Steps on how to build a relationship with Buddhist people
Buddhist are people who believe that life is full of endless suffering, which can be changed. Buddhist believe that one has the power to change their suffering by maintaining high moral standards, meditation, and wisdom. In order to get along well with the Buddhist people, it is necessary to have humility. A lot of people tend to believe that their religion is better than that of others, and this can bring a lot of differences either in the neighborhood or in a working place. In order to avoid conflict, it is necessary for people to learn the religion of the other person so as to be able to understand each other better. The next step to getting along with Buddhist people is by finding a thing that you have in common with them. By finding out what you have in common helps you to be able to know what to do when you are with them since a common thing that both of you share can make you get along well with them. Another step is not to try to convert them.do not make efforts to convert their religion in any way. You two can talk about religion but trying to make them change what they believe in is likely to ruin your relationship with them. Avoiding negativity is another step to building a great relationship with others .you should avoid talking negative things about someone’s religion so as to avoid getting into conflict with them (Dunn,2019).
Barriers to presenting the Cristian gospel to Buddhists
In the Buddhist religion, there is no belief in Jesus Christ. The strong Buddhist belief is that one can be saved by the things they do, such as having good morals, and this makes the teachings of a supreme God by Christians to make no sense to them. The Buddhists believe about life and suffering according to their teachings by Buddha make it impossible to understand why Jesus is needed since suffering is brought to oneself by one’s behaviors. Most Buddhist live in countries in which all their family members are Buddhist and are brought up under strong Buddhist believes, and this makes it difficult for them to accept Christianity since they view it as a betrayal to their families. Buddhist view Christians as the people from western culture, and this includes immoral behaviors, bad politics, and being materialistic. According to Mullis (2018), the bad view of Christians portrayed in the eyes of the Buddhists makes it difficult for the Buddhist to accept Christianity. Buddhist who live in neighborhoods with Christian’s notice that most Christians are not committed to their work towards Jesus Christ. The laziness and sinful ways of Christians is a barrier to Buddhists acquiring and accepting the gospel. Buddhism does not believe in the relationship between man and man or man or god. The Buddhist religion focuses on oneself, therefore, making it difficult for the Buddhist people to believe in god.
Personal barriers when presenting the gospel
Passing the gospel to other people is not an easy as it seems, especially when the audience is non-believers.one challenge I encounter is getting the audience to listen to me. Some people are not interested in the gospel and trying to convince them to accept the gospel in a way that you are not forcing them is a difficult task. The fear that the gospel will be rejected by the target people since we live in a world where people do not mind giving negative responses is also a challenge. Sometimes we experience a lot of fear during the passing of the gospel, and it is advisable to be confident when passing the gospel. The fear of my gospel being rejected or the fear of being asked questions that am unable to answer should be overcomed. Not being confident, may be caused by not putting my facts together before passing the gospel and also worrying about how family members and friends will react as I teach the gospel. Not having an opportunity to share my faith with other people is also a challenge, and this is brought about by not having an audience to teach the gospel to and is brought about by not having the courage and skills to start a conversation with people. Sometimes passing the gospel to people of a different culture different from mine is an issue. My little understanding of their culture makes me unable to know what they believe in hence difficult to pass the gospel effectively to them.
References
Dunn, S. L., & Jensen, J. D. (2019). Buddhism and Buddhist Business Practices. International Journal of Business Administration, 10(2), 115-128.
Mullis, E. C. (2018). Contextualizing the Gospel for Southeast Asian Buddhists: Recovering the Critical Themes of Kingdom and Covenant in Evangelism (Doctoral dissertation, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary).
Nwankwo, L. N. (2019). AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHALLENGE OF PROSPERITY GOSPEL. Ministerium: A Journal of Contextual Theology, 5.