Why are we the Samurai?

     Ever wondered why we call our youth group the Samurai? Good question! I'd like to hopefully answer that question for you in this post....

It all started once upon a time (2003) when my father started as the youth pastor at a church in South Carolina.

(check me out in the white hat on the far left!)

As he prayed about the vision of the youth group, he watched the movie The Last Samurai, and was inspired by the narrative. After recruiting me for some research, he named the group The Samurai, because of a number of connections made between their way of life and how we as Christians should follow Jesus. When I was hired as the youth pastor at Smyrna, I adopted the same vision. I'll lay it out for you here:

“Samurai”

            The definition of the word Samurai is “to serve.” The Samurai saw their lives as an act of service to their emperor, their society, and their god. Every action, deed or thought was not merely an end in and of itself; on the contrary, the Samurai consciously lived towards the betterment of the purposes of the Shogun and society. This required discipline, sacrifice and selflessness. In the very same way, we as Christians should live only “to serve him who is worthy” (as it says on our shirts). No matter what it costs us, the purposes of Christ should be all that we live for, and it is our duty to serve him daily while serving everyone else around us at the same time. Countless passages of Scripture could be applied here, but let us choose two. The first is Galatians 5:13, which states, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” Ephesians 6:7 also says, “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.” In this way, the Samurai principle of service is a perfect metaphor for our Christian lives.

“Bushido”

            The Samurai warriors lived by a sevenfold code of virtues known as the “Bushido,” (translates to “the way of the warrior.”) The Bushido was not simply a list of rules, but rather a picture of what true character should look like. While the Samurai of Japan were by no means Christians, each of the seven virtues adopted by the Samurai can be found in scripture, and provide an excellent model for following Jesus with the dedication they displayed. The seven virtues are as follows:

GI: Righteousness - Romans 3:21-22
Yu: Courage - Joshua 1:6-9
Jin: Service – Philippians 2:1-11
Rei: Respect - Romans 13:1-6
Makoto: Honesty - Joshua 7
Meiyo: Honor - 1John 3:1
Chugi: Loyalty - Matthew 28:20


The Sword
        One of the things the Samurai were most famous for was their swords. It is said that the fashioning of a Samurai Sword would take weeks, taking 18 days to fashion the blade alone. Swords were often highly ornamented, and were passed down from generation to generation as symbols of tradition and prestige. The Samurai believed that their soul rested in the value of their sword. The Samurai trained tirelessly every single day in the use of the sword, beginning in childhood. By the time they reached adulthood, they were elite swordsman, able to match up against any enemy. As Christians, we too, have a sword, and it too should be what our souls are built on. We should honor the Word of God in much the same way as the Samurai honored their swords, and we too should train tirelessly with our swords from our childhood to our death. Living disciplined lives of “Christian Bushido,” highly trained with the most honored of swords will allow us to be the most elite set of warriors the Enemy can imagine.


Certainly, there are things that are not parallel, and we teach our students the differences between what they believed and what we do. Each student who wants to go deeper, and commit to the expectations of service and leadership can request to become an "official" Smyrna Samurai. This simply means that they understand our values, and are ready to exemplify them. These students are asked to sign a document called The Samurai Covenant, which I have attached to this post as a download for you to read. 

I have an older video copy of what we called the "Samurai Seminar" which explains in detail each virtue, and our purpose as a group. If you'd like to take a look, click here: Samurai Seminar. There is a corresponding powerpoint to the Seminar, and if you'd like to follow along and fill in the blanks, click here. 

If you don't have the time to watch the video, feel free to view the powerpoint! 

So hopefully that answers the question of why we chose our name! If you have any further questions, contact me!