John Renken has led the Ft. Campbell Combatives team to 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Place in the Army Championships. Pride, Pancrase, and Shooto Veteran, Hook n Shoot Absolute Champion, IFC Lightweight Champion, EFC 14 Tournament Champion, SFC Cruiserweight Champion, Hook N Shoot Middleweight Champion, Fight zone Middleweight Champion, Over 60 MMA Bouts. Additionally John has trained Multiple Champions in Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, and Modern Army Combatives. Currently CMMAA is training 15 nationally ranked children, 3 nationally ranked adults, 10 Amateur MMA Champions, 2 All Army Champions, the first Pan-Am Junior Judo qualifier from Tennessee and Silver medal in the Junior Judo Olympic!
BIO

John Renken, “The Fighting Preacher”

A self proclaimed “scrapper” since childhood, John Renken grew up with a burning interest in physical challenges and a strong competitive spirit. Beginning at the age of 15, Renken’s natural and innate drive towards intense physical sports led him to a passion for martial arts and 20 years later, Renken has developed quite an impressive reputation in the professional fighting community. Reaching the pinnacle of his career, Renken now has over 68 professional mixed martial arts and boxing matches under his belt and many first place titles spanning three different continents.

A former Satanist, Renken’s life has taken many interesting twists and turns along the way to redemption. After joining the United States Army in 1993, Renken became a Christian just one year later, changing his life and mission forever.

“God saved me, brought me out of where I was in order to reach people and bring them into His Kingdom. For me, that happens to be through the arena of mixed martial arts (MMA),” Renken reflects.

After graduating from North Central University in 2000 with a degree in Bible and Theology, Renken felt a special calling to develop a unique ministry by using his knowledge of MMA to lead others to Christ. A sport that combines boxing, wrestling and other fighting styles, Renken sees MMA as a way to reach young men which many feel have been abandoned and neglected by the modern church. By channeling a male’s inherent need for intense physical contact in a positive and Godly direction, Renken believes young lives are being changed in deeply profound ways.

The founder of Xtreme Ministries and the owner and chief instructor at Clarksville MMA Academy, Renken doesn’t see competitive fighting as being incompatible to Christianity’s message. Quite the opposite, to be exact.

“When Jesus said to turn the other cheek, it had nothing to do with football, hockey, MMA or any other physical contact sport. He was teaching us to not take personal vengeance against someone else. I feel that I’m teaching this message to my students every day. I’m teaching respect for others and directing young people away from a life of violence to a life of discipline and fulfillment through Christ.” Renken explains.

Receiving national recognition for his philosophy and MMA ministry through major national media outlets such as The New York Times, NBC’s Nightline and The Daily Show Renken’s vision is being realized on a massive scale.

Renken states that he’s “literally fighting the good fight and teaching our youth a radical and fulfilling new life where feet, fists and faith collide.”

Renken resides in Clarksville, TN, with his beautiful wife, Jennifer and their four children, Samuel (7), Aidan (4), Eleasa (3) and Collin (9 mths).

Hey everyone my friend Paul Coughlin has released a great book called Unleashing Courageous Faith. In this book he has a section called CLOSE THE GAP. Check it out.

Close the Gap
John Renken, a friend of mine and a pastor in Clarksville, Tennessee, is a hand-to-hand combat instructor in the army who at one time also held the world record for fastest knockout in full-contact fighting—eleven seconds, in Tokyo.

I have watched the video, and it’s impressive. His opponent was much bigger and stronger, but John kept his courage stoked. Instead of defaulting to a defensive orientation, he attacked with a left foot to the head. Footage shows that his highly focused opponent—perhaps drunk with hubris, a fruit of shadow thumos—didn’t even see it coming.

John trains military personnel to defend themselves with their bare hands, and he says there’s one thing he cannot really teach another person. It’s up to them to do it, or not, and that makes all the difference: “One of the main and most difficult objectives of this training is instilling in our soldiers the courage necessary to close the gap and engage the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. I agree with the Army in their definition of Warrior Ethos, which in many ways is the
exercise of thumos: ‘The defining characteristic of a Warrior is the willingness to draw close to the enemy.’”

If you like this check out his website here...