Why Karate is a part of my Ministry at Sawyersville Wesleyan Church. Karate taught by a qualified Christian Instructor brings Positive Leverage to Life!

I am often asked why would a Christian who is committed to love and peace teach karate? I have discovered that Karate correctly understood is a great asset to Christian life. As a matter of fact it’s discipline and character-building nature dovetails with healthy Christian witness.

In case you are not proficient in Furniture language. A dovetail is a method of construction that joins box corners in well-made drawers. It connects two parts in a solid wood fashion, without a mechanical faster. It brings 2 things together seamlessly and perfectly. 

That is exactly what the steadfast practice of karate can do for your life. It can bring the divergent parts of your life together, seamlessly.  It is amazing how it seems to fit in and add strength to other parts of your life. It is like a connecting fiber that helps everything else become stronger. 

The essence of a thing often determines the Worth or value of it. And the essence of the karate style that we teach cannot be better understood than by reviewing the Dojo Kun.

The Dojo Kun is the belief statement, of the ethics and principles behind the karate style. 

• Seek Perfection of character.

• Be Faithful.

• Endeavor.

• Respect others

• Refrain from violent Behavior.

These principles are not just incidental. They are primary. We recite them with our students before and after each Car-Kai-Ryu class. These values got both the attitude and the Precision of the skills we teach. And they absolutely blend With Healthy Christian discipleship.

There is a new wave of Nanobots that are said to help things improve on a molecular level. That’s what karate does. Helps you improve inside and out! In your personal life, it helps you strive for your best. And to be honest with yourself and your significant others, about what the real conditions of your life truly are. In your professional life it keeps you striving for excellence and and your best performance.. And… In your spiritual life it helps you understand, how the inside affects the outside. It helps you see how a right connection with truth and training can influence the more practical areas of life.

Sometimes an object is just too heavy to lift with brute strength. But invoke the use of a simple lever and what was impossible before, now becomes an easy task. Strength and leverage are useful in every task. Very few challenges in life will yield when we give half an effort. Still, there are many obstacles, no matter how much effort we exert, will not work out until we apply intelligent leverage. 

Even so, karate teaches us how to apply our best effort and gives us tools of intelligent Leverage, to achieve our best! It can help us approach the fights of life in such a radically different way, that what was undoable before; now becomes a proficient task.

Karate like so many things; Only yields results in respect to the amount of input and effort. The more consistent and targeted the training, the more excellent and outstanding the result. Therefore I not only teach discipline but required discipline from my students. In this way I help my students have better lives due to their own better approaches.

As in life shortcuts do not work in karate. As your instructor I am teaching you well if I insist that you earn your belts and advancement. And as a good karate teacher it will be my intention to teach you not only excellent technique but outstanding character. 

I am A Sensei who has trained for many years in the ancient science of a traditional style.  I have discovered and so will you if you become a dedicated student,

that if you invest your heart mind and body in a regimen of consistent training you will learn and develop leverage to achieve and overcome your personal challenges.

I call this overcoming mindset and lifestyle a Spirit of Excellence.  I teach good hard style karate. But I never forget that Jesus is my master in my teaching. That is why the cross is at the center of my patch. Because Jesus is at the center of my heart. And certainly I will be teaching you to obtain this greatest of all strengths as well as the physical Excellence of Shotokan. You will learn things that you have never learned before. They will come slowly but surely. Both in the dojo (training hall) and in your daily life! It is a Pursuit that can teach you how to have your own  Spirit of Excellence in Christ’s service. That is in fact why I teach, and what I have been successful in doing; for nearly 40 years of teaching.

Car-Kai-Ryu Shotokan Kai-in Founder

Sensei Tim G Carter – Shotokan GoDan [5th degree black belt] & Senior Pastor of Sawyersville Wesleyan Church