Under the Sacred Bo Tree: Enhancing a Ministry That Is More than Preaching

Abstract

In Adventist missions we are very much concerned to “convince” people to accept Jesus and prepare for his coming. This is a very noble endeavor and is the essence of Christianity. Far too often we have tried to present to people the simple “truth” by arguing that we have that truth and we are disappointed when people to not “see” the beauty of our message. Unfortunately too many times we have not taken the time to understand the belief systems of the group we are focusing on. The Buddhist philosophical worldview is not so much concerned about the hereafter or what we would call heaven; rather, they are interested in how to live their lives today. They call it following the “Eightfold Path.” In this article I want to show how we as Christians can help Buddhists to walk such a path but also to outline a way for us Christians to find ways to share God’s wonderful truth with them.