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Whenever Koreé Yancy wears her Jesus and the Gym sweatshirt or hat, a conversation tends to follow — whether it’s at the grocery store, in class, or even in the security line at the airport. Yancy, a graduating MDiv student, founded the minimalist athleisure brand in 2022 with a clear goal in mind: to bring Jesus and faith conversations into unorthodox spaces.
These encounters are the core of her ministry, which blends theology, entrepreneurship, and pastoral imagination.
“Jesus and the Gym, it’s bold, it’s unashamed, it’s clear,” she said. “You either love it, you hate it, or you have a lot of questions, and I understand that. But this is also super important because it invites dialogue around faith and gives people the opportunity to share their stories, which often go unheard. I firmly believe that our story is our superpower, and when we tell it, God shows up in the most beautiful, refreshing way.”
Jesus and the Gym is not about the merchandise, but its ability to create opportunities to experience God in a different way and empower people to share their faith, Yancy said.
Jesus and the Gym exists to disrupt spaces where people aren’t talking about their faith, creating an opportunity for people to encounter ministry.”
“A lot of the work that I do, and how I live, is getting people to reimagine what the church is, what it can be, and the ways that it shows up in the world,” she said. “Jesus and the Gym exists to disrupt spaces where people aren’t talking about their faith, creating an opportunity for people to encounter ministry.”
In addition to its athleisure line, Jesus and the Gym hosts community pop-up workouts and pop-up store events throughout Los Angeles, Yancy’s hometown. Each event is intentionally planned with particular attention to the community’s culture, which influences the types of music, activities, and potential guest collaborators. In April, she also hosted her second pop-up workout at Princeton Theological Seminary, bringing students, faculty, and staff together for an afternoon of prayer, dancing, and fitness.
“We’re popping up in spaces where people are active in their daily rhythms, creating space for community, play, movement, and belonging,” she said.
Yancy’s entrepreneurial life developed alongside her interest in attending seminary. After working in recruiting and project management for six years, she pivoted toward exploring her budding entrepreneurial ideas in 2021, officially launching Jesus and the Gym the following year and developing a new business concept with her sister. Yancy was also serving as an associate pastor at her home church, NewLifeLA, and as the primary caregiver for her grandmother. After a period of discernment where she considered attending business school, she embraced her call from God to apply to Princeton Theological Seminary.
Yancy recalls the clarifying moment she realized she could weave the threads of her life together, embracing both her business-minded side and her deep commitment to her faith and congregation. While meeting with a pastor friend at a cafe, she explained the busy season of her life and expressed some doubts about being able to manage her work while moving across the country for seminary. He told her, “You do it all.”
“In that moment, it was like the Spirit just poured out on me,” she said. “I don’t have to give up on something that I believe God has given me vision for.”
Yancy’s experience at the Seminary has formatively changed the way in which she approaches leadership and practices ministry. She is particularly thankful for the fieldwork experiences that provided real-world training and exposure to a host of various faith traditions from her classmates.
“Now I feel very equipped — always unworthy to do the work of God, right? — but no doubt capable because of my experience here at Princeton Seminary,” she said. “Being here has given me the language and the framework to live into what I’ve been intuitively doing for years. Princeton Seminary has formed me deeply in the way that I see and live out my faith and leadership. I’m a different person because of my experience here.”
After graduating in May, Yancy plans to continue growing Jesus and the Gym, while also launching a new children’s hygiene brand, Karousel Kids Los Angeles (KKLA). She also hopes to broaden her pastoral imagination as a leader within her congregation, challenging herself to expand the ways in which she can make the church more accessible.
“I’m very much committed to creating spaces where people can encounter God, both inside and outside the walls of the formal church,” she said. “The reason why I initially applied to Princeton Seminary was because I wanted to not only be educated, but to take the education and to break it down so that people everywhere could understand it.”
