by Sara Hacking,
Staff Writer
A community-wide weight loss contest isn't a typical church activity. But Wadena Evangelical Church didn't let that stop them from organizing Wadena's Biggest Loser.
A simple question helped inspire the church's foray into the unusual ministry.
"If your church ... closed down tomorrow, would the community know and would the community care?"
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That question helped the church start asking what they could do to become a vital part of the community, said the Rev. Jeff Heisler. Events such as Wadena's Biggest Loser and the upcoming Doubt Night resulted.
"The church isn't supposed to be ... an institution that sets on the corner somewhere and says 'our doors are open, come,'" he said.
The church needs to go into the community in order to meet people's needs, he said.
There were several different goals for Wadena's Biggest Loser including helping people become healthier, develop a more positive outlook and grow spiritually, Heisler said.
"Losing weight is the goal of this endeavor," he said. "But we're hoping that the ultimate end would be more of a transformed life."
Participating in religious activities was not a requirement of the contest, though. Participants didn't even have to step into the sanctuary during the competition. The weekly weigh-ins were done in the church office.
Several contestants have joined their Sunday morning services because of the program, but that was their choice, Heisler said.
"We see that as a positive by-product," he said. "The primary goal was to get involved in their lives and help them."
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Some people have expressed surprise that it was a church that organized the contest, he said.
Assistant Susan Mohs said that a man from the community stopped in the church office one day for some business and commented on the success of the contest.
"He said, 'When you first told me you were going to do this, I thought you were nuts,'" Mohs said.
He thought they would be lucky to get three people from their own church, she said.
The man didn't think the community would respond the way that it did, Heisler said.
"[He] was just blown away by the level of participation," he said about the man's reaction after looking at the photos of 62 contestants hanging on the wall.
Organizing the contest was a positive experience for the church, Heisler said.
"You get to watch people achieve their goals and that's exciting," he said.
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Mohs has experienced the contestant's excitement firsthand during the weekly weigh-ins.
"They jump off the scale and they're screaming and they're hugging you," she said.
Trips to the scale were more difficult for some contestants.
"[There's] ones that have been getting on the scale for six weeks and it hasn't moved and the tears are coming because they can't figure it out," she said.
A lady a couple of weeks ago had a similar experience, she said.
Her tears were happy tears, though, when she stepped on the scale one week.
"She got on ... and the tears were there," Mohs said. "It finally moved."
Many of the contestants want to continue to weigh in and lose weight together, Heisler said. They have organized their own contest that will run until December.
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After the success of the first contest, Wadena Evangelical Church has decided to hold a second contest starting in January. If the church can get enough community involvement, it will offer weekly incentive prizes and prizes to the top ten finishers rather than just the biggest loser, Mohs said.
She was amazed at the level of motivation from the contestants during this competition, she said. But with more prizes she thinks they can get a better "stick-to-itness" from some of the participants.
And it's the participants who really deserve the congratulations for the contest, Heisler said.
"Really all we're giving is time and money," he said about the church's involvement. "They're the ones that had to go for three months and really make a commitment."
