Fighters Who Love Jesus

By Pastor Brandon on 6/6/11

This past Sunday at Canyon Creek Church we baptized 25 people. People ask me often how we evaluate the health of our church. We have been in existence for 7 years and during that time have grown to average over 800 every Sunday. We have seen hundreds of people commit their lives to Christ. Have given tens of thousands of dollars to missions. Have sent people out into full-time ministry. Seen lives radically changed. Marriages miraculously restored. But ultimately we evaluate the health of our church by the baptisms.

Getting water baptized is that moment when people are willing to go public with their faith. They have gone beyond raising a hand or checking a box. They are willing to make a public declaration of their faith in Jesus Christ. I read a status update on Facebook recently from someone who was quoting Alice Cooper. It stated, “Drinking beer and trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that is tough. That’s real rebellion.” When I was a Youth Pastor I used to dare students to carry their Bibles around school. I would always tell them if you want to prove you have guts carry your Bible around.

Baptism is that opportunity to go public about your rebellion against what everyone else is doing. It is your opportunity to declare, “how you live your life is your own business but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord!” It takes some serious guts!

I was especially proud this set of baptisms because several of the MMA fighters in our church got baptized. The MMA world around Western Washington is small and close knit. Fighters all know each other. They look out for each other and they keep an eye on each other. Seeing Tim, Kale, and Jonny stand up and make a bold, public profession of their faith made me proud. This was their opportunity to declare to the world of MMA, we fight but we fight for something greater than our reputations, we represent Jesus every time we enter the cage.

So with the local MMA community watching, some fighters showed some serious guts and made a bold stand for Jesus and their faith.

Proud of you guys!

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