Remnant Fellowship Church

Movement·Founded 1999 CE

Judaism → Christianity → Remnant Fellowship Church

Remnant Fellowship: historyChurch response to the documentaryThe recordSmith v.State — Georgia Supreme Court 2010

Branch
Overview Belief 2Practice 2Stories & Scripture 1Community 1 You × Remnant Fellowship Church Discussion

History & overview

The full story →

A Christian movement linking devotion, obedience and everyday self-control.

Remnant Fellowship is a Christian movement co-founded by Gwen Shamblin and other early members in Brentwood, Tennessee, in 1999. It grew from her Weigh Down program and extends its God-first teaching into ordinary conduct. The church rejects the Trinity, observes a Saturday Sabbath and connects its Brentwood congregation with webcast groups. It is the subject of The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin.

On the record

The Way Down presents former-member allegations of abuse, coercion and exploitation. Remnant Fellowship denies the allegations and says it does not condone child abuse. In 2010 the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the felony-murder and other convictions of Joseph and Sonya Smith following the death of their son Josef. Those convictions were of the parents, who were church members.

Why it is filed this way

A self-identified Christian movement. Placement under Christianity records religious identity without claiming affiliation with another denomination.

The church continues after Shamblin’s death in 2021. Its current leadership page names Elizabeth Kaufmann.

DeitiesThe Father is supreme; Jesus is his distinct Son and Lord in the church’s teaching.
Founded1999 CE · Brentwood, Tennessee, United States
FounderGwen Shamblin and other early members

The map

Remnant Fellowship Church’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →
c. 1000 BCE Judaism 30 CE Christianity 1999 CE Remnant Fellowship Church

Core Tenets

1 — a sample of the center, never the sum Enter →
Faith becomes real through obedience and change. Remnant Fellowship teaches that salvation is more than assent or church attendance: people must hear God's word, obey it, turn from sin, and become new in conduct. Love, self-control, humility, and answered prayer are presented as fruits of a restored relationship with God. Go deeper — context →

Figures

who it looks to — gods, spirits, ancestors; some rooms are empty on principle Enter →
G God the Father holds supreme authority. Remnant Fellowship teaches that God the Father is supreme and Jesus is his distinct Son, Messiah and Lord. It rejects the Trinity and understands Jesus as receiving authority from the Father. Domain Creation and supreme authorityStanding Supreme in Remnant Fellowship teaching Meet them — context →

Rites & Ritual

what its people do — and when Enter →
Eat by hunger and fullness while turning toward God. In the Weigh Down practice taught within Remnant Fellowship, a person waits for physical hunger, eats ordinary food, stops at fullness, and prays or redirects emotional desire for food toward God. The church frames bodily self-control as one application of its wider God-first path. When when eating and when experiencing desire for foodWho People following Weigh Down teaching, including but not limited to Remnant Fellowship members Go deeper — context →
The church gathers on Wednesday and the Saturday Sabbath. Remnant Fellowship holds main assemblies on Wednesday nights and on the Saturday Sabbath. Services combine music, prayer, Bible reading, testimony, and teaching, with distant local groups able to gather around a webcast from Brentwood. When weekly on Wednesday and SaturdayWho Local worshipers, families, musicians, teachers, and remote groups joining by webcast Go deeper — context →

Where next

the museum exit — every door leads deeper in
Hinduism — 6 shared ideas, a different faith Judaism — 6 shared ideas, a different faith Islam — 6 shared ideas, a different faith Sikhism — 6 shared ideas, a different faith Branch Remnant Fellowship Church — inherit everything, change what you must The library of ideas — what Remnant Fellowship Church shares with every other faith A faith at random — somewhere you have never been

Further viewing & listening

The Way Down Documentary

Numbers count Panfaith activity only — never real-world adherence.

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