This week Practical Black Belt spoke with Brandon Beals, the Fight Pastor and pastor of Canyon Creek Church in Lynnwood, WA. Brandon has been integrating MMA into his ministry and the church even hosts MMA pay per views. Brandon was glad to answer a few questions for us in between his pastoral duties and supporting Justin Wren at the Ring of Fire show in Omaha, NE (Justin won, in case you were wondering).
PBB: What is your martial arts background?
BB: I was a wrestler in high school and did martial arts in college. My interest in MMA comes predominantly from me being a fan. I starting watching the UFC during the first ever show and have been hooked ever since. About 2 years ago I started my www.fightpastor.com blog.
PBB: As a wrestler, were you part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes?
BB: I was not.
PBB: How did you get into the ministry?
BB: I started going to church when I was a freshman in high school because of a girl. I actually gave my life to Christ as a sophomore and felt the pull towards ministry immediately afterwards. I have been on that pursuit ever since.
PBB: Can you tell me a little about how you integrate MMA into the church?
BB: I believe there are a lot of parallels between fighting and our spiritual lives. That makes it easy to use a fighting metaphor to illustrate a spiritual principle when I teach. I just finished a 3 month series on the life of David which we called The Ultimate Fighter. Each message had a title like "Sucker Punched," "Knocked Out," etc. I used movie clips and video footage to illustrate the phrase and then a situation from David's life to draw a Biblical comparison. As always, I ended it with a personal life application point.
We also host Pay-Per-View showings of UFC events which we call our Fight Nights.
We are developing a chaplaincy for MMA which members of the church (who are MMA fans) are involved in.
PBB: Were you hesitant to bring martial arts into your sermons or did it just
happen naturally?
BB: It just happened naturally. It is a normal part of my conversations so it was natural for it to come out in messages.
PBB: How has it been received?
BB: It fits the overall culture of my church so internally it has been received fine. In fact, we have been doing this sort of ministry for a couple years.
It has also been very well received in the MMA community. Our motivation is to be a blessing to MMA gyms, trainers, and fighters and they appreciate that. I hear often that they respect the fact we try to emphasize and promote what is great about MMA. We currently have more invitations and opportunities within the MMA community than we have manpower.
The church community at large is another story. What we do is largely misunderstood by the greater church community. MMA is new within the church culture too. I have found when people take the time to understand MMA and how we minister within that context they appreciate what we do. Often they are unwilling to do any research and choose to believe what they hear.
PBB: I keep expecting you to bring up Jacob's wrestling match with God.
BB: You see how easy the metaphor is! I actually preached on that last year.
PBB: Have you had any surprising MMA fans?
BB: We have a decent number of hardcore MMA fans that attend our church. The media interest has helped people discover who we are.
The most interesting email I have received from any MMA fan was a guy who gave me his address and phone number in California and invited me to come to his house and fight him. I was amused.
"Others want to know how to do it
themselves. I always encourage
those churches to have it not be a
gimmick."
PBB: Have the matches brought you any surprising church members?
BB: Our influence within the MMA community has brought fighters, trainers, and gym owners to our church.
PBB: It looks as though your MMA ministry is very successful. Have you had
other churches contact you about doing something similar?
BB: A lot have. Many are curious what we do and if they can partner with us, which we are totally open to. Others want to know how to do it themselves. I always encourage those churches to have it not be a gimmick. If they aren't MMA fans or fighters they will probably struggle with this ministry. It won't be worth the controversy.
PBB: How do you think God feels about MMA?
BB: I think God feels the same way about MMA that he does any sport. People need to keep the sport and their involvement within perspective. It is a part of their life but doesn't define who they are. Our faith in Christ is what should define our lives.
PBB: Have you ever had any big names walk through the doors?
BB: That comes with the territory. For the last 5 consecutive weeks some news crew has been at our church every Sunday. We try to just let the fighters blend in and not draw extra attention to them.
PBB: Who seems to be the fan favorite at your fight nights?
BB: Our church being in Lynnwood, we all love the home town boy, Randy Couture. My personal favorite is Anderson Silva. Of course, when Demico Rogers and Justin Wren are back in the UFC, they will quickly be my favorites :)
PBB: Thanks, Brandon
BB: Thank you.