Gwen Shamblin Lara

Gwen Shamblin Lara (February 18, 1955 – May 29, 2021) was an American church leader known for the Weigh Down Workshop, her Christian dieting program. She founded Remnant Fellowship Church in 1999 and oversaw its ministry until her 2021 death in a plane crash together with her husband Joe Lara, who was the pilot, and five other Remnant Fellowship leaders.

Shamblin founded the Weigh Down Workshop in 1986 as a registered dietitian in Memphis. The program grew to 30,000 participating churches in fifteen years and expanded into product sales and Shamblin's 1997 book, The Weigh Down Diet. Shamblin was criticized for lavish personal spending using proceeds from the ministry.

Remnant Fellowship has been compared to a cult and has been criticized by other Christian groups for denying the doctrine of the Trinity. It has been accused of encouraging corporal punishment and was raided by authorities investigating the death of eight-year-old Josef Smith, whose parents Joseph and Sonya Smith were convicted in 2007 of child abuse and murder. Shamblin and church members publicly supported and paid for the legal defense of the Smiths, who attended Remnant Fellowship. A docuseries on Shamblin, The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin, was released on Max in 2021.