Melbourne's north-west · Coming soon

Train the body.
Disciple the soul.
Under the cross.

Kingdom Built Athlete is a Christ-centred, not-for-profit gym being built for the people every other gym has failed — where no one is turned away for lack of money, and no one is made to feel ashamed of their body.

For churches, future members, trainers, tradespeople and supporters.

Our mission

To build a gym where no one is turned away for lack of money, no one is made to feel ashamed of their body, and no one leaves without having met Jesus Christ.

We exist to serve the people who have tried everything and broken through nothing — the obese, the discouraged, the ones who have stood outside a gym door and not gone in. We will give them world-class equipment, food that actually works, a room where they feel safe, and a family that will not let them quit.

And we will do it all under the cross that dominates our floor, because we believe the body was never meant to be healed apart from the soul.

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies."
1 Corinthians 6:19–20

How it works

Three pillars

Most gyms give you one of these and let you fend for yourself on the rest. That is precisely why most people fail.

01 — TRAIN

The body

Dedicated male and female training floors. Commercial-grade equipment that matches the best in the country. Programming built for the deconditioned first and scaled up — not built for athletes and scaled down.

02 — FUEL

The kitchen

Pre-packed, macro-portioned meals prepared in-house and matched to your goal. No calculating. No guessing. No willpower required at 7pm on a Tuesday. Most people fail on food, not effort.

03 — DISCIPLE

The soul

Discipleship happens shoulder to shoulder — not in a seminar, but under a bar, on a walk, in a spotter's hands. Every trainer and mentor here is building people, not physiques.

Designed differently

Built so they can actually come

Most gyms are not designed for the people we are trying to reach. Ours is. Every one of these is a barrier we have deliberately removed.

Cost is never the barrier

We are a not-for-profit. No one is refused for inability to pay — ever.

Equipment sized for the bodies we serve

Weight-rated machines, wider seats and benches, generous walkways, accessible entry and change rooms. You should never discover mid-session that the room wasn't built with you in mind.

Women trained by women

A dedicated female floor, staffed by female trainers. A separate room is only half the answer — who is running it decides whether you come back.

Children minded while you train

A supervised children's area, so parents of young kids aren't shut out of their own health. For a great many people, childcare — not motivation — is the entire reason they stopped.

Hours built around real lives

After-school blocks for youth. Quiet off-peak sessions for those who don't want an audience while they start. Early and late for shift workers.

A first visit that costs nothing but courage

No contracts, no sales floor, no lock-in. Walking in is hard enough.

Who it's for

This room has your name on it

Those carrying weight they can't put down Men and women living with obesity who have never had a breakthrough — because every gym they've entered was built for people who don't need one. We are built for them first.
Parents who have been shut out Mothers and fathers of young children who gave up their own health because there was nowhere for the kids to go.
Young people who need a room to belong to Teenagers who will spend their afternoons surrounded by Christian mentors instead of alone with a screen — around adults who know their name.
Believers who have drifted Those who once walked with the Lord and stopped. You will not be lectured here. You will be trained, fed, loved, and quietly brought home.
The faithful who have neglected the temple Church men and women, strong in spirit and worn down in body. You have given God your heart, soul and mind for years and left your strength out of it. Close the gap.
Anyone who wants to come and train Believer or not. We will never hide who we are — and we will never make the gospel the price of a workout.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."
Mark 12:30

The founders

We didn't set out to build a gym

Marcus and Elanie Theodor, founders of Kingdom Built Athlete — Marcus & Elanie Theodor · **Founders**

For twenty-five years I filmed other people's weddings. Then God got hold of my family, and everything changed.

I ran a wedding photography and videography business for over twenty-five years. I was good at it and it gave my family a good life. Just over two years ago, my wife Elanie, our three children and I gave our lives to Christ. We were baptised, and we planted ourselves at Lifehouse Church.

I had no plans beyond that. What happened next wasn't strategy. Men at church started asking me about training, and about food. Then they started asking about other things. Before long I was walking blokes through their diet on a Monday and through what was really going on in their life by Wednesday — and watching them get stronger in both.

That's when it became obvious to me. A man will let you into his life once you've been under a bar with him. The gym isn't a distraction from ministry. For a lot of men, it's the only door they'll walk through.

I'm not a pastor, and I won't pretend to be. I'm two years into following Jesus myself, I remain under the covering of my local church and its leadership, and I've asked the leaders God has put around me to hold me accountable in this. But I know what it is to be handed a new life when you weren't even looking for one. And I know what happens to a man when someone finally walks beside him.

And I'm not doing this alone. My wife Elanie is a founder of Kingdom Built Athlete alongside me. We came to Christ together, we were baptised together, and we're building this together. That matters more than it might sound: at least half the people we're trying to reach are women, and they need to see a woman's hand on this from the very beginning.

That's what Kingdom Built Athlete is. God has called us to this, and we're going to build it.

Marcus & Elanie Theodor · Founders, Kingdom Built Athlete

For pastors and church leaders

We are not a church.
We are a feeder to the church.

Kingdom Built Athlete is an evangelical Christian ministry drawing from the Pentecostal and Baptist traditions. We do not hold Sunday services. We do not receive tithes. We do not perform baptisms, weddings or funerals.

We are not building a congregation, and we have no interest in becoming an alternative to anyone's church. We are a front door. When someone meets Christ on our gym floor, our job is to walk them across the road and plant them in a local congregation where they can be baptised, discipled, taught and held.

If your church partners with us, you are not lending support to a competitor. You are gaining a mission field with your name on the door.

Child safety is non-negotiable

Every staff member, trainer, mentor and volunteer will hold a current Working With Children Check — without exception. We are building to Victoria's 11 Child Safe Standards from day one, with a written policy, clear reporting procedures, named accountability, and supervision designed into the layout of our youth and children's areas.

Our home church

Kingdom Built Athlete is founded out of Lifehouse Church, where our founder is a member under senior pastors Richard and Helen Kobakian, and is being built in relationship with and accountable to that leadership. We are not a plant of Lifehouse — we intend to send people into churches right across Melbourne's north-west, whatever the name on the sign.

Governance and transparency

Kingdom Built Athlete will operate as a registered not-for-profit with an independent board and transparent financial reporting to our supporters. We are currently taking advice on the structure that best serves our mission and our donors.

Train the body.Disciple the soul.Under the cross.