James Stephens is the Director of Sonrise Center for Buddhist Studies. For 14 years, he was an aggressive youth division leader in a Buddhist sect. In 1981, after an accident in the midst of a Buddhist pilgrimage in Asia, James began to have serious doubts about his Buddhist faith. 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.

Since 1988, Sonrise Center has operated in an experimental and creative capacity to develop information and training for the Christian community. 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 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 in Discipleship Evangelism. They also established a prayer 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 Richardson, McCurry, and Winter to seriously consider establishing a work to reach the unreached Buddhist world. On August 1, 1988, after much prayer, they established Sonrise Center for Buddhist Studies in  Canyon Country, California.

In 1996, James was invited to study at Fuller School of Intercultural Studies where he earned a MA in 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.

He's presently engaged in the oversight and development of the Cross and Lotus Digital Project, tracing the historical interaction of Christianity and Buddhism.

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

A further history is forthcoming.