This season we're sharing stories of life change at Forefront. We're calling it “Make A Joyful Noise”! Each story of life change is indeed joyful. These stories mark long journeys of leaving faith, dealing with pain, and living with doubt but finding beauty, community, and joy on the other side!

Click here to give and help us reach our Fundraising goal!

Your investment creates more stories of life change, like this one from this from Phil.

Stories from our Congregation: Phil Dickens

After a lifetime of conservative churches, I never felt fully at home until Forefront,.

I was a really rebellious teenager, but I ran into the Jesus movement back in 1972, that totally changed me and that’s how I ended up in a charismatic bible college in Florida. I left there because I ran out of money. I would occasionally go back to church but there was too much that bothered me, I was also working 80-100 hours a week in the restaurant as a chef and manager.

“I got really depressed, drank way too much, and out of sheer desperation I wandered into a coffee shop that was also a church…”

I spent four years in the Army, most of that time in Germany. After a stint in New Jersey, I was a bartender on Amtrak for a few years and lived in Philly, where I got into Wiccanism -- you can find local cable footage of me discussing Wicca -- and managed a brand new restaurant on South Street that did really well for a summer. That was in 2001. After 9/11 happened, I got really depressed, drank way too much, and out of sheer desperation I wandered into a coffee shop that was also a church and decided to try things one more time. I realized I needed a religion that was about love, not just about me.

“I ended up in a shelter, homeless, and then found out I was eligible for Veteran Affairs (VA) care and housing…”

When I couldn’t quit drinking, the pastor got me to Brooklyn for Teen Challenge Rehab. It was very right-wing, very legalistic, although it worked; after that, I worked at Times Square Church and then in restaurants. And then in the beginning of 2013, I couldn’t work anymore because my back went out. I ended up in a shelter, homeless, and then found out I was eligible for Veteran Affairs (VA) care and housing, which was miraculous as I was trying to figure out how to get neck surgery on my spine while living in a homeless shelter. This apartment was also two blocks from VA hospital in Gramercy, Manhattan. I was looking for a church and wandered into Gramercy Theater on a Sunday morning, which is how I found Forefront Manhattan which led me to Forefront Brooklyn when that closed.

It just made me realize it was okay to believe and think the way I do, without having to agree to a bunch of dogma and hate all the right people.

It was a revelation and permission to feel what I felt for a long, long time. There is a lot of love here -- we don’t just talk, we really act. I was already moving in a more progressive direction but I felt pretty alone. It just made me realize it was okay to believe and think the way I do, without having to agree to a bunch of dogma and hate all the right people. The freedom to think for yourself - most churches don't talk about that. I was able to get involved and feel valued and appreciated. It’s become a spiritual home which I never had before.

At Forefront, I can just be Phil.

Please invest in stories like this

We’re raising $40,000 so that we can continue to be a church both online and in person - and we’re 80% of our goal as of today! We anticipate that day coming and are planning ahead for a new and bright future. Your gift not only allows Forefront to continue to pay the bills, you gift allows us to create a care team fund that continues to support members of our church. It gives stipends to your ministries and groups. It buys the equipment that allows some of you, our virtual community, to experience Forefront’s community and worship from anywhere in the world. It helps furnish the homes of refugees through our partnership with Ruth's Refuge. You could set up a recurring monthly gift during this “Make a Joyful Noise” Campaign.

Give today!