Extremely overweight pastors

My husband is clearly overweight. It is not from gluttony although he does need to be careful of his food choices. He has a hard time exercising like he used to because of a very badly damaged foot. He is still a great man of God but just needs to work at decreasing his caloric intake and increase his activity. His weight doesn't affect his ability to pastor except he can't play our Thanksgiving morning football game but that is due to his foot, not his weight.

 

If a man cannot manage his own body how can he manage the church of God?

 

So if he is an adulterer you would back him because "he is human.:laugh:"

Or if he were a pedophile you would back hims because "he is human.:laugh:"

Or a drunk?

Or a drug addict?

 

Yes, but is he morbidly obese? A man who has been injured will have to adjust his intake to match his output. That will take a while. But, as you say, he is starting to make changes to manage his weight. Good for him.

The average, healthy male gains 1 pound per year after the age of 20. At 20 I was in the Army. I weighed 150 pounds. I am now 66 years old. At the rate of 1 pound per year my healthy weight could be as high as 196 pounds. It is less than that.

I know how difficult it is to manage your weight when you lose the ability to engage in vigorous physical exercise. I have been battling serious health problems for the past 15 years. I have CIDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy). CIDP is very similar to, but much rarer than, Multiple Sclerosis in that the myelin (the insulation that keeps your nerve impulses from short circuiting) is being broken down and destroyed (CIDP is an auto-immune disorder that causes my own immune system to attack my own body). This effects all my nerves including optic nerve, brain, and motor and sensory nerves. It makes it very difficult for me to walk or engage in other exercise. It has also damaged the nerves to my heart causing a cardiac arrhythmia that is very debilitating. (My doctor has a warped sense of humor. When she gave me the diagnoses she said "I have bad news and good news." I told her to tell me the bad news first. She said "eventually you will be in a wheel chair with no use of your arms or legs." Okay, I said, what is the good news. She said, "Your heart condition will kill you long before you have to be in a wheel chair!" )

All of this to say that not being as physically active as I used to be makes maintaining my weight at an acceptable level is much more difficult. But we have a responsibility to others to show them by the way we live that "with God all things are possible."

I have a not very subtle way of approaching my fellow pastors who are morbidly obese. As I talk to them I poke them in their ample belly and say, "Brother, I am worried about you! You are killing yourself with your fork!" It gets the point across.

 

Yikes!! That's some scary stuff - I'll be praying for you!!

No, hubby is not morbidly obese - he's in the obese level 1 when I looked online - a BMI of 32. But he DOES have the fact that his heart is clear, his blood pressure is low and his cholesterol is low in his favor. He just needs to lose the gut.