YMCA returns to its Christian roots
By Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times
December 17, 2006

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." the rest