Growing Families International (GFI) is a Christian parenting ministry founded by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo. Its origins date to 1984, when the Ezzos began holding informal parenting discussions at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. The organization formally took shape in 1987. Its programs, including “Preparation for Parenting,” “Growing Kids God’s Way,” and the secular spinoff “On Becoming Babywise,” were based on the belief that children are inherently sinful and must be trained from birth to submit to parental authority.
By the mid-1990s, GFI’s programs had reached more than 1.5 million parents worldwide and were being distributed through more than 12,000 churches. The ministry subsequently faced criticism from medical professionals, child development experts, former followers, and Christian institutions. Critics described aspects of the organization as having cult-like characteristics, while medical organizations raised concerns about infant health problems, including documented cases of failure to thrive and dehydration that they associated with the program’s feeding schedules. Gary Ezzo was eventually excommunicated from two churches over concerns involving his conduct and relationship to church authority. GFI continued operating despite these disputes.
The background to GFI’s formation goes back to the early 1980s. Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo moved to the Los Angeles area after Gary was asked to leave a pastoral position in New Hampshire amid concerns involving authoritarianism, exclusivity, and division. After joining Grace Community Church, a megachurch led by evangelical pastor John MacArthur, Gary became an associate pastor responsible for family ministry.
The Wednesday-night parenting sessions that Gary and Anne Marie hosted at the church grew in attendance, with MacArthur publicly endorsing their work. By 1990, the Ezzos were presenting their teachings on a weekly radio program broadcast on roughly 100 stations. They were also distributing workbooks and video lessons for classes conducted in homes.
As the ministry developed, its organizational structure changed. In 1989, the Ezzos reorganized GFI’s original nonprofit structure, which had been governed by multiple couples. They established a new nonprofit under their own names along with a separate for-profit entity. This arrangement placed organizational and financial control primarily in their hands.
GFI’s parenting philosophy centered on the belief that infants have a natural predisposition toward moral waywardness and therefore require active parental direction. Its infant-care program, “Preparation for Parenting,” promoted “Parent-Directed Feeding,” a three-hour feeding schedule that rejected feeding on demand. It also promoted “the practice of non-intervention,” which instructed parents to allow infants to cry for specified periods without responding.
For older children, the programs prescribed structured discipline, including physical punishment referred to as “chastisement.” Behaviors described as rebellion could include pouting or failing to obey immediately. Another practice, known as “couch time,” instructed parents to spend fifteen minutes interacting with each other while deliberately not responding to their children. The practice was presented as a way of reinforcing a defined family hierarchy.
In 1993, Gary Ezzo co-authored On Becoming Babywise with pediatrician Robert C. Bucknam. The book removed explicit scriptural references from the material while retaining the central schedule-based approach, allowing the program to be marketed to a secular audience.
As GFI expanded, questions about its organizational practices and internal culture became more prominent. Christian research organizations generally did not classify GFI as a theological cult in the traditional sense, but reports from the Christian Research Institute identified what they described as cultic behavioral patterns. These included the interpretation of scripture in ways critics considered distorted, authoritarian leadership, exclusivity, isolationism, and practices that critics said could place children at physical or emotional risk.
Observers also reported that some parents involved in the program separated themselves and their families from church members who did not participate in GFI. According to these accounts, this contributed to divisions within some congregations and the development of high-control subcultures. Frank York, a former GFI editorial director, described the internal culture he called “Ezzoland” as divided among obedient followers, devoted supporters, and people regarded as opponents. He also characterized Ezzo’s leadership style as highly controlling.
These disputes eventually produced public breaks between GFI and some of its institutional sponsors. In October 1997, Grace Community Church formally excommunicated Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo. John MacArthur publicly stated that Gary Ezzo was unfit for Christian ministry.
The Ezzos subsequently helped establish Living Hope Evangelical Fellowship. On April 30, 2000, however, the elders of that congregation also excommunicated Gary Ezzo. They cited what they described as a continuing pattern of untruthfulness and Ezzo’s refusal to submit to church authority.
The second excommunication was followed by resignations from several GFI board members, medical advisors, and senior staff. Financial controversies also emerged during this period. In 1999, $364,433.71 in organizational funds was misappropriated by Ezzo’s son-in-law and GFI vice president, Robert Garcia. Ezzo’s accounting firm, which had worked with him for nine years, subsequently ended its relationship with GFI after concluding that Ezzo had misled auditors about the nature of the missing funds.
Despite these developments, Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo continued operating GFI after relocating their activities to the Carolinas. The organization later expanded internationally, including into Singapore and Australia. It also updated its distribution methods through digital applications and streaming media.
In more recent years, an online community has developed around accounts of people’s experiences with GFI’s parenting methods. Adults who were raised according to the methodology have described what they consider lasting psychological effects, while some former parents who used the programs have expressed regret about their use of strict disciplinary practices.
Key Sources:
Davis, J. (2026, September 20). The Parent Trap. Airmail.
Granju, K. A. (1998, August 6). Getting wise to ‘Babywise.’ Salon.
Terner, K. (2009, April 21). New challenges face Gary Ezzo and Growing Families International. Christian Research Institute.