The Power Team
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- This page is about the evangelical martial arts troupe. For the cartoon show, see Power Team.
The Power Team is a Dallas-based group of Christian evangelists who incorporate their preaching into feats of strength and displays of their martial arts skills.
Their performances, usually taped at large megachurches, were broadcast on TBN and other Christian television stations in the United States since the late 1980s.
[edit] History
The ministry was founded in the late 1970s and was led by John Jacobs until 2003.
The Power Team often conducted performances in secular venues such as schools, to encourage audiences from outside church communities. As performances in public schools could not discuss religion, these performances instead promoted social responsibility and abstention from drugs and alcohol.
Controversy erupted since 2000 as John Jacobs divorced, remarried and then annulled his second marriage. Meanwhile, many Power Team members broke away to form a similar ministry, Team Impact. Disputes arose between the two ministries, and subsequently The Power Team filed for bankruptcy protection (Dallas Business Journal, 30 August 2002).
Jacobs parted ways with The Power Team on 7 May 2003 and formed another competing company, the Next Generation Power Force. The Power Team itself regrouped under new leadership. The Power Team, Team Impact and Next Power Generation Force currently compete in the specialty area of feats of strength based evangelism. Other former members started similar ministries, most notably Mike Hagen's The Strength Team. [1]
The Power Team's President as of 2006 is Todd Keene, a long-time member of the ministry.
