Pastor Greg Schaller.

Pastors aren't perfect. Like the members in their congregations, they walk that thin line between grace and good works in everything they do; from charitable giving to working out. One pastor, Greg Schaller, 47, escaped health and fitness-related angst until recently.

Running three to five miles a day, five days a week since high school had kept his muscles strong and his weight steady. Then he hit age 45 and the healthy habit spluttered. His metabolism tanked, and within two years he found 15 extra pounds stuck to his ribs. "I started feeling like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, and it freaked me out," says Schaller, who shepherds the Kent Seventh-day Adventist Church in suburban Seattle, Washington.

To shed the extra weight, the pastor--dubbed a "health nut" by his secretary--resurrected his running routine and added extra miles to it. When that didn't accomplish all of his goals, he considered weightlifting to build strength and calorie-burning lean muscle mass. It sounded like a great solution. So he laid out the cash and set up the equipment in his basement.

Pumping iron at home seemed as doable as tying his sneaker shoelaces by the front door before a run. He figured he would drop pounds and prevent the annual one-percent muscle mass loss that inactive middle-aged people typically experience. "That's when I discovered the knowing/doing gap," Schaller says, laughing.

The new weightlifting set began collecting dust, and in a few months smelled of everything but sweat. Schaller felt discouraged, but not defeated. As any good Christian would do, he turned to the original "health manual" for help and found the inspiration he needed. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own" (1 Corinthians 6:19).

For Schaller, health maintenance was an expression of stewardship, a concept he uncovered in the 1970s while a teenager abusing drugs and alcohol. When his parents divorced, he turned from Christ and embraced the pop culture of the time. "I got really angry with God," he explains. "When my father left our house, I subconsciously thought that God had abandoned me." Ultimately, a Bible teacher at a Christian academy explained how Christ makes up for our shortcomings--whether over-partying or being a couch potato or both--as He leads us into a better understanding of His will for our lives.

Today Schaller is relearning a long-ago lesson with a slightly different midlife twist. Peer pressure from wild-living friends once hindered his health. But peer pressure from church buddies within his congregation can be used to help him reach his more lofty goals now.

After years of successful solo exercise, he recently figured out that he needs a workout buddy to help make the health-building habits stick. "God didn't design us to experience life alone," he says. "Running? That was simple. I would just put my shoes on and head out of the house by myself. But now I'm beginning to really appreciate the power of community. It's kind of like the drugs and alcohol people, but on the positive side."

Pastor Greg Schaller is discovering something that many fit people already know: building and maintaining optimum health doesn't have to be a solitary endeavor. As a matter of fact, the journey works best when you invite traveling companions to join you; positive people who will motivate, inspire, and support you. Besides, Christians, by default, love to witness for the Lord. What better time to share your testimony than while you're hard at work improving your health? When it comes to improving the "temple of the Holy Spirit," all are invited to take part.

Pam Mellskog is a freelance health writer living in Boulder, Colorado.