Redeeming Both Body And Soul

By Henry G. Brinton
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Open the Sunday worship bulletin at Fairfax Presbyterian Church, and alongside the prayers, scripture readings and hymns you'll find an invitation to have your blood pressure checked and announcements about church members running 5Ks and marathons, as well as a notice about an upcoming workshop on balance exercises for seniors, offered by an 80-year-old juggler named Don Rapp.

Our focus on physical fitness at Fairfax Presbyterian represents a growing trend in American houses of worship. Congregations are now reclaiming the ancient biblical truth that human beings are created with a unity of flesh and spirit, not with an antagonism between the physical and the spiritual popularized by dualistic Greek philosophy. After thousands of years of separation, body and spirit are coming back together.

A 2007 survey of more than 6,000 American congregations, conducted by the National Council of Churches USA with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, revealed that 70 percent of churches provide health-care services to their communities. the rest image