The Remnant Church

Allie Bernstein, '27

Gwen Shamblin Lara founded The Weigh Down Workshop (a Christian weight loss program), was an author, and most notably started the Remnant Church in Nashville, Tennessee. You may recognize her name from the 2021 HBO Max docuseries, The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin. In 1986, Gwen founded her workshop after her own experience with weight struggle throughout college. Her workshop consisted of a 3-month seminar with guiding videos and audio tapes that featured Lara herself. Her workshops began with no religious affiliation, until the meetings started being hosted at Bellevue Baptist Church in the early 90’s.

Soon enough, The Weigh Down Workshop became popular throughout churches in America. Throughout 49 states, over 5,000 churches offered their patrons to join Gwen’s weight loss program. This worksop became so popular, it even reached an audience in Canada and Great Britain. Gwen’s community had grown so large that in 1996, she established their headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee. By 1998, Every state in the USA, along with many provinces in Canada and Great Britain, participated in The Weigh Down Workshop. In fact, Gwen gathered more than 250,000 participants.

Eventually, criticism of Gwen’s “teaching methods” began. Many people didn’t like how she heavily emphasized Christianity as a part of her brand’s label to help recruit more people. Regardless, she started the Remnant Fellowship Church in 1999. The church was finished being built in 2004, placed on 40 acres of Brentwood’s land that Gwen had personally purchased. Naturally, many members of her weight loss program became followers of her church. Gwen repeatedly told all members of The Remnant Church that their church was the only true and honest church, as all other churches were lying, and therefore they should contribute a significant amount of money towards her cause.

So, what is the Remnant Church’s overall cause? Their website currently quotes, “While divorce, depression, obesity and out-of-control children are increasingly the norm these days, at the Remnant we are experiencing healed marriages, increasing joy, restored health, repaired finances and children who love to follow the guidance of their parents.” Given this statement, it seems they believe that attendance to their church is aligned with lack of divorce, obesity, depression, or children who act out. If you check the Google reviews of this church, it’s apparent that many followers adamantly agree with the success of Remnant Church’s cause.

On October 8th, 2003, an 8-year-old boy named Josef Smith, whose family were members of the Remnant Church, was beaten to death. Gwen’s church preaches the necessity of obedient children, and teaches ‘appropriate’ ways of discipline. Going off what Remnant deemed acceptable, the Smith parents beat Josef with belts, foot-long glue sticks, and heated coat hangers, along with locking him in small rooms with images of Jesus on the ceiling. Child welfare services found that prior to his death, “The boy was acting as though possessed by demons, that he was planning to kill people,” and, “That he was not receiving mental health services.” His parents believed they were trying to “save his soul.”

The death of Josef Smith brought up some of the possible dangers of Gwen’s teachings. After many years of more members joining and leaving with interesting stories, HBO Max came out with a multi-part docu-series on the history of both Gwen and her church. After the first three episodes aired, The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin became the most-watched docu series on HBO Max ever. While gaining more attention, more accusations of the promotion of child abuse continued to spread. Even so, The Remnant Church is still a functioning place of worship, located only twenty minutes away from The Ensworth Frist Campus.