Radical equity means radical change at Forefront

Our staff went away on our retreat and we came to a long brewing realization. If we’re truly going to be an equitable church then we can no longer have one voice leading the way. If we’re going to make radical equity one of our values then we absolutely need to be radically equitable in our leadership. Jonathan spoke about Radical Equity in this sermon in early January.

We realized that for us to truly live out our value of radical equity, we need to shift the structure of our staff.

As of January 3rd, Jonathan is no longer the lead pastor of Forefront church. He will now inhabit the role of teaching pastor. Makenzie will be elevated to a full time role as executive producer of our church and she’ll have equal say in our church vision and mission. While Sarah Ngu will remain part-time, her voice will carry equal weight with Jonathan and Makenzie (get to know Makenzie through her Forefront Story). Sarah will be our community director. The three of us will form a triune leadership model.

What does it mean to have a triune leadership model?

As stated before, it means that we’ll share the role of leader at Forefront church. Each of us will work together to live out our vision, mission, and values. We’ll work collectively to minister to each of you, our community. We’ll work together to make the best practical, logistical, and spiritual decisions for our church especially in areas of vision, strategy, budget, and leadership development.

There will not be one person making Forefront’s final decisions. The three of us using our gifts, strengths, and talents will work together to make our church’s final decisions and to set Forefront’s course and direction.

Makenzie Gomez, Sarah Ngu, and Jonathan Williams will be Forefront’s triune leaders. We’re calling ourselves the Executive Council and will report directly to Forefront’s Leadership Team (our board).

What role will the Leadership Team play?

The leadership team will continue to be the primary arbiters of Forefront’s budget. They will hold our staff accountable to how we spend our money, they’ll help create our yearly budget and make sure that we’re integrous with our finances.

The Leadership Team will continue to be the pastors to our staff. They will hold each of us in the council accountable to the best spiritual practices, professional practices, and relational practices. Most importantly, the Leadership Team is committed to praying for our Executive Council, Staff, and our Church.

What about the rest of the staff? What role will they play?

In our initial conversations about decentralized leadership, we talked about creating a flat leadership model where each of us had an equal stake in the decision making process. After some serious discussion, both Robbie and Angela recognized that as part time staff members, they might not have the necessary time to help make Forefront’s biggest and most difficult decisions.

While we agreed that Makenzie, Jonathan, and Sarah would form the executive council, we are making sure that Robbie, Angela, and to a certain extent, our marketing person Shawn have an equal role in our collaborative processes. We will make sure that their voices are heard before making our final decisions.

What does this mean for our Deacons and Leaders?

The major change for our Deacons and Leaders is that we want to hear from you even more! We want you to take ownership of your ministries, make decisions that you believe will help Forefront live out its vision, mission, and values, and create outcomes that will live out the gospel message.

We will continue to work to be a church that is not staff led, but rather a church of many voices, working to usher in the next 500 years!

What will Forefront’s new Org Chart look like? How will I know who to contact for my area of need or my ministry?

Take a look at our triune leadership org chart. You’ll see the staff liaison for your particular group or ministry. If you want to contact anyone on staff, you can always email staff@forefrontnyc.com.

As an Executive Council, will each of you share in all Forefront related tasks, groups, worship services, etc?

While each of us will work together to make final decisions, each member of the executive council will still have their own set of responsibilities.

As the Teaching Pastor, Jonathan will spend the majority of his time preaching, facilitating and creating blog posts, leading our series and message planning, and working closely with the Leadership Team to make sure our finances and giving are up to date. He’ll spend some time mentoring and pastoring our leaders and church members.

As the Executive Producer, Makenzie will continue to produce Sunday Services, stay up-to-date with Covid-19 protocol for an informed return to the Roulette, and manage our hybrid Events calendar. She will continue to oversee volunteer opportunities and work closely with Deacon Jennifer Krist regarding our Community Partnerships. She will also be helping hold Forefront accountable to our anti-racism efforts as well as temporarily take on Kidstuf and Family Ministry care.

As the Community Director, Sarah will continue to oversee our Connection ministry (welcoming in newcomers and connecting them to the life of our church), Groups ministry, Care ministry and Justice ministry, as well as preach once a month. They will also continue to oversee our Congregational database and metrics.

What will be the biggest change for our community?

The truth is that Jonathan and the staff have always been fairly collaborative. For some time Forefront’s approach to leadership has had a more collective ethos. In some ways this will not be the biggest change.

The biggest change is the best change. You’ll hear from a multitude of voices, experiences, ethnicities, identities, on how we can best work together to be a just and generous expression of Jesus Christ and usher in the next 500 years!

We know that our FAQ won’t answer all of the thoughts or questions you have. We’d love for you to ask us your questions or tell us your thoughts by emailing staff@forefrontnyc.com. We’ll do our best to give a collective response!

We’re so glad that we get to take this exciting step together.

Thanks for joining us on this journey.

Your Executive Council