The Protector

By Matt Green

James Sang Lee was in elementary school when his father was assaulted by a police officer. A first-generation immigrant from Hong Kong, the elder Lee was a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Christian and a family man—not the stereotypical victim of police violence. 

Nearly 50 years later, Lee stresses that this encounter does not characterize the conduct of most law enforcement officers. However, as a child it affected him deeply—and it drove Lee to devote himself to learning martial arts to protect himself and others. 

“I was like, that will never happen again—not to myself, my family, anything I’m ever a part of,” he recalls thinking. “I decided I was going to be a protector—a protector of other people as well.”

For Lee, martial arts were the natural avenue for learning self-defense. Surrounded by kids with blond hair and blue eyes, Lee was starstruck when he saw his first Bruce Lee film in the ’70s. Here was an action hero that looked like him.

“Once I saw Bruce Lee doing Kung Fu, I was hooked,” Lee recalls.

AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY

He dove into kung fu, karate, taekwondo, jiujitsu and kobujitsu weapons—Lee has accumulated black belts in five styles over the course of his 40-year career. An uncle was a master in kung fu, and the pastor’s son at the church his family attended ran a karate class at the church. Lee even trained with South Korean grandmaster Sang-kee Paik, one of his father’s fellow students who was also instrumental in getting taekwondo into the Olympic Games.

Lee continued to practice and compete throughout high school, but it wasn’t until he was in college at the University of Wisconsin that he considered turning his passion into a career. Ho-Sung Pak, a friend and a stuntman in several Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films, told Lee, “James, you could win 10 more of these championships, but that’s not going to get you in the movie business. If you want to be in film, you’re going to have to leave Wisconsin.”

Lee landed in Florida and got a job working for a security firm. It was an unconventional role, and his boss also required him to perform at the venue where he was employed. Lip sync, magic tricks, air band—it was up to him to choose.

“I can’t sing. I can’t dance. But I’m really good with weapons,” he told the DJ when it was his turn to perform. “What about nunchucks?”

The DJ cranked up a techno beat, and Lee whipped out two sets of nunchucks, wowing the crowd. Minutes after his performance, pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, who happened to be in the audience that night, approached the stage and said, “James, you gotta be in my movie.”

It wasn’t an idle offer. Lee did stunt work in three of Hogan’s films in the early ’90s, which led to additional deals with Warner Bros., New Line and other major studios. While Lee has an infectious smile and a naturally outgoing personality, that’s not what made him a sought-after stunt double, fight choreographer and martial arts and weapons adviser in Hollywood action flicks.

“The film business likes me as a villain,” he says with a grin, explaining that his ability to project intense facial expressions means he’s typically cast as one of the bad guys. “It’s funny because I just have this villainous look on camera.”

Along the way, he worked with Mel Gibson and Jet Li in the Lethal Weapon series and fought Wesley Snipes in Blade. Lee had achieved his dream of working in the film industry, but he found he had strayed from the values and faith of his childhood.

“I had fast cars, everything, and I was living ‘the life,’ if you will—but far from God,” Lee explains.

A PAINFUL TRANSITION

After coming home from a red carpet premiere one night in 2000, he felt the weight of his spiritual emptiness and prayed, “Lord, change my life.” A week later, the answer came in an unexpected and painful way. Lee was brushing his hair when his right shoulder blew out of its socket—shattering any immediate plans for further work in films.

He had been competing in martial arts competitions since childhood, worked as a professional stuntman, handled countless weapons and had never been hurt. Now, he’d been taken out by a freak grooming accident.

A friend invited Lee to a service at Northland Church, a congregation in the Orlando suburbs. The senior pastor at the time, Joel Hunter, was preaching on the topic of sickness and healing. “God will sometimes do something painful in your life if the life you’re leading is not what God had intended,” Lee remembers him saying.

