Shared Use to Promote Physical Activity and Healthy Eating in Rural South Carolina United Methodist Churches: Opportunities and Pastor Beliefs.

This article focuses on rural pastors' perspectives on using faith-based organizations, specifically churches, to improve physical activity (PA) and healthy eating (HE) through shared use agreements that allow community access to church facilities. Interviews with 13 United Methodist Church pastors in rural South Carolina revealed that most churches have facilities such as kitchens, classrooms, and open fields suitable for PA and HE activities, and over half had shared use agreements, though few were related to PA and none to HE. Pastors generally supported sharing church spaces for community health promotion despite concerns about liability and congregational resistance, highlighting the potential of churches as community resources in areas lacking recreational and healthy food infrastructure. The study suggests that engaging rural churches in formalizing shared use agreements could enhance health promotion efforts, with implications for policy, practice, and further research on effective implementation in rural faith-based settings.