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WholyFit "Gentle Body Power" at a home |
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WholyFit in Christianity Today Magazine!
Thank you to Leslie Leyland Fields, author of this terrific and timely article!
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| WholyFit E- tip Series
How to Start Up a Fitness Program in Your Church
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Greetings!
Are you or someone in your church interested in beginning a health/fitness ministry? Maybe you want to offer some exercise classes within your community or home just for fun? Maybe you want to offer Personal Training and Lifecoaching from a Biblical perspective? Christ-centered fitness programs are very unique pursuits, with very unique challenges, but also with unique offerings. Only believers can offer true fulfillment and peace through Christ Jesus. There is healing and freedom when we are reconciled to God. Fitness programs in churches are a great way to reach out to hurting people and provide opportunities for that reconciliation to take place. People are looking for health, wholeness and fitness in order to overcome the stress of life. QUESTION: "Why are hurting people streaming into yoga instead of finding comfort in a more Biblical way?" ANSWER: Because we are not offering them Biblical stress management combined with effective exercise! ... until now... You can offer an "Alternative To Yoga!" We can help! WholyFit Ministry exists to train Christ-followers to begin fitness programs inside and outside the church. Befriend people and create community. Over the past 11 years, we've certified over 300 fitness instructors and had lots of experience starting up fitness programs in all kinds of venues. We have experienced both failures and successes. I'm passing on these "how to" tips on starting a fitness ministry to church leaders and Christian fitness pros so that you can reach out in a creative way to people in your community through fitness ministry. Secular fitness certification does not teach this!  I hope this upcoming series, inspired by the Christianity Today article (on the left) that named WholyFit, will help you with practical ideas for starting a fitness program in your church, and maintaining it. Please pass it on to whomever you think it will benefit!
In Jesus,
Laura Monica, ACSM HFI, WholyFit Founder, Executive Director |
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Save $100
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Everyone is welcome to come to WholyFit Retreat.
WholyFit certification is a great alternative to classical yoga certification.
Get certified through WholyFit Devotional Exercise and get the equipping you need to teach an effective Biblical Alternative to Yoga.
  
| | Offer Expires: December 10, 2013 |
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Get Smaller to Get Bigger
Let's face it. People just don't make it a priority to get together. That's where group exercise comes in! A person's exercise class may be the only social outlet they have! Fitness classes are a great way to develop community, friendships and a close -knit support system. Make fitness social! Fitness programs are all about access to people.
The Lord has repeatedly impressed on me the need to "Get smaller in order to get bigger." As Christian fitness professionals what is our ultimate goal? The emphasis must be on the eternal, which is the "bigger." How do we do that? Through smaller groups. Health clubs spend billions globally on advertising and employ many full-time sales people. Health clubs bring in large numbers of participants for multiple daily classes, but small once a week groups are much more feasible for Christian fitness ministry. Of course we don't have enough resources to operate as a health club, but we don't want to. After all, we do not have to pack people into a fitness class to support the financial obligation$ of a huge health club! We want to connect with people.
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How to Get Smaller
Over the last four decades of my involvement in the fitness industry I've observed that fitness is highly faddish and goes in cycles. What Jack LaLane was doing in the '50s is still being re-packaged, given a face lift and resold. It's important to compete with the fitness industry... or is it? No, I don't think so. If you want a lasting Christian fitness program, the only thing that will keep it going in the long run is relationship. Relationship... pure and simple... Friendships are what keep an exercise class together. Mode of exercise can always change, based on the current fads, but the relationships are what last. Let everything you do be done in love. Make relationship the ultimate end. In WholyFit, we are changing the way we minister, changing from promoting large exercise groups with many different participants coming in and out and to a small, committed, ongoing group. Be open to organizing small groups of no more than eight people and even three people if it's a home based group. In the fitness industry this is called, "Small Group Personal Training." In the church it's called, "Care Group" or "Community Group."
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To Get Bigger...
Do you have to include Bible study in an exercise care group? For those of us who love the Word of God and have experienced the power of the Gospel, we always include it. What good is getting someone in shape if the person goes to Hell in the end? WholyFit Gentle Body Power System is a "Bible Study in Motion" - Scripture is incorporated within each exercise routine. The instructor simply speaks the Word of God during the workout. No preaching necessary. The Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of bringing His Word alive in all hearts. God's Word is living and active. All types of exercise classes are conducive to adding spoken Scripture or add WholyFit stretching to the last half of the class and/or a short Bible study afterwards.
If there is interest in more Bible study, have a short "afterglow." Again, you don't have to be a Bible scholar. Simply facilitate a small group discussion on Scripture that was incorporated within the exercise routine that day. We have now begun training instructors in the Discovery Bible Study method during certification to prepare them to lead these informal Bible studies. In Africa or Asia, when 2 or more people get together to worship God, it's called a "home church." An exercise class could certainly be the start of a home church! Even if you don't include a Bible study, a workout is still a great way to build friendships that lead to opportunities to connect and minister!
For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Timothy 4:8
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WholyFit Kickboxing - We're still kickin'
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Next Week...
Secular fitness is so often promoted with sexual messages, envy, competition and vanity. How can we honor Christ as fitness professionals?
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Is yoga too much of a stretch? Don't force it. Try WholyFit instead! |
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