Hunter’s message hit Lee like a bolt of lightning. He continued attending the church and became friends with associate pastor Vernon Rainwater, who discipled him and encouraged him to dig into Scripture. He also became friends with Rainwater’s son-in-law, Chad Turnbull, Northland’s youth pastor at the time.

“You should leave the movie business,” Turnbull told him, “and you should come and help me with the youth.”

“Are you sure you know what I do for a living?” Lee asked, laughing. “I blow up stuff. I beat up stuff. I bang up stuff.”

“James, you’re going to be so good with middle school students,” Turnbull replied. “You have no idea.”

A SECURE DOWNLOAD

Lee discovered he had a gift for youth ministry and ended up serving on staff for five years as youth director at Northland. But it was during this time he also began having elaborate and detailed dreams about building a security team at the church, eventually leading him to shift from serving as youth director to heading up security and implementing a comprehensive strategy for the church.

“It’s like someone downloaded in me a complete security model,” he notes.

The experience was particularly timely as the church and its senior pastor grew in influence. Hunter served as a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama, and the main campus of the multisite church became a premier location for concerts and events in Central Florida.

For five years Lee drew on his security experience and training in martial arts and weapons handling to develop a safety team and protocols for the church, covering everything from managing large events and high-profile guests to the unexpected aspects of spiritual warfare that churches must address as people attempt to disrupt the ministry.

At the time, churches typically outsourced security to off-duty police officers or private firms. Lee’s vision was different. While not discounting professional expertise as part of a “multi-layered model” of church security, he wondered what would happen if security awareness and responsibility were distributed among a team of trained and equipped volunteers in the congregation.

“God has put people in your church, in your organization, that have a heart to protect children, to watch over a flock—shepherds, if you will,” he explains. “We need to be mindful not to be so professional that we don’t need our very own people. We have to call out some of those giftings innate in the hearts of God’s people that would be part of the mobilization of protecting the flock.”

Lee draws inspiration for this from 1 Chronicles 9:22, which recounts the selection of 212 gatekeepers to guard the house of the Lord.

“What did they do? They protected God’s people, His property and His possessions,” Lee explains. “And so, we need that same aspect in the Western church, but we’ve forgotten it because we’ve relegated it to experts, professionals, law enforcement, military, et cetera.”

Lee notes that security issues facing churches have not just increased in frequency, but also in intensity.

“Some of it, too, is what I would consider spiritual warfare,” he explains, declining to go into detail about some of the more bizarre circumstances he’s encountered. “Situations I would consider a little outlandish.”

A RETURN TO THE RING

In 2010, Lee’s passion for martial arts brought him back into the ring full-time. Although he had fought from the ’70s into the ’90s, it had been more than a decade since he had participated in a competition. Lee gathered some young men who had been in his youth ministry and also had an interest in martial arts.

“‘You know what, guys? We need some accountability on this. Let’s spend time together. Let’s study God’s Word,’” he recalls telling them. “‘Let’s go for the world title. And as we go, this will give you your chance maybe even to be in the movies.’”

For several years, the world title evaded them, and Lee and his fellow fighters faced 43 teams in the first year, losing to Trinidad by 1/100th of a point in a bout broadcast on ESPN. He was ready to let go of his dreams of glory in the ring, feeling as though he’d already achieved all he wanted to. Then, a teammate encouraged him to give it one more try, which led to four ISKA (International Sport Kickboxing Association) World Championships in a row from 2010 on.

“Here I was, outside of my prime as a physical athlete, 20 years since I was in the World Championship rounds—and we would win not just one, but four in a row,” Lee notes. “Only God could do that. When it’s His time, His glory, He’s going to do it.”

Since the championship wins, Lee has continued to stretch his entrepreneurial muscles, remaining busy as a security consultant and martial arts trainer. Drawing on his experience at Northland, Lee founded Alexander Security and Protection (ASAP). Through ASAP, Lee has helped prepare more than 500 churches with plans and procedures for security and has spoken and taught on the topic at church conferences.

