Our mission

Our mission is to equip Christians, parents, and youth ministers with effective tools and resources for living effective and upright lives. Knighthood today, much as it was during the 12th – 15th centuries, provided a practical “code of ethics” for Christians to live by that was “hands on” and “real life.”

Why Knighthood?

Christian youth listen closely when knighthood themes are used to convey Christian truth. We have seen rooms of hundreds of youth in today’s churches instantly quieted when a knight dressed in full armor comes to teach a lesson. Sword play, stories, and skits surrounding the knight theme have proven to be a highly effective way of conveying God’s truth to young audiences.

Knightly virtues can help provide a “code of ethics” for your life. These virtues, like a knight’s armor, will protect and guide you so you can find and keep the journey the Lord desires for your life (Jeremiah 29:11; 2 Chronicles 7:14). But these virtues must also be coupled with a life lived with passion, heart, love, and grace. Without these, the virtues of knighthood can be reduced to just rules, legalism, and a life lived as a “clanging gong” (1 Corinthians 13:1). Living under the Order of Knighthood means that a person has determined to do just that—live under the Order defined by these twenty-four virtues. Knights live fully subjected to the virtues of the Order—to the point where they govern his behaviors on a daily basis, no matter what the circumstances. A knight is one who takes 1 Timothy 6:11 seriously: “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.” By living according to these virtues, a person can obtain the confidence of the living God and be put into a position where he is regularly used by God for His purposes: “For the Lord detests a perverse man but takes the upright into his confidence” (Proverbs 3:32). Scripture gives direct promises to enlist us in God’s personal service if we do so: “If a man cleanses himself from the latter [wickedness and godless living], he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work” (2 Timothy 2:21) and “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them” (Psalm 25:14). Virtue differs from “rule-keeping” because it has to do with character, which is much more than rule-keeping. Character is about who you are as a person, what you stand for, how you respond to tough situations, what you are willing to compromise for, and what you will not. N. T. Wright puts it this way: “Jesus Himself, backed up by the early Christian writers, speaks repeatedly about the development of a particular character. Character—the transforming, shaping, and marking of a life and its habits—will generate the sort of behavior that rules might have pointed toward but which a ‘rule-keeping’ mentality can never achieve. And it will produce the sort of life which will in fact be true to itself…”  Virtue, when practiced continually, builds a life of character. Action by action, choice by choice, virtue transforms you into a person of true character: “Virtue, in this strict sense, is what happens when someone has made a thousand small choices, requiring effort and concentration, to do something which is good and right but which doesn’t ‘come naturally’—and then, on a thousand and first time, when it really matters, they find that they do what’s required ‘automatically.’”  Finally, virtuous living should not be viewed as the opposite of living freely and gracefully by the Holy Spirit and having a life marked by the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). As Wright also points out, “Christian virtue, including the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit is both the gift of God and the result of the person of faith making conscious decisions to cultivate this way of life and these habits of heart and mind.”  Wright continues to make the point that if we are going to grow fruit of the Spirit, we need to tend the tree that produces it.

God’s promise to young knights: “For the Lord is the sun and shield unto us; the Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

This website and our book, Knights of Christ, neither endorse nor deny the historic Crusader movement, knighthood in general, or any specific group knighthood group, such as the Knights Templar. As with all historic periods involving war and bloodshed, the motivations of those involved ranged from “virtuous” to “villainous,” and many arguments can be used to evidence either perspective. Our intent is not to endorse or re-ignite interest in any such particular group, but rather to define the concept of Christian knighthood into a modern context while preserving the personal virtue aspects of historic knighthood that were clearly Biblically anchored. We also do not desire to be offensive to any group, or exclusive to any denomination of Christianity. Rather, our views and perspectives are aligned with Biblical Christianity, and we use the theme of knighthood as a teaching tool for the 24 Biblical virtues explained in our book.