When a Christian professional wrestler started to see how his testimony was impacting many of his colleagues in the sport he decided to launch a wrestling church in the North of England that combined body slams and baptisms.
SCRIPT:
A church in the north of England known for bodyslams and baptisms is receiving a mixed response to its controversial approach to their outreach. Some question their use of fighting to attract people to church.
In response to their critics they say that many unchurched people have come to faith at Wrestling Church and many have been baptized there in the last few years including a number of professional wrestlers.
The evangelist behind this whose professional wrestling name is Gareth Angel Thompson explains more about how his ministry called Kingdom Wrestling first began:
So I started praying for wrestlers before matches and we would find that these wrestlers would be messaging me saying ‘I’m struggling with this, or this is going on,’ and before I knew it I’m then pastoring a group of wrestlers. And then I thought I’ve got a story to tell, I’ve got a platform, I’m pastoring people, maybe I need to be a bit more intentional about meshing these things together.
Gareth explains how this developed into them launching Wrestling Church in Shipley in West Yorkshire:
And then we thought right we’ve got some people who are saved we need to baptize them, let’s do baptisms at the shows. So we had baptisms and body slams and my wife’s like we’ve just done church, let’s make it a thing and that’s where wrestling church came from.
And Gareth says plans are already under way to launch more Wrestling churches across the UK and even in other countries around the world.
Peter Wooding reporting for the Global News Alliance.
Story Provided By:
Peter Wooding – GNA London Bureau Chief
Recording Location
Yorkshire, England
Organization featured in this Story
Wrestling Church – www.kingdomwrestling.org
People Interviewed and their Titles
Gareth Thompson – Kingdom Wrestling Founder
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