CityView Magazine

12 | January/February 2017 faith BY BRIAN & MORGAN FARR S ix days a week, odd sounds come from the garage of a house on a street off of Yadkin Road. Minivans and trucks are parked out on the quiet street. A few cars may even drive by. But there is the definite sound of bumper plates thudding on rubber mats, the heavy breathing of people working hard and excited cries from children. ese sounds echo across the neighborhood near Fort Bragg, and this is how our days begin. We are Brian and Morgan Farr, the owners, operators and coaches of Farr Fitness. Our gym is a free fitness-based Christian ministry based out of our home and garage in Fayetteville. Brian is a veterinarian on staff with a Civil Affairs battalion on Fort Bragg and Morgan is a homemaker and mother of two boys, Willam and Henry. William is two years old and loves dump trucks, and Henry is seven months old and likes to roll from side to side. Five years ago, we started piecing together gym equipment. We invited people to come train with us and God opened some incredible doors. We continue to follow God as he brings more and more people to our gym. What is it that makes our gym different from the others? Along the way, we have come to understand that running a fitness-based Christian ministry allows us to foster authentic community, build godly character and model generous hospitality. Each and every person who walks through our garage door joins a community. In the last two years, nearly 350 people have passed through our gym, and all of these athletes become a part of our authentic community. Our athletes have ranged from a nine-year-old homeschooler to a 54-year-old female chaplain. ere is something for everyone. We train athletes who have trained with us for two years, new athletes just beginning their fitness journey, spouses dropping in on their days off and extended family members joining us when they come to visit Fayetteville. Here, people are real with each other. We sweat together. Goals and limitations are openly discussed. Life struggles are worked through. We cheer once someone has established a new personal best. We offer assistance when someone is transitioning to or away from Fort Bragg. We pray and we counsel. e shared experiences in the gym help us to build a very close and tightly-knit community. e great American football coach and legend Tom Landry said, "e job of a football coach is to make men do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they've always wanted to be." At Farr Fitness, our athletes choose to do a lot of things they might not particularly want to do in order to develop their physical fitness, mental fortitude and godly character. Heavy liing teaches patience, since progress is measured by five- pound increases, sometimes over a month-long period. Persistence is fostered as the one minute rest between conditioning intervals always seems to shrink. Selflessness, as you load and unload your training partner's weights. Positivity, as you finish your own workout and cheer on the person behind you. Each athlete pushes him or herself to do things they do not want to do. When the sweat dries and the heavy breathing returns to normal, our athletes are le with stronger bodies and stronger character. Running a fitness-based Christian ministry out of our garage allows us to model generous hospitality on a daily basis. In our culture, we live in a time where "friends" exist on social media, conversations happen through devices and we take our relatives to restaurants for holiday meals. At Farr Fitness, we strive to counter these social customs. Young soldiers sit around our dinner table one night a week aer a hard Building Strength Farr Fitness is a Christian Community built in a Home Gym

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