While Christianity is hardly on the radar of young people in Western countries, Buddhism is growing in popularity.
In fact in the 90s, as people were leaving the church in their thousands, it was the fastest growing faith in the UK. Today, there are over 500 Buddhist centres and meditation sites in the country.
There is in Europe, the sense that Christianity has been “tried” and now it is time to try something else, Li-Anne Piwonka of WEC International told young European Christians at the Mission-Net Congress in Erfurt, Germany.
“And there are things we didn’t do so well so they open themselves up to other streams,” she said.
In fact, Buddhism is enjoying a surge in interest as a result of the popularity of New Age spirituality among young Europeans.
While it was “almost impossible” to find a Thai or Burmese temple in her native Germany 30 years ago, today they can be easily found in many of the larger towns and cities.
“They know how to come in as our societies are becoming more frustrated with Christianity,” she said.
Around the world, there are around 400 million people who describe themselves as Buddhists, most of them living in countries where it is the dominant belief system, like Thailand or Burma.
In addition to devotees, there are millions who have adopted some aspects of Buddhist belief or practice, such as yoga or transcendental meditation. When these practitioners are taken into consideration, there are no less than one billion people worldwide “influenced” by Buddhism.
“But we don’t need to be scared by that,” said Guido Braschi, of OMF Europe.
Far better, he believes, is to be prepared, to understand what Buddhists believe, and to learn how to communicate the Gospel effectively to them.
Piwonka agrees: “We need to know the basics to reach out to Buddhists.”
The first thing to understand is that Buddhism is not so much a religion as a philosophical belief system which understands life as suffering that can only ultimately be overcome by destroying negative thoughts and reincarnating to better and better life forms until nirvana – or a state of nothingness – is reached.
Its philosophical nature and emphasis on being peaceful are part of its broad appeal, as is the idea that nirvana can be reached without God. No God means no one to boss me around and no need to go to church, says Piwonka.
“With Buddhism, God is within me, you don’t need to go to a temple,” she explained. “So I can cherry pick and do what suits me.”
Dig a little deeper into the faith and it becomes apparent that some traditional approaches to mission will not work in Buddhist contexts.
For one thing, Buddhists have no concept of God so telling them that God loves them will have little meaning.
