Chesapeake church trains strong bodies as well as souls

CHESAPEAKE - At 6:45 a.m. on a blustery Tuesday, Janine Williams, 39, is trotting a steady three miles an hour on a Life Fitness treadmill. Gym regulars nearby are leg-pumping in place on exercise bikes and elliptical trainers.

A few months ago, Williams was 250 pounds and worried about her health. "I was a candidate for gastric bypass," she said.

But the risks of weight-loss surgery scared her. Instead, she took her problem to God - and Mount Lebanon Baptist Church's workout center.

Faith and fitness dovetail at the church, where cardio- and weight-training machines help congregants keep their bodies as strong as their souls.

"We can't just be spiritual and do God's work without our physical self being in order," Williams said. "I'm going to do this on my own, with the help of God."

The 4-year-old center complements a full-sized gym and recreation equipment in the congregation's Signet Family Life Center. The 3,500-member church, also known as The Mount, and the family center are at 884 Bells Mill Road.

Workout options include exercise bikes, treadmills, elliptical trainers and at least 10 strength-conditioning machines for

biceps, abs and other muscles. The gear, which cost the church $48,960, exudes a new-car smell of regular maintenance.

To James "LJ" Bright, The Mount's athletic director, the center is a break with old ideas of what people should expect from church.

"We believe the church should have everything the world has. Having the gym facility gives people a lot more things to do than Sunday morning services or Bible study."

That notion is still in its infancy among congregations nationwide.

"You won't pull up to just any church in any town and find a professional-grade fitness center," said Brad Bloom, publisher of Faith & Fitness Magazine.

Too often, he said, churches see no connection between spirituality and physical fitness.

"I see a lot of churches out there quite content for their bodies to go to hell when they have the confidence their spirit will make it to heaven."

Yet a small but growing number of churches are like The Mount in offering fitness facilities, Bloom said.

Some see physical fitness as stewardship of God-given bodies. Others say out-of-shape congregants are weak tools for ministry, or that exercise can be spiritual.

"Can my lat pull-down be an expression of prayer or interaction with God? It can be if you let it," Bloom said of a weight-lifting exercise. "People are exercising and realizing there's a deeper motive than just to look hot for somebody, or to live longer."

Williams, who is The Mount's food service manager, said she'd never felt comfortable in the preening, image-conscious crowd she found at private health clubs.

"It's intimidating to see all those little people walk around, all buff. Here it's not like that. That's what's different about having a gym inside your church. It's a familiar territory."

On this day, The Mount's morning regulars include Ben Riddick, a 62-year-old with firm pecs and a strong curve to his biceps.

"My friends say, 'Where you work out?' I say, 'At my church, we have a gym,' and they say, 'What! A gym at the church?' It is very unusual."

Riddick, a retired Norfolk Southern railroad conductor, believes Jesus modeled regular exercise.

"He walked everywhere, and in order to do that, he had to be physically fit," Riddick reckons Christ would have a favorite modern-day work-out. "Probably cardio, because of his walking and everything," he said.

Another regular, 67-year-old Charles Christian, began training at the center last July.

"When I first started in here, I tried to do five pushups. I couldn't do it. So I asked the Lord to give me strength to do 10."

This morning, Christian's workout included laps around the gym, a half hour on the elliptical trainer, weight-lifting - and six sets of 10 push-ups.

"Each time I do it, he gives me a little more strength," Christian says of the Almighty. "I give him a little more praise; he gives me a little more stamina."

A few feet away, Lisa Fowlkes is exercising with Quinzel Hunter, a professional fitness trainer whose own body is hard muscle from neck to ankles.

Exercise, Hunter says, is "giving God his props. God wants your body to be a temple."

Hunter, a Mount congregant, offers his services for free to anyone at the center as a form of evangelization.

Fowlkes, a 38-year-old tractor truck driver, is not a congregant. She found Hunter by word of mouth when she started training as a competitive, amateur body-builder.

Her torso is a V, her back muscles flex and veins stand out on her biceps as she works an upper-body weight machine under Hunter's coaching.

"... 3, 4, 5, good!" he says, counting her reps.

Between sets, Fowlkes praised the church for opening the center to the public. Membership is $5 annually for congregants and outsiders alike. About 20 distinctive people a week workout.

Fowlkes said her gym buddies who attend The Mount are inspiring Christian role models. "Everyone is married happily, loves their spouse. That's a good example."

Meanwhile, Williams is done with her run. The treadmill tallies her achievement: 186 calories burned, 1.71 miles run.

In her four months of working out at The Mount, she's dropped 20 pounds. She's also lost 8 inches from her waist and 3 inches from her hips.

"I can run 30 minutes and get off and still talk to you. I'm not winded," she says, sweaty but satisfied. "So I thank God for that. It has definitely changed my life and my lifestyle."

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com