Gwen Shamblin is an American Christian non-fiction writer and founder of The Weigh Down Workshop and founder of Remnant Fellowship Church. The most distinctive aspect of his writing is the combination of weight loss programs with Christianity.
Early life
Shamblin holds a bachelor's degree in diet from the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville and then his master's degree in food and nutrition from Memphis State University. He is a registered dietitian, consultant, and a faculty member at Memphis State University for five years. He also worked in the state health department for an additional five years.
Video Gwen Shamblin
Personal life
Shamblin was raised in an interdenominational Christian family. He had two children, and in March 1996, Shamblin lived with his family in a historic house in Brentwood, Tennessee, known as Ashlawn, built in 1838.
Maps Gwen Shamblin
Career Ministry
Weigh Down Workshop
Shamblin started his consulting practice in the field of weight control in 1980. Shamblin has struggled with his weight while attending school. He became "convinced that genetics, metabolism and behavior modification alone could not explain why some people are skinny and others are battling the bulge." In 1986, Shamblin founded the Weigh Down Workshop, a weight loss program having "no forbidden food, exercise or weight training", and avoiding "calorie counting." As The Tennessean shows, the program lacks "some basic elements," such as exercise and guidance on food selection, as recommended by the American Dietetic Association. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer , "Weigh Down Workshop seeks to help participants develop discipline to eat only when they are hungry and stop eating when they are full."
Shamblin developed the program while working on his master's degree at Memphis State University. As part of the counseling center, she held first class at a mall in Memphis, Tennessee; The program was originally offered only as a small class in the same retail and other non-religious settings. In 1991 or 1992, he began organizing programs at the Bellevue Baptist Church located in the Memphis area. The program consists of a twelve-week seminar hosted by a video and audio tape featuring Shamblin. The meetings consisted of one group watching one of his videos, along with prayers and discussions. In 1994, the program spread rapidly throughout Europe and was offered in about 600 churches in at least 35 US states.
According to the Associated Press, in January 1995, the program could be found in more than 1,000 churches in forty-nine US states, as well as in locations in the UK and Canada; but in July 1996, the workshop was held in about 5,000 churches, with nearly ten per cent located in the state of Shamblin, Tennessee. A total of eight churches in the United Kingdom held a workshop in December 1996. Some participants in the US will also hold meetings in their private homes.
In 1996, Weigh Down, consisting of forty staff members, began to build its headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee. In the same year, Gwen Shamblin and Weigh Down began to host an annual summer convention, known as Desert Oasis, in the Nashville area.
In August 1998, Weigh Down held more than 21,000 classes with over 250,000 participants reported worldwide. The Weigh Down Workshop class will eventually spread to all fifty US states and every continent, becoming "one of the most popular weight loss programs in the world" in mid 2000. Shamblin has also traveled to other cities as part of a tour Redevelopment of the Wall .
Other diet experts question the health of Shamblin's diet suggestions, which focus on beliefs, not healthy eating habits or exercise. In the book Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity, author Marie Griffith, a professor of religion at Princeton University, examines trends in religion-based diets. Despite criticizing Shamblin for using Christian labels when building his business, Griffith praised Shamblin for a new wave of interest in creating a "holier body", and important parts of the work examined the Shamblin movement. Griffith noted, "In the world of Shamblins, people who do not lose weight often feel like failure, if they do not lose weight, it is a discipline failure, it is a failure of obedience." At the same time, Griffith's work places the Shamblin movement appropriately in a historical tradition to perfect one's body to become more Christlike, or to fast and diet to feel closer to God.
In 2001, NewsChannel 5, a local Nashville news station, aired a story titled "Is this a service or a big business?", Seeing how the Weigh Down Workshop is spent. Toward the end of the interview, Shamblin stated that "half of [the money] goes to the government, the other half goes to defend it so that others can be helped." According to news reports, "He said he would sell his things to keep the ministry going."
Posts
Shamblin is the author of The Weigh Down Diet . First published in March 1997, the diet "suggests using spirituality to avoid overeating and has sold over 1.2 million copies." Doubleday publishers reported selling four hundred thousand copies in less than a year. In this book, Shamblin outlined his theory that there are two very different needs in everyone: the need for food and emotional needs. According to Shamblin, people only have to eat when they feel real, physically hungry and stop when full; prayer and Bible reading will fill emotional needs rather than food. Excessive eating is equated with greed. A core principle of The Weigh Down Diet, when people feel the urge to snack but do not experience physiological hunger, Shamblin encourages participants to read the Bible instead.
Since the release of his first book, Shamblin has written a number of books including Rise Above and his self-published self-titled book Output .
Controversy arose when Shamblin began to teach that the doctrine of the Trinity is not biblical. He declares that he believes Jesus Christ is not God but the son of God. This causes Publisher Thomas Nelson to cancel the issuance of Output , the next job. In a letter to his followers sent to clarify his position on the Trinity, Shamblin writes: "The reason for all this is important is that if you do not understand that God is a clear authority and that Jesus is under God's authority, you will have no picture it is clear about what it means to be like Christ, to suffer, to obey, to be given up, to be denied of his will, and to make food to do the will of the Father. "Shamblin later wrote," I believe that Jesus and God are two separate beings. " He also said that he does not believe that Jesus and God are equal in power and glory.
Appearances on television, magazines and news media
The popularity of Shamblin teachings has resulted in his appearance on the BBC, 20/20 , A Current Affair, and The View , Dateline (Australia) as well as in magazines such as Family Circle , Good Housekeeping , Woman's Day , and many newspaper articles. Shamblin has been featured on The Today Show , CNN's Larry King Live , DaySide and /i>. Participants from the Weigh Down Workshop have been featured on the front page of Good Housekeeping at Ladies' Home Journal, in People Magazine, First Magazine , Fast and Simple , and in many newspaper articles. In 2007, The Tyra Banks Show devoted an hour-long program to Shamblin, Weigh Down Diet, Fellowship and participants from the Weigh Down program.
In 2009, Shamblin and Weigh Down were featured on television programs such as WeTV's Secret Lives of Women, CBS's Remnant Fellowship Church
Shamblin is the leader and founder of the Remnant Guild Church, which differs from a number of Protestant denominations in areas such as the rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity and its adherence to the biblical Sabbath. The Church takes its name from the Book of Ezra 9: 8-9, which mentions "faithful followers." According to the church website, it currently has more than 100 locations worldwide. The church began in 1999 in Brentwood, Tennessee.
In 2000, Shamblin began advocating specific ideas about Christian theology and began forming his own church. During this time, four former employees at the Weigh Down Workshop sued Shamblin on the basis of religious discrimination. These employee litigations were settled out of court, and as part of the settlement the exact amount of results generated by the sealed-to-earnings Workshop has been sealed.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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