Courses
July 1 – 6
Engaging Buddhism MCC 546
8:00 a.m. – Noon
Instructor: Jason Loper
This course will provide an overview of Buddhism as a religious system, including its historical development, fundamental doctrines, and practice. Similarities and differences between Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhism will be examined, and students will be encouraged to consider areas of continuity and discontinuity between these expressions of Buddhism with biblical perspectives. The course content will give students a basic understanding of Buddhism as a world religion in order to inspire reflection on strategies for effective missiological engagement with individuals or people groups from a Buddhist worldview background.
Sp. Topics: Church Planting in the Buddhist World MCC 632
1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Instructor: Alan Johnson
This course aims to enhance the ability of participants to have a comprehensive overview of the issues in church planting in the Buddhist world. Participants will learn strategies and skills for the task and be provided with practical resources they can adjust for their contexts.
Professor Bios
Alan Johnson
Alan and his wife Lynette have served with AGWM in Thailand since 1986. He is an associate professor of Anthropology at AGTS. AGWM asked him to help develop materials for training people ministering to those influenced by Buddhist worldview in the late 1990s. He has trained hundreds of global workers in seminars and formal courses over the past 25 years.
Jason Loper
Jason and his wife, Kristi, have served as AGWM missionaries to Nepal since 2001. Over the course of his 23 years of missionary service, he has assisted with the growth and development of theological education in Nepal, primarily as a New Testament professor and board member for Nepal Theological College. In addition to his ongoing investment in training and equipping local pastors and church planters, Jason also currently serves as the team leader for the Envision Nepal Live Dead team. The focus of this ministry team is to bring gospel access to unreached Tibetan Buddhist people groups in the Himalayan regions of Nepal. Jason is currently a PhD student at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri. He and Kristi have four children: Nathaniel, Abigail, Judah, and Hezekiah.