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Part inspiration, part perspiration

CrossPointe Church believes in spiritual and physical health.

By MINDY RUBENSTEIN
Published October 15, 2006

WESLEY CHAPEL - Pastor Bruce Moore and several congregants stretched to the sounds of Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl Tuesday evening. One of a dozen small prayer groups offered by CrossPointe Church in Wesley Chapel, this one mixes exercise and prayer.

"The Bible is big on developing the whole person," said Moore, who leads the 2-year-old church off Old Pasco Road. "I think one has a connection to the other," he said of prayer and exercise.

The group includes about eight people, in their 20s to their 50s, who meet for an hour. Typically the first half of the class includes a guided Bible study and discussion. The second half includes aerobic exercise led by Warner Roberts, a congregant who works for Corporate Fitness Works.

The church, which falls under the Baptist umbrella but considers itself "multidenominational," offers a preschool as well as child care during the evening class.

The other small prayer groups, called "hometeams," meet in members' homes throughout Pasco County, including neighborhoods like Stagecoach Village and Lexington Oaks, as well as local restaurants.

The fitness hometeam meets on Tuesdays at the church, as does the financial hometeam, which mixes Bible study with budgeting help, offering the "Bible's view of financial fitness."

Of the exercise class, Moore said, "We all internally are praying for help from God to make it through."

Javier Lugo enjoys the small-group format because it gives him a chance to ask questions and learn from others. Tuesday is his day off work, so he attended the fitness Bible study class, though he came in jeans thinking he would just catch the prayer portion.

"I get a chance to learn from everybody else," he said. "I can raise my hand and say, 'I have a question about this.' "

Lugo, 35, works for Progressive Insurance and also has a business drawing caricatures. He said prayer helps him be more creative.

"It calms me down," he said. "It just makes me feel better."

Heather Moore, the pastor's wife, attends the fitness prayer group and also leads a hometeam for women.

"I really think that there are a lot of similarities between spiritual exercise and physical exercise," she said. You do physical exercise to maintain your weight and a healthy heart, Mrs. Moore said, and "you have to work those spiritual muscles."

"When you combine the two together in one hometeam, you get the best of both worlds."

[Last modified October 14, 2006, 22:08:40]