Having Faith in Physical Education

written by John Kilbourne, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

I was very active as a child growing up in northern California. My active lifestyle was a result of hours of playtime with children in our neighborhood, physical education in school every day from grade one through grade twelve, and my lively participation in our church. I often tell my university students that as a young person, most of my friendships and my active lifestyle came from my participation in play, games, and sport in school, and from my involvement in our church.

As I look back upon my upbringing I remember many church gatherings that included physical activity, from various ball games at church functions to volunteering every Saturday morning to tend to the church grounds and gardens.

As we work to promote physical education, I think it is vitally important to extend ourselves beyond our schools and classrooms. This includes our faith communities.

Over the past several months the moving efforts to promote health and wellness, going on in faith communities throughout the Unites States, has received considerable attention. In June, TIME Magazine published a cover story titled, "Does God Want you to be Thin?" The center piece of the story was Pastor Rick Warren from the 20,000 member strong Saddleback mega-church in Lake Forest, California, and author of the bestseller, "The Purpose Driven Life."

Pastor Warren had an awakening while baptizing a large number of congregants. He realized just how out-of-shape the members of his church were. He said, "On that particular day, I was baptizing 858 people. That took me literally four hours. As I'm baptizing 858 people, along around 500, I thought this -- 'We're all fat! And I thought, "I'm fat," he said. I'm a terrible model of this. I can't expect our people to get in shape unless I do' (Park, Jan. 24.2012)."

Pastor Warren's awakening moved him to take a leadership role, and try to promote health and wellness in his church and beyond. He called his strategy The Daniel Plan, from the biblical story about Daniel in The Book of Daniel. In the scripture Daniel pledges that he and his friends will not eat or drink royal food and wine. By following this regimen, "they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food," according to Daniel 1:15 in the Bible's New International Version (Park, Jan. 24.2012).

The secret of The Daniel Plan is for participants to do it as a community. According to Dr. Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist who was consulted on the development of the plan, the program at Saddleback is, "…very different than most health plans where you do it by yourself or with your wife. You get to do this as a whole community (Park, Jan. 24.2012)."

Research on/about weight loss confirms that people who try to lose weight and adopt healthier life styles in groups are more likely to be successful than individuals working alone (Park, Jan. 24.2012). Family physician Dr. Mark Hyman, who also served as a consultant, said that because Saddleback already had a network of small groups Pastor Warren had "instantaneous capacity to make this happen. The church was the perfect incubator. This was a way of leapfrogging and getting a social experiment done (Park, Jan. 24.2012)."

More than 15,000 members of Pastor Warren's church have signed onto The Daniel Plan, a program of in-person and on-line work-out classes, support group meetings, walk and worship sessions, and nutrition counseling. Together they have lost a collective 260,000 pounds in the past eighteen months.

The Daniel Plan consists of six simple and straight forward core principles:

1. Connect for Success - Get in touch with your health and with others! Talk with your doctor or health care provider to learn specifics about your overall wellness.
2. Rely on God's Power - Willpower is not enough. You need God's power. Find encouragement from the teachings of your faith.
3. Eat Delicious Whole Foods - Look through your pantry and discard all foods that are not nutritious.
4. Move Your Way to Health - The more exercise, the more energy!
5. Think Sharper and Smarter - Better brain health = better life!
6. Heal for Life - Know that with the support of your faith and faith community that you can be committed for the long-term (Kluger, J. June 11, 2012) (The Daniel Plan, 2012).
   

Physical fitness and health are growing trends in houses of worship in the United States. In 2007 the National Council of Churches surveyed more than six-thousand American congregations and discovered that seventy percent provide health care services for their communities (Brinton, H. July 30, 2012).

Henry Brinton, pastor of Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Virginia adds, "Religious people are finally taking the body seriously, and this is a needed change as Americans struggle with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other health problems. Across the country, congregations are adding fitness facilities, and sponsoring programs such as 'Christian Yoga' and 'Bod4God' (Brinton, H. July 30, 2012)."

In Fort Washington, Maryland, the Rev. Grainger Browning and the members of the Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church sponsor four health fairs each year to help parishioners. Rev. Browning said, "As our memberships get older, we are pastoring out of necessity because we see people who are literally digging their graves with their teeth (Harris, H. August 21, 2012)."

What is more, the popular televangelist T. D. Jakes, pastor of the Potters House in Dallas, Texas is leading a health crusade for the black church. "No matter how much talent you have in your mind and your spirit, if your body is not able to function you are not able to fulfill your destiny," Jakes said (Harris, H. August 21, 2012).

As physical educators we need to think about how we can promote health and wellness beyond our classrooms. After all, we are the experts. One important area is in our faith communities. Following in the footsteps of Pastors Warren, Brinton, Browning, and Jakes we can solicit the services of our pastors, priests, rabbis, imams and other faith leaders to help promote healthy lifestyles.

As leaders in physical education we can help make this happen. We can encourage efforts in our churches, temples, and mosques to promote health and wellness. We can embolden our faith leaders to deliver sermons or speeches on health and wellness. We might even help our faith leaders create such sermons or speeches. And, like The Daniel Plan and 'Bod4God' we can raise the spirits of congregations by inspiring lessons on/about healthy lifestyles in Sunday/Saturday Schools, walk and worship sessions, nutritional counseling, game activities at parish functions, and on-line monitoring systems.

In higher education our efforts might include encouraging our future physical education professionals to get actively involved in their faith communities. These students could lead and share lessons in physical activity and health. They might organize efforts on exercise testing and prescription, facilitate a dance education program for the teen club, provide education on nutrition, insure that all church events feature wholesome food, help organize walk and worship sessions, or assist in the creation of an on-line health and wellness monitoring system.

The future of physical education will depend on how we promote and practice our discipline, not only in our schools but in our communities. The formula for fitness and wellness has changed little over time, i.e., good nutritious food and plenty of exercise. What has changed is what motivates people to participate. Now, more than ever with a country so out-of-shape, we need to tap into any and all forms of promotion and motivation to increase healthy lifestyles in the United States.

According to Dr. Jeffrey Levi, Executive Director of Trust for American Health, "Obesity has contributed to a stunning rise in chronic disease rates and health care costs. It is one of the biggest health care crisis the country has ever faced (Oosting, J. Aug. 14.2012)." Extending our expertise beyond our schools and classrooms, and promoting physical education and healthy lifestyles in our faith communities, can go a long way to help lessen the crisis.

References

Biography: John Kilbourne, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Movement Science at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI. In addition to being the first full-time strength and flexibility coach (Dance Conditioning) in the National Basketball Association (1982-84 Philadelphia Seventy Sixers, 1983 World Champions), Dr. Kilbourne is the author of the recently published book, "Running With Zoe: A Conversation on the Meaning of Play, Games & Sport."

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