# Remnant Fellowship · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

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The Cult Dossier · No. 097 · Christian-Derived
Remnant Fellowship
Weigh Down Workshop
1986/1999 – present · Brentwood, Tennessee
XI. THERAPY, POLITICS AND THE SMALL GROUPS
Fully religious — diet-based Christian church
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1986 Weigh Down Workshop founded; the book The Weigh Down Diet (1997) sells more than 1.2 million copies.
- 1999 Remnant Fellowship Church founded in Franklin, Tennessee.
- AUGUST 2000 Shamblin rejects the Trinity; Thomas Nelson cancels her book contract.
- 8 OCTOBER 2003 JOSEF SMITH, 8, dies in Georgia after his parents confine him in a box. In FEBRUARY 2007 his parents, Remnant members, are sentenced to life plus 30 years. The church denied instructing the abuse; prosecutors introduced its teachings on discipline.
- 29 MAY 2021 Gwen Shamblin Lara, her husband Joe Lara and five other church leaders are killed when their Cessna Citation crashes into Percy Priest Lake near Smyrna, Tennessee. Joe Lara was piloting.
- 2021 The church passes to her children. MICHAEL SHAMBLIN LEAVES IN NOVEMBER 2021, leaving his sister ELIZABETH SHAMBLIN HANNAH as sole leader; the church stays in Brentwood, Tennessee. HBO Max releases The Way Down.
- MARCH 2023 THE NTSB FINAL REPORT FINDS the pilot lost control of the aircraft in the climb because of spatial disorientation.
- FEBRUARY 2024 Michael Shamblin publicly describes the church as a cult.
### Its people
### Gwen Shamblin Lara
—
Founder, Weigh Down Workshop and Remnant Fellowship · 18 February 1955 – 29 May 2021 · active 1986–2021
Before the law. Never charged. The church denied instructing the abuse.
Where things stand. Deceased 2021. The church continues under her daughter.
- 1986 Weigh Down Workshop founded.
- 1999 Remnant Fellowship Church founded.
- 2000 Denies the Trinity; loses evangelical distribution.
- 8 OCTOBER 2003 Josef Smith, 8, dies in Georgia; in February 2007 his parents are sentenced to life plus 30 years.
- 29 MAY 2021 Killed with her husband and five other church leaders in a plane crash near Smyrna, Tennessee.
Checked 2026-09-17
The Atlas The Door