Martial Arts Ministry - Not a Contradictionby Senseis Don & Char Engelhardt |
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There have been many concerns voiced as to the validity of a Christian martial art ministry. Some of the concerns include:
The concern over the Eastern religion influence is well founded, but not all martial arts started in the Far East nor is it present in all martial arts schools. Martial arts have originated in all parts of the world. Wherever man has not gotten along with man, a form of martial arts grew including: Israel, Greece, Rome, China, Japan, India, Britain, Korea, Africa, Brazil, etc. In the case of our ministry we train in a blended martial art system that is influenced by Okinawan styles, Chinese styles, Japanese styles, European styles and American styles. We have taken time and effort to remove the Eastern religion and restructure the style around Scripture and Christian concepts. One of the ways we have removed the Eastern mysticism was to reduce the amount of the oriental language; thus, eliminating much of the religious connotations that many of the words carry. We have discovered that many martial artists, including ourselves learn to use words that we truly do not know the meaning. There are still a few Oriental words we use as titles, but our class is conducted in English. We serve only one Master, Jesus Christ. With Christ as our one Master, we determined that we could not follow the Grand Master type of hierarchial structure. The Grand Master structure incorporates an extreme formal respect demanded by the traditional oriental Senseis. We discourage this Sensei (teacher) worship (veneration). This is accomplished by allowing the title Sensei only to be used when the person is wearing the rank of a teacher, otherwise the students are to address the person as they should any adult with the appropriate title (Mr., Mrs., Miss, or Ms.) coupled with the persons name. We desire to teach respect for parents (Ephesians 6:1-3), authority figures (Romans 13:1), other students, and property. This Biblical approach displaces the ancestor reverence of Buddhism. Considering the importance of a base knowledge of Scripture, we focus, meditate, and study the Bible and spend time in prayer. Instead of a creed for the students to recite our salute reminds us that we serve Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Martial arts, as an athletic exercise, trains the body and instills personal discipline. We are to take care of our bodies, which are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Martial arts training includes a balance of aerobic, strengthening, and flexibility exercises. Nutrition and moderation in our diet is encouraged, while gluttony (Titus 1:12-16) and laziness (Hebrews 6:11-12) are discouraged. The concern that the martial arts teach violent behavior is totally inaccurate. We can understand that when martial arts are taught without any religious base they have the potential to get out of control. But when taught with a strict moral code of conduct then the martial arts teach discipline and we believe that the moral code presented by Christ is the best to build on with martial arts. Though martial arts may be rough and appear violent, any respectable martial arts school teaches control with the techniques. Martial arts is a sport, much like football, basketball, hockey, boxing, and wrestling. Martial arts also tend to be safer than many of the other contact sports due to the nature of the training. As in any sport the key to success is discipline in the training and the student. This ministry, by the nature of martial arts, contains more overt discipline than normally seen in Christian ministries, but is still looser in this aspect than the secular schools due to the shift away from the Sensei worship mentioned earlier. Christians are not supposed to defend themselves, is a poor depiction of a Christian. We understand how the -turn the other cheek- (Matthew 5:38-39) passage may be interpreted this way, please consider the results of this view. This view means that Christians should not serve as police, security guards, or in the military. Saint Augustine struggled with this very concept and even then there was no definite determination made, so we believe all believers need to answer this for themselves. We honor that view of the Scripture, but would like to state our understanding of the passage with other Scriptures that we were confronted with when we first were praying about our involvement in martial arts. The passage in The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:21- 7:27) where Christ delivers a series of lessons on attitudes includes the -turn the other cheek- segment. Jesus was speaking to his disciples about the importance of their attitudes and motives. First he spoke on continuing in anger and the motive for insulting a brother as being subject to judgement similar to the judgement for murder. Next, he addressed the attitude of lust and the motive for divorce as being the same as adultery. Next was the validity of oaths and promises and the motives of the use of oaths, Jesus said to keep it simple by letting your yes mean yes and your no mean no. As for the lesson on wanting revenge, Jesus taught that we should not desire to trade injury for injury or to take up challenges, but to resolve the conflict. He then continues with not being like the world, but to be more forgiving and caring for the poor. Then His teaching on prayer, fasting, allegiance, worry, etc. In this rather lengthy passage the idea of being a victim was not presented. We are to rejoice at persecution, but persecution has to do with our relationship with Jesus, not our wallet, car, skin color, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the clothes we wear; being mugged is not persecution. We see in Scripture that Jesus, who is our example, did not allow himself to be a victim. Jesus was pursued by a crowd who desired to throw him from a cliff (Luke 4:28-30), but He passed through them and went on His way. This showed us that Jesus did defend Himself until the time had come to complete the task on the cross. Christians are to be meek and mild is a true statement, but should not be confused with being weak and withdrawn. The meek will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5), but the weak will not. The meaning of meek from the Greek text is gentle or humble, not weak or passive, but unfortunately our modern dictionaries have it as -being weak spirited and yielding easily.- Do you see Jesus encouraging weakness of spirit? Of course not. The humble do not boast and the gentle are not forceful. Jesus is the primary example of meekness and could not be mistaken as weak. Jesus was a carpenter, and would have had the physical stature of one in that trade. Jesus demonstrated His physical strength when he drove the money changers and merchants from the Temple (John 2:14-16). The passage that exalts the meek also exalts the peacemakers, who will be called the sons of God (Matthew 5:9). Allowing ourselves to be victims does not assist in creating peace, but permits the violence to continue. We will be at peace with our fellow man as far as it depends on us (Romans 12:18), but we also realize that sometimes it is not our decision. We have come to these conclusions for ourselves and ask that each person read the Scripture and pray for themselves. You are the one walking the path God laid out for you and have your own relationship with the Savior. We ask that you let the Word and the Spirit guide your decisions as to the validity of a martial arts ministry. copyrighted 1998 Donald Engelhardt and Charlaine Engelhardt all rights reserved |