Lee also offers training in active shooter response, violence prevention, de-escalation, threat management, international travel and self-defense. In his role as a contractor, he’s been to Sri Lanka, Egypt and into the Red Zone of Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War. Lee has also worked security in Brazil during the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.

More recently, Lee has been intentionally investing in the next generation. As a speaker for the Student Leadership University, he challenges young people to see themselves the way Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did in the book of Daniel. Even if the values and beliefs of Christian young people may be at odds with the culture around them, what they bring to the table is indispensable.

“They were so good at what they did from a career standpoint, that they were at the king’s court, in another culture, as slaves at the right hand of that king,” he notes. “I think there’s a time coming where Christians will need to be so skilled at what they do, that they’re indispensable—regardless of politics, economics, religion and so on.”

At 53, Lee observes that this is how God has orchestrated the journey of his own life and given him unique experiences and connections—a platform for influencing others and glorifying God—whether it be professional martial arts, filmmaking or, most recently, video games. Although he’s not a gamer, Lee has noted the influence of gaming on young people and sees it as an opportunity for influence and ministry.

“I am so interested in this era of communication and gaming and all of these platforms where people are gathering, communicating, sharing ideas and talking through social media and video games,” he explains, noting that Christian leaders who want to influence unbelievers and share the gospel will need to move outside the church to participate as missionaries in the places where culture is being made.

“I have a heart for evangelism so I definitely have a desire—maybe even curiosity—of how God might use video games and technology in this next era for reaching the next generation for Christ,” Lee notes. “I even said one time in a gaming conference, ‘I became a gamer to the gamers. I became a jock to the jocks.’ A question for the church is, ‘How are we equipping our congregations to be in their community, to be in their job location?’ Because that’s where the church can really penetrate.”

BACK ON SET

It was late summer of 2021, and Lee was trudging through a man-made jungle in Puerto Rico. He had been there nearly a month, and temperatures were hovering in the triple digits. At 50, Lee was in good shape, but he was having difficulty keeping his weight up with the heat, strenuous schedule and wearing a full battle kit while on set.

Filmmakers at Lionsgate studios were looking to fill a role in a new action flick when Lee’s name had come across their desks. It had been 20 years since the last time he had been part of a feature film production, but Lee had been asking God for a part in another film, if that was His will.

“It was so physically intense, I couldn’t eat enough food to keep the weight on,” he recalls. “I could tell my body was starting to change metabolism-wise.”

The film was Plane, starring Gerard Butler and directed by Jean François Richet. Butler portrays a commercial pilot whose plane is struck by lightning on a flight between Singapore and Honolulu. Forced to land on a dirt strip on a rebel-controlled island in the Philippines, the plane and its passengers are taken for ransom. Lee played Willis, a member of a four-person team of Green Berets sent to rescue the passengers.

The director wanted the team to act on screen as though they had been together for years, so he instructed them to spend time together off-set and get to know one another. For Lee, this was an opportunity to make his faith visible—just as he always had. One evening, Lee was hanging out with one of his teammates—a former Navy SEAL—and prayed to himself, “Lord, give me a unique question to ask him.”

The question Lee heard was, “What brings a Navy SEAL to the movie business?”

“Well, James, I wanted to be a preacher,” the actor replied. “If I wasn’t on this movie set, I’d be telling people about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and teaching them about the Bible. James, we are both here on this set, at this point in time, to be salt and light. So, no matter where we are, He says use it for God’s glory.”

The encounter confirmed to Lee that he was where God wanted him to be. Whether discipling kids in a local church or at a gaming tournament, competing on the international stage in martial arts or doing stunt work on a Hollywood film, God has His people in the mix, making a difference.

“No matter where we are, our occupation, our geographic location, our vocation,” Lee notes. “God wants to use us for building His kingdom.”

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Matt Green is the editorial director for AVAIL Journal. He also serves as vice president of marketing for Pioneers, a global church-planting organization based in Orlando, Florida. He lives in Central Florida with his wife, Andy. They have four children and one grandchild.