The Tea Room Scrolls: An Asian Exploration of the Mysteries of Christ

by Randy Loubier

Is your spirituality closely aligned with Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian or Shinto?Perhaps you have an Asian background or you describe yourself as “spiritual?” If you’ve ever wondered what Buddha and Jesus have in common...If you’ve ever wanted to get to know the teachings of Jesus in an Asian context...The Tea Room Scrolls Series places you on a bridge in the Asian garden so you can safely observe the similarities and differences between your path and Jesus’ path. You will enjoy respect and peace in this garden. And adventure, too!Let The Tea Room Scrolls Series be your guide in exploring the mysteries of Christ, in your language, on your turf. The Eastern construct of the directions--East, South, West, North and The Middle Way--is used to illuminate the mysterious teachings of Jesus. Explore, in Scripture, the Eightfold Path of Buddha, the Five Heavenly Kings, the Three Treasures of Taoism, Feng Shui, The Four Affirmations of Shinto and The Noble Truths.

227 pages, Paperback

Published January 5, 2020

About the author

Randy Loubier is the pastor of a small country church in a small town in the small state of New Hampshire, USA. Slow Brewing Tea is his third book and first novel. Some of the geography and settings were sketched from memories of growing up in New England and his time in Misawa, Japan (1978-1980). For Randy, his years in Japan were an adventurous pursuit of the culture with an attitude and shy personality, not unlike Isaiah. As a slow brewing tea himself, he spent much of the first fifty years of life denying God the Father and pursuing numerous eastern and new-age faiths. He wrote Slow Brewing Tea and the accompanying series The Tea Room Scrolls as "I found something I'd like to share with the world."

I spent 50 years of my life as an anti-Christian, so I know all the arguments and excuses for disbelieving, doubting, being frustrated with church and Christians in general. During this time, I studied and practiced many Asian spiritual pursuits. At 50 I finally read the Bible for myself and was born again by the Word of God. Now, as an author and pastor, I want to reach two groups of people—curious non-believers and fringe Christians—to ignite or re-ignite their love for Jesus.

Slow Brewing Tea is a gateway into both groups. It is a biblically accurate novel that chronicles a shy, abused, anti-Christian airman as he seeks love and the Tao (the way) in the mountains of Japan. He falls in love and finds an old man who teaches him Taoist principles that lead him eventually to the way, the truth, and the life. Yet, it will take another thirty years of living in hard, shallow, and thorny soils before he is finally ready to let God transform him into good soil. As a slow brewing tea he is finally ready for the truth to be manifested in magnificent love and abundant joy—as a Christian and a husband.

Within the novel, unearthed in 400-year-old scrolls is a unique way of learning and studying scripture, using an ancient Eastern context. Following Slow Brewing Tea is a series of eight-week self-study courses, The Tea Room Scrolls, which use this Asian orientation to teach biblical answers to life's most important questions. Billions of people have an Asian perspective on spirituality, as I did for fifty years. Therefore, in the tradition of Paul visiting Athens and talking to them in their context (the Unknown God), what could happen if Asian oriented spiritualists saw Jesus through their own lens?

And doesn’t it make us more in love with Jesus to re-discover His answers to life’s mysteries as revealed in other contexts, transforming people beyond the church walls?