Some might wonder what mixed martial arts and church have in common.

But at Lanier Hills Church, it is just another unique ministry to bring new faces into the Christian faith.

Faith Mixed Martial Arts is a competitive group of about 30 people who worship, train and compete all over the Southeast. Faith MMA fighters use martial arts along with wrestling, boxing and other combat sport techniques to win matches.

But, they also weave prayer and Christian unity into their daily training.

"For us, it is a very spiritual moment," said Micah Goss, a former All-American wrestler at Georgia Southern University and one of the Faith MMA coaches. "We get inside the cage, the ring or the mat, wherever we need to compete ... we pray before as a team.

"Then afterward, the trainers go in with the fighters, and whether we win or whether we lose, we make sure we kneel down at the spot and welcome our opponent - not in a forceful way, but we say, ‘We would love for you to pray with us.' And we haven't been denied so far."

Faith MMA is a competitive group that is geared toward young men ages 13 to 25. Some participants are members of Lanier Hills, but it is not required.

Goss and Gary Willis, the two church members who share coaching duties for Faith MMA, said the nontraditional method of bringing people to Christ is what drew them to Lanier Hills in the first place.

"This ministry reaches out to people that are unchurched or are unbelievers," said Willis, whose background is in tae kwon do. "Competitive or ultimate fighting is just one aspect of what we do. Not everybody wants to do that, but if they do, we will give them all the tools to do that."

And mixed martial arts is exactly what drew Faith MMA member Chase Thomas to the church.

A few years back, Thomas was spending time at a boot camp for troubled youth when he met Goss, a camp counselor. Goss immediately picked up on Thomas' interest in wrestling and martial arts and offered to help him train when he graduated boot camp.

Thomas tracked down Goss on the Internet and now is an active church member and leader in the MMA group.

"I was a troubled youth, got in a lot of trouble with the law and went through a lot of things when my dad died. And I wasn't on the right path, and I wasn't looking to God for anything," said Thomas, 19. "It brings me a lot of happiness to put my heart into something. This is not only a team but a family; they give me more support than anyone in my life."

Thomas added that he wants to stick with Faith MMA as long as it takes to reach nonbelievers in the ring or out on the street.

"We are all broken people, and the only thing we can do is try to come together and bring each other up," he said. "I want to see Faith MMA to grow huge, and I'm going to be here the whole way and I'm not leaving."