It doesn’t seem possible that it has been nearly 24 years since we received a phone call from a concerned Weigh Down Workshop participant. She, along with over a million others in 30,000 churches across 60 denominations, joined Gwen’s group at the invitation of their home churches. Being a mission to cults and non-Christian religions, we do not spend a great deal of time looking into weight loss programs. What reason would we have to do that? All of that changed on Monday and Tuesday, August 22 and 23, 2000. On those dates, we received 25-30 e-mails and phone calls regarding one seemingly innocuous program in particular – the Weigh Down Workshop (WDW) and its leader, Gwen Shamblin. The question was about Shamblin’s problematical teaching concerning the Deity of Christ and the Trinity. I made a few phone calls to apologists and pastors we know whose churches hosted the Weigh Down Workshop. The response was overwhelming that, to their knowledge, she was biblically sound in the areas of essential doctrine. As it turns out, they believed her teachings were doctrinally sound because other trusted people and churches thought she was just fine, and after all, her latest book, Rise Above, was published by Thomas Nelson Publishers, who had spent $500,000 in an “ad/promo; 30-city author tour.”¹Rise Above: God Can Set You Free from Your Weight Problems Forever, Publishers Weekly

Our next step was to check out the WDW website. The doctrinal statement, as it read, was a problem. It seemed like the wisest course of action was to try to reach Gwen Shamblin herself, so we called her organization. The phone was answered: “Weigh Down Workshop, Remnant Fellowship.” The “Remnant Fellowship” wording in their moniker was a surprise, and I asked the receptionist what Remnant Fellowship might be. Without hesitation, we were informed that it was a new church Gwen had founded. I asked if Gwen had made the churches that are using her program aware of this, at which point the person on the phone became a bit nervous and suggested it would be best if I spoke directly with Gwen, which is what I had hoped for to begin with. A few moments later, Gwen Shamblin and I were making our introductions. Assuming that she could merely have been in error regarding doctrine, I laid out my concerns about her teaching. I offered to help rewrite the statement to resolve the doctrinal problem before it became a bigger issue. At that point, she went on a bit of a rant, accusing me of being a false prophet and false teacher. I thanked her for her time and called our Senior Researcher, Ron Henzel. We decided to issue a press release explaining what we discovered and Shamblin’s rather bizarre response to our query. We posted it that day, and within a short time, Christianity Today picked up on it and called Gwen to verify if what we said was true. She confirmed it and added,

“‘People don’t care about this,’ Shamblin told CT. They don’t care about the Trinity. This is going to pass. What the women want is weight loss’”²John W Kennedy with additional reporting by Todd Starnes, “Gwen in the Balance.” ChristianityToday.com; p3

It turns out that many Christian women have a good understanding of Christian doctrine and were not particularly happy to be referred to in that degrading manner, and our phone and email contacts grew exponentially as women rose up as one to get Gwen’s program out of the church immediately.

A few months later, we (MCOI, Rafael Martinez of Spirit Watch Ministries, and a few others) put together a gathering of former WDW staff and others to help them sort through what had happened. Shamblin’s sister and brother-in-law attended. They had been employees at WDW and shared that WDW had been sending out about a thousand WDW programs a week until we issued our press release. Within two weeks, about a thousand programs a week were being returned. Shamblin also went from having a following of over a million people to about five hundred in about a month’s time. We wrote about much of this in a series of articles.³“Weighed Down with False Doctrine”; “GwenShamblin: Weighed & Found Wanting”; “Weigh Down Workshop a Cult?”; “Camping With Gwen or Will the True Remnant Please Stand Up?”; “The ‘Great’ Commission of Gwen Shamblin and Remnant Fellowship”; “Gwen Shamblin ‘Suits’ up”; “Gwen Shamblin: The Documentary”; “Will the House that Gwen Built Survive?”

About a year after we issued our press release, while Shamblin was working at recovering and rebuilding, investigative reporter Phil Williams of Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 began airing a series on August 1, 2001, “NewsChannel 5 Investigates: Weigh Down Workshop” and followed up with Part 2 and Part 3.  Over the years, Williams did numerous follow-ups on the group, including the heartrending story of Remnant Fellowship members Joseph and Sonya Smith, who were charged with “disciplining” their 8-year-old Josef Smith to death! (The parents are still in prison) The 2021 HBO Max docuseries The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin, raised questions about Shamblin’s role in that harsh treatment event and many others. Phil Williams’ material was used in the series as well.

