James is the Executive Director of Sonrise Center for Buddhist Studies. For 14 years, he was a member and later a youth division chapter leader in Nichiren Shoshu Academy, aka Soka Gakkai of America, a rapidly growing Buddhist sect that was founded by Nichiren, a Buddhist prophet in thirteenth century Japan.

In 1981, after an accident in the midst of his second Buddhist pilgrimage in Japan, James' original doubts about his Buddhist faith grew in their intensity. What followed was a three year quest for the truth which culminated in James and his Buddhist wife, Elizabeth turning to Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life during the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as a result of the efforts and prayers of three believers who did not even know each other convincing James that God was speaking to him through a variety of circumstances.

One businessmen, Craig Holiday, an Amway Diamond came alongside of James and Elizabeth and shared his personal faith in Jesus and a Bible,  while Laurie Matisse, an architect in Venice, prayed for James, spent a portion of her grocery money and purchased Beyond Buddhism by J. Isamu Yamamoto and More Than a Carpenter by Josh MacDowell as a gift. Finally, James sought out Pastor Clarence Crites in his office at Santa Monica Church of the Nazarene and asked him how to become a follower of Jesus. That night he and his wife Judy visited the Stephens and shared the Gospel with Elizabeth who confessed that she always wanted to have a faith like that in the Robe and Ten Commandments, but had never heard the Gospel in her thirty-two years of life. That evening she also gave her life to the LORD Jesus.

In 1985, he began attending Grace Community Church pastored by John MacArthur, Jr. where he and his wife Elizabeth served in the Children's ministries as Captain Discovery and participated in Discipleship Evangelism. They also established a group to pray for the Buddhist world with Joseph Lambert, who joined their work as Director of Prayer.

In 1987, after taking the Perspectives on World Mission, he was challenged by Don Richardson, Don McCurry, Robert Saucy and Ralph Winter to seriously consider establishing a work to reach the unreached Buddhist world.

For nearly a year, James and his wife prayerfully considered their calling in light of Christ's command to disciple the nations.  On August 1, 1988, they established Sonrise Center for Buddhist Studies with the vision of seeing a missional church established and leadership discipled among every unreached Buddhist people group.'

Since 1988, Sonrise Center has operated in an experimental and creative capacity to develop information and training for the Christian community and also for religious seekers who may have questions about the Christian faith.

As a graduate of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist Study Academy, James has a rare grasp of an insider into the workings of a missionary Buddhist sect that grew from 3,000 members in 1947 to nearly 17 million members worldwide in 215 countries.

In 1996, James was invited to study at Fuller School of Intercultural Studies with a dual concentration in Leadership Studies under Dr. Bobby Clinton, and a Christian Buddhist Studies under the tutelage of his mentor, Dean Dudley Woodberry, one of the leading Christian specialists in Islam in the world. In 1999 he was awarded a MA in Intercultural Studies.

Presently, he's engaged in securing additional funding for the Cross and Lotus Digital Project, tracing the historical interaction of Christianity and Buddhism.

http://www.sonrisecenter.org/StephensMediaVita.htm