By Janet Smith
John and James are missionaries with Christian Missionary Fellowship in a large, bustling city in Asia. When they begin their day, however, they don”t go to a church building, a medical clinic, or a school. They go to a first-class fitness facility frequented daily by hundreds of upper-middle-class nationals. None of them know that John and James are marketplace ministers, but all of them know they are Christians.
CMF”s Fitness & Learning Center is an innovative approach to sharing the gospel using the business as mission model, a first-century idea taking on new life as an important method of doing missions in the 21st century. This approach is often used in “creative access countries” where traditional missionaries cannot get residential visas.
In 2000, CMF began a two-year research project to determine a business platform that would attract middle-class nationals to a venue where they could interact regularly with resident missionaries. Educated Asians are attracted to all things Western, and have a growing interest in fitness. So an American-style fitness center was selected as CMF”s pilot business-as-mission project in the country.
The team leader and his staff looked at several locations where the center would be visible and accessible to its target market. CMF and several church partners provided initial funds to help totally renovate the selected building. All of the construction work was monitored by two volunteer American engineers. A business plan was developed under the oversight of CMF”s director of business strategy, a retired Indianapolis business owner. The team”s goal was a first-class, well-run facility appealing to the nearby students, business people, and families.
The center opened in January 2006. Currently, there are about 700 members and 15 national employees. Rather than using stethoscopes, classrooms, or preaching services to reach out to seekers, John and James and their families use exercise classes, bike marathons, and a juice bar to build relationships and community among the members and employees of their fitness center. All the white, they teach and model spiritual values and a Christ-centered lifestyle.
The team uses a variety of ministry activities to reach out to the members and the community. Last Christmas, gym members adopted 47 children who live in a local AIDS orphanage, purchasing clothes and toys for these poorest of the poor. They have also provided clothing for displaced political refugees.
An American Christian personal trainer, working at the facility on a short-term basis, brought together a large group to train together for a triathlon, which brought an increased sense of community to the membership. James and John also spend a great deal of time counseling members who come to them for help with personal and spiritual problems.
The nationals on staff at the gym are a primary focus of mission activity. John and James and their families held a Christmas party for them where they shared the gospel story. Some of the gym”s Christian members, as well as the CMF families, pray regularly for the staff, witness to them, and have taken some of them to church. A local church has agreed to teach character-building seminars to the staff.
Some employees have already expressed surprise that the center honors the country”s complicated business structure by paying all the required taxes, which is not a common business practice there. However, these are people who had no exposure to Christianity before coming to the gym, and now they have repeated exposure to Christian values, the love of Christ, and the gospel message. John acknowledges it is a slow process to move them forward.
Very soon, John and James plan to put a cross on the gym wall. “The staff wanted us to put up a “spirit house” to help sell memberships,” said John, “so we decided to put up the cross as a symbol of a living Spirit, and a testimony that our business is run by devoted Christians.” In the future, they plan to use the gym as a focal point for a church plant for middle-class nationals.
John, the general manager, is quick to point out the fitness center is not a “front” for mission work, or simply a platform for entry visas. “This is real business, real stuff, and we have to work hard to stay afloat, just like any other business,” he said.
The business provides John and James with the credentials they need to live and work in the country, as well as credibility with their friends and employees. It also gives them access for ministry to many others who come into contact with the business, such as vendors, other business owners in the area, and members” families. Most importantly, it offers the opportunity to build close relationships with the nationals who come to them every day, to fellowship in a church without a steeple.
Janet Smith works in the Marketplace Ministries Division of Christian Missionary Fellowship.
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