The warrior’s spirit is a credo that is applicable to different pieces of the human puzzle. Church and gym—the spiritual and the physical—can both provide outlets for the conflicts in which many face. So what happens when people apply the fighting mentality across the board? Are these two antithetical concepts that can never meet? Or can the values of physical strength and faith coexist?

Fight Church is a examination of the tension between peace and violence. As a small contingent of ministries across the country explore the benefits of “fighting ministries” and mixed martial arts programs, many critics ask how the body is expected to be both a temple and a weapon. The auteurs of the film don’t glorify fighting here, but simply show how the members of these communities are affected physically and emotionally from their commitments to both.

The only real flaw I could find within the film is that it limits its ethos. People have been claiming physicality as a path to inner peace for quite some time. It’s understandable that the storytellers wanted to stick to Christian fighters, as a waterway any more open could not have been navigated. But even within that community, there are more experts whose opinions could have been consulted. Jason David Frank, for instance, would have made an excellent resource, as he is an accomplished MMA fighter whose celebrity and faith-based clothing company have quite an influence. Or, what about the millions of soldiers who fight oversees? Are they not a testament to the compatibility of spiritual and physical strength?

Still, Fight Church boasts lean and solid storytelling that facilitates interesting discussion.