Over the years, our community has grown and evolved, and as we move forward into 2024, we do so with both gratitude for the past and anticipation for the future. In the spirit of our Disruption sermon series, we want to share a disruption that may bring a mixture of emotions as we announce some comings and goings within our Forefront Church family. 

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Rev. Venida’s sermon which kicked off the We Will Not Be Silent sermon series with a spotlight on women - women who are courageous and unyielding - women who persevere and refuse to be silent. Women who have for centuries used their voices and God-given gifting to help transform and liberate lives. Rev. Venida encourages us to learn from their stories and use our voices as well.

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Last Sunday we gathered in person and online for a town hall where we shared updates on our finances, venue search, our values, and the all-church survey!  The following is an overview of what we shared or you can watch here for part 1 and watch here for part 2 (since we got disconnected for a moment)

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Historically the human species has moved from human sacrifice to animal sacrifice to various modes of self-sacrifice, usually involving the body. We did and still do this with the belief that by sacrificing something, God will be moved to bless or accept us. But I want to invite you to wonder with me about what Jesus' death on the cross might have been trying to accomplish and why we often assign more meaning to his death than we do his life…. What if Jesus' death was simply a result of the life he lived??

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I’ve dated many types of churches. The first was an emotionally distant, orthodox one from my hometown. During our honeymoon phase, we shared hymnals and luncheon casseroles, cooed at freshly baptized babies, picked candle wax off each other’s fingers on Christmas and wore matching pastels on Easter. His favor was a weighted blanket that pinned me to the pew. His disapproval echoed my superego; a long-suffering critic who merely tolerated me.

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Now, giving is trending reliably about $5,000 a month below what we absolutely need to keep our church surviving on a barebones budget.

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Some folx have asked about the impetus for the poem, and I really had to sit with my thoughts and reflect. It actually came from the leading of the Holy Spirit who continues to remind me of the magnitude of this journey as a daughter. It is so deep that I cannot actually comprehend it at times. Throughout the past few months, I’ve been recording and documenting Mom’s responses and reactions to everyday life. The poem was birthed from the many experiences we’ve had during this season of comfort care - hospice.I actually came to understand that I had to readjust how I cared for her.

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The clergy definitions we will share below are intended to honor the different traditions and tracks for pastoral ministry within different Christian traditions. In some Christian traditions, clergy are expected to complete formal education such as Bible college and or seminary, while in other faith traditions formal education is not expected. For instance, in the United Methodist Church, they will appoint non-seminary trained persons to serve as licensed local pastors of churches.

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I personally believe we can allow Scripture to still inform our sexual ethics while also allowing tradition, reason, and experiences to inform our ethics. My hope here is to share an inclusive and life-giving sexual ethic that I hope informs how we live, love, and have sex. I have spent a lot of time over the last seven years reading, listening, therapizing, and discussing the topic of sexual ethics. I realize that my beliefs are always evolving and changing as I gain greater understanding but for now I have landed on the the four C’s of a healthy and inclusive sexual ethic. Like a good ex-evangelical, I had to make my points in alliteration. :)

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In Forefront's latest blog, Rev. Venida shares her journey of becoming an advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community. This piece was first published in The Academic Forum of New Jersey City University. Happy Pride Month!

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Without provocation, without my consent, and clearly without thinking, she actually placed her thumb, index, middle, ring and pinky fingers on my lower abdomen. She approached me by asking, “Is everything okay?” And then she made things not OK. I wasn’t bothering her. I was minding my own business with Todd, Mom and Dad, mindlessly meandering through the lovely lobby of my hotel.

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I went to a Fundamentalist Evangelical Bible College that provided an indoctrination instead of an education. I was taught what to think not how to think. However, when I was introduced to the Wesley Quadrilateral, it forever informed the way I approached my belief systems, ethics, and faith. John Wesley, the Founder of Methodism suggests that in order to come to a well-thought-out conviction, belief, or ethic we must draw from tradition, Scripture, reason, and experience.

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For me, enough people and inward voices poked at this tower, and eventually, it all came down! For some their tower never falls, it only has a few missing blocks that may be easy to ignore, and they persist forward. But for many of us, we had too many missing blocks, and our towers came crashing down. I promise you this isn’t the first generation to deconstruct or recover from church trauma…this has been a part of our human life cycle forever!

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As an Executive Council, this group is responsible for communicating with each other on a regular basis, sharing updates from their respective domains, and running all large decisions by each other. When it comes to large decisions, no one person on the Executive Council has overriding veto power, and any disagreements come to the Leadership Team.

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