On May 29, 2021, Gwen Shamblin Lara, with her second husband Joe Lara, and several key leaders in Remnant Fellowship, died when a private jet piloted by Joe Lara crashed into Percy Priest Lake near Smyrna, Tennessee shortly after takeoff. Gwen Shamblin Lara’s daughter, Elizabeth Shamblin Hannah, is now the head of the church, but it seems she is rarely there in person, calling it in or using video to get her messages to the faithful. She recently called on her followers to follow her as she follows Gwen. That is somewhat different than the Apostle Paul’s, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)

But a very interesting and welcome change of events has recently occurred. Gwen Shamblin’s son, Michael, himself a former “leader” at Remnant, who is changing his name to Michael S. Black, made contact with Phil Williams and together they did a series of interviews beginning with He thought I was ‘the devil.’ Now, he’s telling me his story. There are a total of five segments,⁴Gwen Shamblin’s son breaks silence about life inside Remnant Fellowship, her Brentwood ‘cult’; What motivated Gwen Shamblin? ‘Praise, power, attention, the spotlight’; Gwen Shamblin’s son describes threat with sniper’s bullet; ‘I’m going to say this, and the people of Remnant are not going to like this’; Gwen Shamblin’s daughter says she’s ready to take mother’s church to next level and they paint a picture of an obedient son who, fairly early on, grew uneasy with the changes he witnessed in his mother, from the loving, caring person he knew as a child to something else entirely, as she amassed more and more power over her followers. Michael makes it clear that the Remnant Fellowship is certainly a cult. Gwen Shamblin was the group’s prophet, and Gwen declared RF is the one true church, restoring true Christianity to the earth. (Of course, there is a very long line of cult groups who have “restored true Christianity to the earth” over the years, but we digress.)  Micheal’s definition of a cult is a bit off, in an unconscious carry-over of the teachings of his famous mother. Even so, his conclusion is correct, as we have demonstrated in our 2001 article – Weigh Down Workshop a Cult?  Michael is most concerned about all of the people who have been hurt and families destroyed by Remnant Fellowship, and is doing what he is able to do to help them by setting the record straight.

The whole story is sad. A woman, who was probably, or at least possibly, well-intentioned in the beginning, started a supposedly “Christian based” weight loss program. Unfortunately, she was not doctrinally solid but hubristically considered herself competent to abandon essential doctrines of the faith at will and substituting her own rather strange ideas in their place. Although she spoke of “God” continually, it was not the God of Scripture but instead was a God created in her image and likeness. In her book Rise Above, published by Thomas Nelson Publishers, she writes about God the Father:

“God is so good-looking, so athletic, so powerful, and so charming that upon first sight, we would all immediately bow down and adore Him. So He made Himself invisible, in order to make the contest a little more fair. On top of that, He is such a humble gentleman that He took us to Egypt and allowed us to meet His rival face-to-face.”⁵Gwen Shamblin, Rise Above, Thomas Nelson Publishers. 2000, p24-25

It seems the finite god she portrays is also limited in knowledge:

“He is going to let us “date around” – that’s plan A – so we can appreciate what a great choice He is. But unfortunately, some of His children – in fact, a lot of His children – have lost their focus and become distracted, and therefore found their hearts enslaved to Egypt, with no idea of how to get out of this relationship. This was not part of Plan A. So God had to resort to Plan B: a duel – a boxing match – a fight.”⁶Gwen Shamblin, Rise Above, Thomas Nelson Publishers. 2000, p25

Just learning of her teaching above, even if they knew nothing else, should have decidedly turned true Christians away from her, so what was the thing that drew so many church-going followers into her orbit? The fitness craze had much to do with it, as she attracted many with an already low opinion of themselves, based on their seeming inability to lose weight! As for Gwen, she measured her standing before God on the fame, money, and power she was able to acquire, much like King Saul in the Old Testament. Like King Saul, she worked to destroy anyone who got in her way or attempted to hold her accountable. Micheal revealed his mother kept files on people of her flock, for purposes of keeping them in line. As a result of all he’d seen and heard, Michael ended up separating from his mother years before she died. In his interview with Phil Williams, he admits that he hasn’t wept for her and does not mourn her passing.

He told of her hypocrisy in not following many of her own dictates, such as divorcing her husband, freeing herself to marry another man, who, according to Michael, was already in the picture. She also had a great desire to substantially benefit financially from her leadership role. Of course, the people who attached themselves to Remnant were not by any means her only victims. As with all cult groups, the families of these folks have often suffered a great deal by the loss of their children and/or other family members. And many are still suffering.

We believe Michael genuinely wants to help as many of Gwen’s followers as he is able – who have been hurt, lost families, friends, businesses, and most of all, a belief in the true God for some. Many ex-cult members, once free of their entanglement, are greatly disillusioned and throw out belief in God entirely. His coming forward is a very good thing, and we truly applaud his efforts to set things right concerning his mother’s dictatorial grip on her followers, and her wholly fictional teachings on God. He is in a unique position to open eyes blinded by Gwen’s deception. We don’t know where he himself stands regarding the true God, but we will certainly pray for him.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1)Ω

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