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MMAWEEKLY recently made the following statement concerning Nate Marquardt: "Greg Jackson disciple Nate Marquardt exploited a gap in footwork and conditioning to secure his seventh victory in the UFC on Saturday." Once again we see this word—disciple—used in the context of martial arts in a way that we can learn from as disciples of Jesus Christ. What makes people call Nate, who is a brother in Christ, a disciple of Greg Jackson?

Sacrifice Your Convenience

One of Nate's qualities is a willingness to sacrifice his convenience in order to be under Greg's teaching. Nate lives in Denver, Colorado, and has his own gym there, but Greg teaches in New Mexico. Despite this inconvenience, Nate leaves his family and job in Denver, on a regular basis, to travel to New Mexico and train because he is committed to learning from and becoming a fighter like Greg Jackson.

Recently I met Rich Franklin in Bellevue, Washington, while attending a local fight. Rich lives in Ohio, yet he was in Washington because he trains under Matt Hume. On a regular basis, he leaves Ohio and his wife so that he might learn from and become a fighter like Matt Hume.

These fighters are not alone; Team Quest is full of people who have left their homes and family to move to Gresham, Oregon, in order to become a "Team Quest Fighter." Xtreme Couture is also full of fighters who have left family and friends to move to Las Vegas, so that they might train under Randy Couture. To be a disciple in the fight game means sacrificing part of your personal life and convenience.

Sacrifice Your Job

In Matthew 4, Jesus calls his first disciples. Peter and Andrew are busy working their jobs as fishermen, and when Jesus calls them, they immediately leave their nets and follow him. Then he sees James and John working with their father, and when he calls them, they immediately leave their job and father to follow him as well. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ requires commitment and sacrifice, and it is interesting to me that the first four disciples left their jobs in order to follow Jesus. For men, this is incredibly applicable since we have a natural tendency to define ourselves by our jobs.

Too often we get our sense of worth from our jobs, we sacrifice our families for our jobs, we live under the authority of our jobs, and we do what our jobs dictate. In short, we can easily worship our jobs. This means that to become a disciple of Jesus Christ we must leave our jobs, not in the sense that we must give up our employment, but rather that we will no longer worship it.

In some extreme situations, we may need to physically leave our jobs. Mark 8:35 says, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." The bottom line is that choosing to be a disciple of Jesus will require sacrifice, a sacrifice that God will honor by giving us something better than what we gave up.

Advance Conference:

Advance is coming June 2009. The Resurgence is hosting this conference in Raleigh, NC, to provision the local church for the advance of the gospel. Find out more.

As far as I know, only two groups of people use the word "disciple" with any frequency in our culture: the church and the martial arts. Recently a close friend of mine, who is a professional fighter, committed his life to following Christ, and it became painfully clear to me that this word—disciple—may not mean the same thing to both groups.

A Disciple of Renzo Gracie

I recently met someone at a fight, and when I asked him where he trained he told me that he was "a disciple of Renzo Gracie." This answer told me more about him than if he had given me the location and name of the gym he trains at, the names of his coaches, and the types of classes he attends. He is committed to becoming the same fighter as Renzo Gracie, and everything else is just a function of that goal.

At Team Quest, we don't use the word disciple as frequently as the Gracie jujitsu guys, but we mean the same thing when someone says they are "a Team Quest fighter." For example, recently Dave Jansen fought in Atlantic City, and MMAWeekly.com wrote: "You can tell Jansen is trained by Team Quest. Excellent wrestling complemented with overhand rights that would make Dan Henderson proud."

When someone says they are a Team Quest fighter, it says something very specific about them; when someone says they are a disciple of Renzo Gracie, it also says something very specific about them. It means that they will fight like the founders of that club.

Be a Disciple of Jesus

So what does the word disciple really mean in most church contexts? My experience has been that it means I am doing the correct things with the correct people. I am in a men's group and a home group, and I talk to some other man about it with some level of regularity. But too often the emphasis is on the process or activities, rather than the man we are committed to following. That is why we tend to use language such as "being discipled" rather than "a disciple of," and while it may seem like a subtle and insignificant difference, the results can be drastically different.

If we are disciples of Jesus Christ, we will engage in whatever activities or processes it takes to become like him, which is our ultimate goal. With time, we will begin to respond like Jesus. Live like Jesus. Love like Jesus. Be like Jesus. I think this is what Paul meant when he wrote to Timothy and said, "Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress." (1 Tim. 4:15) Maybe we, as Christian men, could learn a few things from martial arts about being a disciple; I know I have.

Advance Conference:

Advance is coming June 2009. The Resurgence is hosting this conference in Raleigh, NC, to provision the local church for the advance of the gospel. Find out more.