Christian Fight clubs?

[billiefan2000]

More Churches Promote Martial Arts to Reach Young Men - NYTimes.com


this is another sign of the seeker movements 's poisionus influence in our churches

[billiefan2000]

from the def con aka defending contending blog:


The epitome of “oxymoronic” – Christian fight clubs.
February 9, 2010 by The Pilgrim

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the pied pipers of the mile-wide, inch-deep church in America drop one rung lower on the ladder as they continue to lead the the broad path of destruction.


Laodicean evangelism techniques couldn’t shock me anymore but this article from the New York Times has left me speechless. Here are a few quotes form the article:



Recruitment efforts at the churches, which are predominantly white, involve fight night television viewing parties and lecture series that use ultimate fighting to explain how Christ fought for what he believed in. Other ministers go further, hosting or participating in live events. The goal, these pastors say, is to inject some machismo into their ministries — and into the image of Jesus — in the hope of making Christianity more appealing. “Compassion and love — we agree with all that stuff, too,” said Brandon Beals, 37, the lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle. “But what led me to find Christ was that Jesus was a fighter.”



The sport is seen as a legitimate outreach tool by the youth ministry affiliate of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 churches.

Nondenominational evangelical churches have a long history of using popular culture —


rock music, skateboarding and even yoga — to reach new followers. Yet even among more experimental sects, mixed martial arts has critics.

I can’t even begin to imagine what will come next in the name of “evangelism.”