Our community embraces shared responsibility and promotes healthy optimal living. Thus, we have an ethical obligation to our fellow Members to live healthy lives, as this keeps medical costs down. In general, a healthy lifestyle requirement includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Exercise the virtue of temperance – to avoid every kind of excess including, but not limited to, the abuse of food, tobacco, alcohol, and medicine (prescription drugs).
• Follow biblical teachings on the use or abuse of alcohol.
• Avoid abuse of prescription drugs, which means consuming prescription medications in a manner not intended by the prescriber.
• Abstain from the use of illegal drugs. Illegal drugs include, but are not limited to: any banned pharmaceuticals, non-prescribed pharmaceuticals, synthetic drugs, hallucinogenic substances, barbiturates, amphetamines, cocaine, heroin or other opiates, marijuana, illegal intravenous drugs, unprescribed narcotics, and all substances declared to be illegal.
• Intentionally incorporate exercise and good nutrition into one’s daily life.

While there is not a health screening required before becoming a Member, some Members will have pre-existing conditions. Such conditions are limited when the Member first joins, and can be shared later. Read our Sharing Guidelines to learn more about how existing medical conditions are shared.