Move over, Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. Religious weight management programs have taken hold in churches throughout the United States, teaching participants how to eat better while growing in their relationship with God.
Some of these programs are the essence of simplicity, admonishing Christians to rely on Jesus for strength in pushing away from the table.
Others involve Bible studies, daily devotions and the strict eating plans and weekly weigh-ins usually found in the secular weight loss programs.
One plan, dubbed the Hallelujah Diet, involves eating raw foods and drinking vegetable juices.
Among Alabama Baptists, First Place and Fit 4 proliferate.
Almost 20 years ago, as a ministry of First Baptist Church of Houston, First Place began teaching participants to put Christ first in order to improve every area of their lives: spiritual, physical, mental and emotional.
“First Place is a biblically-based wellness program,” said Judy Sampley, a registered dietitian and wife of Pastor James R. Sampley of First Baptist Church, Ashville.
“Its theme is in Matthew 6:33, relating to putting Christ first in your life. This premise fits in with my feeling that overeating is just as much an addictive behavior as alcohol or drugs,” she said.
Sampley’s family has a strong history of addictive behavior, and for her, that addiction is food.
“Just as with any addiction, there must be a recognition of the need of a higher power, which is God, to enable one to successfully manage the addiction,” she said.
Sampley is a lifetime Weight Watchers member, having lost 60 pounds on the program in the early 1980s. That weight loss is what sparked her interest in nutrition.
But after maintaining her weight goal for six years, she gradually regained those unwanted pounds.
She got involved with First Place in 1990 in Dublin, Ga., then led three sessions in Ashville between the fall of 1999 and the summer of 2000.
Some 15 people attended each session, with weight losses ranging from a few pounds up to 41.
“In addition to the strength you gain from the Bible study and prayer, First Place also provides the group support and the accountability factor which helps the participants stay on track,” Sampley said. “It also emphasizes the need for exercise as it sets forth Jesus as the ultimate example of the physical fitness we should strive for in order to be the effective witness that He expects us all to be in our daily lives.”
“The meal plan is similar to the diabetic diet or the Weight Watchers plan, so it is just as sound nutritionally as it is scripturally,” she said.
Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills, in Birmingham Association, also has sponsored First Place sessions.
“The whole purpose is to help you find balance in your life,” said Karen Flowers, a Shades Mountain member who led First Place classes.
“Our sessions were very successful in that everybody became much more aware of what they were eating and what they needed to eat. They also became more disciplined in their prayer life and Bible study,” she said.
Some 10–15 people participated in each of the two sessions, and several were successful in losing unwanted pounds, according to Flowers.
Two or three from the first session lost 15–20 pounds each, and at least two have maintained their losses.
First Baptist Church, Opelika, was active with First Place sessions in the 1990s and through the spring of 2003.
Between 100 and 115 church members participated in the sessions, which were led by various lay people as well as by Associate Pastor Mike King and Jane Leland, minister of senior adults and music associate.
“We felt it was very balanced in focusing on the spiritual, mental, physical and emotional areas of a Christian’s life,” said King, who led some couples’ sessions with his wife.
He continued, “It’s my personal feeling that God wants us to be balanced people. We emphasized this was not an effort out of vanity, but to make our bodies more healthy. As a result, folks lost weight, deepened their spiritual lives and felt better about themselves.”
Fit 4 is the Christian wellness plan from LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The program teaches people how to create their own health plans from a Christian perspective, according to information from LifeWay’s Web site (www.lifeway.com/fit4).
Operating with the premise that total wellness apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ is impossible, Fit 4 is based on Jesus’ words in Mark 12:30–31, in which He commands Christians to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
“Likewise, Fit 4 encourages wellness in these four areas of life as well as strong relationships with God and with each other,” said Branda Polk, former LifeWay health ministry specialist who led the team of experts that developed Fit 4.
At First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, Fit 4 is one component of a series of Wednesday morning discipleship classes for women. Judging from the continued request for sessions, the program has been a success at the church, said minister of education Scott Reynolds.
“Fit 4 and other programs like it take the focus off physical things and focus on your relationship to Christ,” Reynolds said. “To me, losing weight is not the focus. They’re trying to get into better physical and spiritual shape together. Weight loss becomes a by-product,” he said.
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