Read any good books lately? You probably haven’t read them at your exercise club or your church building —yet. Few fitness facilities or churches provide tangible resources to help strengthen their members both physically and spiritually. Even less offer programs or services that engage members with those resources. Want to change that? You can help usher into your community a simple and effective way to meet needs and empower individuals. Start a wellness library.
In December 2006 Faith & Fitness Magazine forecast four trends that are beginning to shape the fitness industry and Christian culture. They are:
- The development of community wellness teams – an organized collaboration of professionals and organizations in a community to support a more effective faith-focused wellness network for a broad range of individuals.
- The growth of simple church in fitness facilities – as Christians pursue living their faith in everyday life and seek a more intimate and regularly occurring fellowship with others they will naturally initiate “church” in their fitness facilities and on their sports teams.
- A new generation of personal trainer will deliver a blend of fitness knowledge and spiritual wisdom. These trainers, already certified and passionate about their faith in Christ will offer a hybrid training experience to clients that want a holistic approach and more meaningful purpose to their personal fitness.
- As gyms and churches pursue genuine “customer care” they will develop programs and services that specifically meet the spiritual needs of their members. It is this fourth trend, customer care that provides a basis for the wellness library.
Both churches and gyms exist to meet the needs of their members. Churches can do a good job of meeting the spiritual needs of people while gyms generally do well at meeting the physical needs. Both however can and should do a better job. A wellness library can strengthen a church’s focus on the physical and a gym’s support of the spiritual. Since their members have both needs, their services should meet both needs.
A wellness library brings distinct advantages. It can be added to an organization’s offerings at a relatively low cost both in installation and maintenance. It provides a source of quality information and fills in the “expertise” gap for those organizations. It engages members and empowers them to contribute, volunteer, network and promote. It leads to programming that can bring participation by local experts.
Imagine for example that a fitness facility identifies that a barrier to member’s healthy success is their busy schedules and stress. They could add the book Living With Less to their library. Then they could offer a combination book study and group fitness program. This summer it is being done at the Jordan YMCA in Indianapolis. This YMCA recognized that their members have spiritual needs that impact their physical goals. By offering the book study they are adding tremendous value to their members – an integrated solution. That is something that is rarely offered at a gym, church or anywhere. It is an efficient use of a member’s time, dynamically focused and ultimately the members become more attached to their local YMCA.
A wellness library can be very versatile. There are no rigid parameters that define how it must be structured. The space can be a dedicated library room, a bookshelf in a small chapel, a collection near the front desk, or a stand in the lobby or café. It can be managed, maintained and staffed by volunteers or employees. The organization can purchase the books of their choice or members can contribute. All the details can be as simple or structured as the organization chooses. From funding to promotion the facility can define how they will do their wellness library.
One thing is certain, the wellness library opens many opportunities for the organization to further the mission and grow membership. With vision the library can mature to be a celebrated service that fuels partnerships, builds revenue and ultimately is key to the organization delivering a complete package to members.
This year, Faith & Fitness Magazine in partnership with several publishers is providing support to fitness facilities, churches, and organizations that want to develop a wellness library. We’ve created an outline that can be downloaded and used to write a proposal and plan. Submit your plan by Friday, September 7 to be considered as one of ten wellness libraries that will receive start-up support this year.
If your plan is chosen, you’ll receive an initial collection of books to get your library started. We’ll also provide some preliminary consulting to help move your plan from idea to success. You’ll be recognized in a future issue of Faith & Fitness Magazine and receive exposure as an innovator in the faith and fitness culture. All of this is free to the ten wellness library plans chosen. Entries must be received by September 7. Get started now. Download the outline.
