WHEN WE ARRIVED AT SPRINGS CHURCH, Leon Fontaine, the congregation's tall, handsome head pastor, ushered us into an elegant waiting room with a fireplace, wood paneling, and a flat-screen TV. Almost immediately, a sound engineer rushed in and began wiring Lerner with a tie-clip microphone. Several women whisked Skylar and Nicole off to the daycare center, just down the hall from the congregation's full-service espresso bar.

"I've spoken at several churches like this," Lerner said nonchalantly. "The one I recently visited, Willow Creek in Chicago, is about three times bigger."

"What's the title for your message tonight?" yelled a techie, rushing to finalize the evening's video graphics.

"I call it 'Living Right Side Up in an Upside-Down World,' " Lerner said calmly.

"Got it!" the techie called on his way out.

Moments later, Pastor Fontaine and Lerner headed for the massive sanctuary, where several thousand congregants were clapping hands and belting out the words to "History Maker," a rock anthem by the Christian group Delirious. Some took turns wading into a giant Jacuzzi that also serves as the church's baptismal pool.

As Lerner emerged on the stage, the crowd grew quiet. "If you look in the Bible, you won't find a place where someone loses ten pounds and the angels cheer," he began in a smooth, measured voice. The audience laughed. But Lerner—his face now projected onto three giant video screens—grew serious as he explained our duty to get in shape. "Ultimately we have to take care of the vessel that runs the race for God!"

Lerner isn't bothered by the fact that the Bible doesn't

directly address the need to stay fit. He says the Body by God program is the one God "intended" because it follows the basic laws of Scripture, along with nature, nutritional science, and God-given common sense. Indeed, while Lerner's presentation maybe groundbreaking, his exercise and eating principles—a diet low in saturated fat, regular sessions of moderate

to intense exercise—are standard fare, likely to be endorsed by any mainstream physician or fitness expert.

"This stuff is common knowledge," says Allan Goldfarb, a professor of exercise and sport science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a fellow at the American College of Sports Medicine. "But if he's getting people to be active and start eating right, how can you say no to that? We're doing a terrible job of educating people about fitness and nutrition in this country. Sometimes people need to hear the same message in different ways."

Perhaps more than anything, Lerner's timing has been right. Carol Showalter, 68, a book publicist based in Orleans, Massachusetts, who founded the popular "3D" Christian diet movement ("Diet, Discipline, and Discipleship") in the seventies, thinks he's tapped into an emerging trend to connect fitness and spirituality.

"There's a tiredness with secular forms of self-improvement; that's why yoga and meditation movements are taking off," Showalter says. "People are reaching outside of themselves for help. For Christians, that means reaching for God."

But Showalter is also skeptical. "I don't think there's anything magical about including God in a diet program," she says. "After 30 years, I've seen a lot of people on Christian diets who have failed. Food issues very often stem from other problems in life that have to be resolved. And if 'God's plan' doesn't work for someone, they may end up feeling that he loves them even less."