As the Director of Community Partnerships at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Jonathan Lewis has been working at the intersection of healthy habits and spiritual care to transform communities across the Midsouth.

“I started at Methodist as a Chaplain about 17 years ago, doing bedside work with patients and families,” he recalls. In 2020, he was promoted to his current role, where he now works with churches and pastors through the Congregational Health Network. He also leads a chronic disease self-management program that brings tools and education to those churches and the wider public.

Jonathan also works with the Healthier 901 program, a free, community-wide initiative powered by Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and sponsored by Kroger, Nike, Action News 5, and Cigna. It launched in 2023 following the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment, a report conducted every three years to identify the region’s greatest health concerns.

The findings of that report pointed to chronic diseases, including cancer and heart disease, as major concerns, with obesity being a common thread between many of them. Healthier 901 seeks to address that.

“Healthier 901 is a movement and tool to encourage and support people to do anything they can to enrich and improve their lives,” Jonathan explains.

The initiative is entirely free. It’s app and webpage contain resources to record weight, track physical activity, join fitness groups, access and share healthy recipes, and more.

Launched Labor Day weekend 2023 with the annual Healthier 901 Fest at Shelby Farms Park, Healthier 901 aims to lose a cumulative 1 million pounds for the Mid-South. Currently, the initiative has more than 13,000 active members who have collectively shed 12,000 pounds.

When Healthier 901 started, Jonathan also began examining his own life through a healthy lens, looking for habits that would be both sustainable and compatible with his lifestyle. As a result, he lost 30 pounds, exercises almost daily, and meal preps.

Jonathan says, “I thought, if I’m going to be talking to people about this, I should probably be doing it myself. It encouraged me to look at my lifestyle, exercise, and sleep habits.”

“I attribute those changes to Healthier 901 and thinking about what part I need to play in the initiative I’m seeking participation.”

For Jonathan, both his background in chaplaincy and current role in community outreach unite people around a shared goal of personal growth. “Spirituality and health absolutely go together, especially in a community like Memphis, where it is part of the fabric,” Jonathan explains.

What he hopes people understand is, “Health changes have a real ripple effect, and will inspire you to make even bigger changes,” he says, referencing not only health, but also work, family, and spiritual life. “It may snowball to look at your entire person and how you can live your best version,” he suggests.

“The change can be whatever you need it to be, big or small,” he continues. “Each individual knows themselves best and what things are achievable for them in the short term.”

Something Jonathan still carries with him from his days as a chaplain is this: “The cornerstone is presence and listening, to meet people exactly where they are. It’s the same as a health journey. It needs to make sense to the person and not come from a prescribed model, but from a place of listening first.”

Healthier901.com / IG: @healthier_901

By Shlomit Ovadia
Photo by Tindall Stephens