PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Since 2003 when I first launched Faith & Fitness Magazine, I’ve come across a variety of individuals, initiatives and organizations connecting pastors, faith and fitness in one way or another. Below is the story of Ricky Van Pay and a ministry he started called Fit Pastors. This story originally appeared I believe in December 2014. To the best of my research in 2025, I don’t believe he is leading this work anymore, I’m not sure the work even exists anymore as an active organization. However, I believe the insights are helpful still (so I am keeping it online). It is my desire that Faith & Fitness Magazine can support the effort to help pastors with physical fitness by providing a consolidated look at all the initiatives being done and by virtue of doing that, help those doing fitness ministry among pastors to network and collaborate better for the good of more pastors. [NOTE: text in brackets below are editorial updates.]
Who Am I?
Hello. My name is Ricky Van Pay.
I am the Founder and Executive Director of Fit Pastors. More importantly I am a Christ-follower, the husband to one Amy of twelve years, and daddy to Camden, Cale, and Ainsley. I have a new lab named Fenway… yep I’m a Sox fan!
I grew up in a pastor’s home so was labeled a “PK”. I never heard anyone growing up talking about physical health in church, or loving God holistically. Thus I became an obese youth pastor in 2003. This sent me on a journey of losing over 80 pounds and finishing an Ironman. I give all glory to God for waking me up out of my slumber and allowing me to become healthy!
I won’t bore you with any more details, but if you’d like to learn more about my journey you can watch me talk about it in the video below:
What Do I Do?
Enough about me. Because of that journey I kept getting asked by other pastors to help them. So I grabbed some certifications and started helping one pastor at a time reclaim their health. [This led to starting] fitpastors.com in which [Ricky had] over a dozen coaches trained and many more in our coaching pipeline that are helping pastors with their health in something we call coaching huddles. We use our Fit Pastors Academy online courses as content and coach our pastors that their bodies are like vehicles and they need to keep four tires aired up to stay on the road to health. Our secret sauce of our huddles is P.A.C.E.D. (Prayer, Accountability, Community, Encouragement, and Direction)
If you know of any pastors that need help in reclaiming their health for the Kingdom [we encourage you to bookmark Faith & Fitness Magazine and access existing resources and be looking for more to come.]
ARE YOU A FIT PASTOR OR DO YOU KNOW OF ONE OR WANT TO BE ONE?
We want to hear from you so that we can help those doing fitness ministry among pastors and help pastors pursuing better physical fitness and health to network and collaborate better for the good of more pastors. Contact us and give us details.
Then we want you to connect with an amazing contributor and part of the team here at Lifestyle Media Group. His name is Chris Timm, but he goes by the name of FitPastor. Yes, he is a pastor – in Ontario, Canada. He contributes a monthly blog post focusing on discipleship. Read them regularly here in Faith & Fitness Magazine.
Connect with him directly on his website
