YMCA returns to its Christian roots

NASHVILLE -- Every day, 2,500 people pour into the Green Hills Family YMCA to lift weights, shoot hoops, and swim. Scott Reall believes many are searching for salvation.

On a recent evening, as disco music blared out of an aerobics room down the hall, Reall led a small group in prayer. Heads bowed, hands clasped, about a dozen men and women sang "Amazing Grace." They had come to the YMCA -- some in pearls, some in tank tops -- to share their struggles with depression, and their hope that Christ would pull them through.

"People come to the YMCA hurting," said Reall, who gave up his work as a fitness trainer to run a Christian ministry at the Y. "Alcoholism, bulimia, divorce, grief, pornography addiction, loneliness, drug abuse. They're looking for so much more than exercise."

Reall is at the vanguard of a small but growing movement to bring Christ back into the Young Men's Christian Association. About 13 percent of the 2,600 YMCA branches across the United States have set up special committees to promote Christianity. Hundreds of Y leaders convene each year to swap ideas on how to "lift up the C in the YMCA."

Some Ys in Georgia now display pictures of Jesus and post the Ten Commandments. In North Carolina, YMCAs post Bible verses on their websites; in Tennessee, some play Christian rock in the workout rooms. In Alabama, Florida, and Washington, YMCAs have hired full-time chaplains to provide pastoral care for staff and members: weddings, marriage counseling, hospital visits, Bible studies.

"People are beginning to rediscover the meaning of salvation," said Leonard Sweet, professor of evangelism at Drew University in New Jersey. "They are awakening to the idea that the body is part of spiritual life, that you can't separate the mind, the body, and the spirit."

But the blending of faith and fitness unsettles some members who have grown accustomed to thinking of the Y as a secular gym.

"It seems a little bit squirrelly to me," said Tom Brittingham, a 49-year-old physician sweating on a Nautilus machine here. "There's already too much Christian stuff in the news. I don't really want to think about it when I work out."

The YMCA was founded in 1844 as a prayer group for London factory workers, and branches have long included sports facilities. During the fitness craze of the 1980s, many Ys began to serve almost exclusively as health clubs, de-emphasizing the organization's Christian roots.

The YMCA of Central Maryland was the first to remove Jesus's name from its local mission statement, to signal that people of all faiths were welcome. Branches across the country, including Los Angeles and Chicago, followed. In 1987, Jesus was taken out of the national YMCA mission statement to read: "To put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all."

Now, a backlash is brewing.

"It's not necessarily politically correct to tell folk that Jesus is the way and the light," said Dan Nix, executive director of a Y in Waycross, Ga. "But the YMCA should stand for Christ at all cost. His name is on our building, and we should not take that name in vain."

YMCA leaders are not alone in promoting spiritual growth alongside stomach crunches. Mega-churches are building state-of-the-art health clubs next to their sanctuaries. Some secular gyms offer gospel aerobics. An online magazine, called Faith and Fitness, encourages readers to make connections between their Christian faith and their daily workouts.

At the heart of Green Hills's Christian ministry are private and group counseling and self-help courses that draw inspiration from sporting as well as spiritual feats. The Restore ministry now has five staff members and 10 therapists, and is open to anyone.

"The YMCA is a sleeping giant," Reall said, spreading his arms in a broad flourish. "It has the opportunity to spread Christian healing throughout the world."