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Each Sunday morning, Kent and Regina Smith convert their spacious living room in Norman, Oklahoma, into a gathering spot for a controversial new religious movement, Remnant Fellowship.

In just two years, the movement, which Weigh Down Workshop author Gwen Shamblin founded in Nashville, has spread to about 90 sites nationwide. In 2000, thousands of church leaders canceled Weigh Down classes after Shamblin publicly rejected the doctrine of the Trinity (CT, Oct. 23, 2000, p. 15), but her movement continues to grow.

The Sunday morning service at the Smiths' comfortable brick home on Norman's northwest edge began with singing "Refiner's Fire" and "Rebuild the Wall," which hold special meaning for fellowship members. They see themselves as the fulfillment of Ezra 9:8-9, in which God is said to leave a faithful remnant to rebuild his sanctuary.

They also sing a revised version of a hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy," more in accord with Shamblin's anti-Trinitarian theology. Rather than "God in three persons, blessed Trinity," fellowship members sang, "God over all and blessed eternally."

After worship, a fellowship member called a phone number in Nashville. All Remnant branches listen to Shamblin preach over a speakerphone at least once a week. On this summer Sunday, she was traveling on the Rebuilding the Wall tour. At Rebuilding the Wall events, Shamblin has said overeating is idolatrous self-worship. She said the modern Christian church has become the "great prostitute" by bowing to the idols of food, money, sexual lust, and television.

The speakerphone is fuzzy this time, so after a minute, the Smiths hang up. They continue by teaching from Shamblin's books, which they know well.

The Smiths started their Remnant Fellowship branch in September 2000, after Kent lost 45 pounds and Regina dropped 60 pounds using Weigh Down methods. The startup cost was $25. The group has grown to include relatives, friends, and coworkers, and no one is overweight.

Smith, 39, a pharmaceutical salesman, read from the Bible and encouraged everyone to share their thoughts on the passage. The informal service lasted more than two hours. "Remnant people have no passion in their heart except for God," Kent Smith told CT. "We want to be the new Jerusalem."

"We used to worship food and money," Regina Smith said. "People in this room have laid down the food idol and lost 50, 75, and 100 pounds."

Remnant Fellowship members in Norman spend much of their free time together. After the Sunday morning service, they went out for lunch. Sunday evenings they gather for a barbecue. Men and boys attend a Monday evening discipleship meeting and a Wednesday evening Bible study, both involving teleconference calls to Nashville. Women attend a Weigh Down Bible study on Wednesday. On the next Saturday the group traveled en masse to a nearby lake for recreation.

Ted Anger, 33, director of marketing for Remnant Fellowship, told CT that the group has 600 members. "The vast majority in Remnant Fellowship come from churches where sin has been allowed, coddled, and not confronted," he said.

Smith did not call Shamblin a prophet. "We don't exalt a person," Smith said. "But we do believe that Gwen has a definite gift from the Lord for bringing forth the Word so that people will repent of their sins." Shamblin declined to be interviewed.

Shamblin has "lost some of her followers, but a lot of people still love her because of the weight loss messages," says R. Marie Griffith, author of the forthcoming book Born Again Bodies: American Christianity and Disciplines of the Flesh.

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December 9 2002, Vol. 46, No. 13