Growing our Sanghas

Presently, our BCA is faced with the challenge of growing our Sanghas and our membership.  

I might have mentioned before that over the past 10 years, our BCA has lost 28% of our membership. Future decline threatens the existence of many of our churches and temples that are holding on to a small number of members and struggle to meet their budgets and to keep their doors open.  

How do we face that challenge for the future? Is religion, as a whole, on the decline? Many Christian churches also face a serious decline of membership. Other Buddhist schools are not growing rapidly either, but they are much larger in numbers than we are.  

This year, our BCA celebrates its 125th year. From nothing, our churches and temples were built well over 100 years ago. Members were struggling themselves to earn a living, especially amidst harsh prejudice and discrimination against Japanese. The sacrifices and dedication of our pioneering members and ministers are incalculable. Without their efforts, we would not be celebrating our 125th anniversary of our BCA.  

I think that our pioneering members and ministers saw and felt a tremendous value in the teachings, in the Nembutsu. That is what motivated them to sacrifice so much to establish our churches, temples and Sanghas. The same can be said of the Buddhist masters and teachers who propagated Buddhism from India to China and on to other countries.  

Monks traversed mountains, deserts and oceans to bring the sutras and Buddhist texts to foreign lands, to share the Dharma. After arriving in their new land, they had to learn the language of that land, then translate and share the teachings in a way that the people of that country could understand, practice and follow.  

Other monks and seekers left their homelands to learn the Dharma or to seek enlightenment in a foreign land. The great Zen Master Dogen could not find enlightenment in Japan and traveled to China by boat, at the risk of his life, to find a true teacher and master in China.  After encountering a teacher, Dogen returned to Japan and established the Eiheiji monastery that exists to this day.  

I think we are at a crossroads of our ministry here in the United States. When I say “ministry,” I don’t mean just ministers. It takes all of us to propagate the Dharma effectively. It takes ministers and members to work together to maintain and provide the facilities from which the Dharma can be shared. We are now learning new ways to share the Dharma virtually, through YouTube videos, podcasts and other forms of transmission, but the core experience is still the in-person encounter of the Dharma through living Buddhists.  

We ministers have to give Dharma talks and conduct study classes in a manner that resonates with people, both our own members and newcomers. Our Sanghas have to be warm and inviting, so that visitors will return a second and third time, and maybe even stay with our Sanghas.  

Our boards and temple officers must lead our Sanghas effectively, working together, being open to change and trying new and innovative ways to adapt for the future.  

And, first and foremost, we must all be listeners of the Dharma, as this is the core of our Shin Buddhist tradition. As we listen sincerely, others will also come to listen. As we come to appreciate the Dharma, others will come to appreciate the Dharma with us. As we come to live a life of gratitude, others will come to want to live a life of gratitude as well.  

Recently, I saw an old friend whom I met in Japan decades ago. He shared a wonderful metaphor. He said that we have to be like charcoal. Once a piece of charcoal is lit, it begins to radiate heat and warmth to others around it. That is what sharing the Dharma is like, to be like a piece of charcoal. But first we have to be “lit” by the light of the Dharma ourselves.

That to me is how we will and must grow in the future. I hope that we can all work together in that regard.