered by such love, our WORDS will sink into their hearts. We will learn to speak in ways that lead them simply step-by-step to greater truths.
These three bridges are not a method; they are the power of the Holy Spirit, directly tied to the fruit of the Spirit (character), the gifts of the Spirit (actions), and the tongues of the Spirit (words). As we call out to God in prayer, He will use us to make bridges directly to the hearts of Buddhists.
How can we begin building these bridges? There are four simple steps.
1. Listen to know their beliefs and needs.
Listening to our Buddhist friends helps us know what is important to them and how we can meet their needs. It communicates that we value and respect them.
Do we know what our friends believe? What do they think about God, life, death, and what comes next? Some Buddhists think more about spirits, magic, and protection than about Buddha’s teachings. Some are highly philosophical with no room for what is unseen. Others are secular, thinking only about their families, businesses, or pleasure.
Jesus used parables tied to what people lived and liked. Once we know their beliefs and interests we will know where to start the BRIDGE and what piece of the good news they first need to hear.
2. Affirm Similarities in Values
Buddhists believe in the law of karma—everyone reaps the good or bad that they sow. Most are confident of an afterlife in hell or heaven for awhile and then a return to this world of suffering. Often Christians want to jump quickly into the good news of forgiveness and to truths about death and eternal life. The Buddhist is frequently confused or offended by the person’s confrontational approach.
BUILD another piece of the BRIDGE by affirming what you hold in common. We also believe we reap what we sow. Share some of Solomon’s proverbs and Jesus’ teachings that highlight the morality we hold in common.
We too believe in something beyond the grave, in angels, and evil spirits. Sure our understanding is different, but why not start with a friendship based on what we share. If we believe that all truth has its source in God, we don’t need to be afraid to affirm the good which Buddha taught, even while we recognize the enemy has mixed truth with error.
If they’re not ready to see Jesus as the eternal Son of God who can forgive sins, then let them come to value Him for His wise teachings, later for His kind actions or His power over evil spirits. In time the step to full belief won’t seem so hard.
3. Joyfully Share about Differences through a Testimony
People may not want to discuss religion, but if you’re their friend, they’ll listen to your story. If you want them to understand about a living God, tell them something that happened when you asked for His help. If you want them to believe Jesus can forgive sins, talk about your struggles and the peace you found in the story of the cross. Your stories, friends’ stories, and stories from the Bible interestingly shared at the right time will never be forgotten. How much better this is than a debate in which no one is changed and someone probably become more closed than ever.
4. Invite them to Experience Something New
The BRIDGE is not finished until our Buddhist friends step into a relationship with the living God. Our job is to BUILD small steps by inviting them to try a variety of new experiences. At the right time we might be able to say:
• “May I pray for your troubled teenager?”
• “Would you like to try memorizing this scripture that helped my relationship with my wife?”
• “Would you like to experience a Sabbath with my family this weekend? It’s really helped us grow close together and has helped my stress-level too.”
• “Try praying to God every night before you go to sleep and see if it helps your fears go away.”
“Small steps, where God’s power can be felt, will make it easier for a Buddhist to make the full step of surrender and loyalty to God. Today God is longing to communicate His love to the many Buddhists that do not know Him as their Father. Will you join Him as a BRIDGE BUILDER?”
To learn more about ministry among Buddhists visit the web site at www.BridgesForMinistry.org. There you can find such resources as the 30-Day Cycle of Prayers for Buddhists, Bible Studies for Buddhists, and more. To receive an e-mail newsletter called “Prayers Among Buddhists” write to [email protected]
Scott Griswold is the director of the Buddhist Study Center in Ayutthaya, Thailand. The Office of Adventist Mission, located at the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, operates five Global Mission Study Centers under the leadership of Dr. Ganoune Diop. The Centers aim to establish bridges of understanding with various major world religions. For more information on the study centers and to discover what’s new on the frontlines of Adventist Mission, visit www.AdventistMission.org
