Announcement: Jonathan Williams leaves Forefront Church to pursue new challenges

Photo: J.V. Aranda

From the Forefront Leadership Team

Dear Forefront community,

Our church community, much like our larger community of Brooklyn and New York, prides itself on encouraging our members to learn and grow and begin to dream of a new world. Forefront has grown so much in its (almost) nine years, and it has allowed the people who make up our community to grow with it.

To that end, it is our bittersweet joy to announce that Jonathan Williams, teaching pastor and one of the founding staff members of Forefront Brooklyn, has decided to continue growing and pushing himself beyond Forefront’s walls. While he and his wonderful family will remain in Brooklyn and will always be a part of our church family, he has decided that it’s time to explore a new career and direction.

While Jonathan and his wonderful family will remain in Brooklyn and will always be a part of our church family, he has decided that it’s time to explore a new career and direction.

Forefront’s leadership team and staff members have supported this decision with all the love in their hearts and have worked extremely hard to set both our community and Jonathan up for success throughout this transition. While we will miss his warmth, humor, and knowledge on Sundays and in his work as a pastor providing care, holy protest, and education for our members, we feel confident that he has given Forefront all it needs to continue to bring a just and generous vision of Christianity to the world. It is with deep gratitude and privilege that we celebrate Jonathan and Jubi as they move into their next phase. They have blessed so many lives and poured so much love into the flourishing community at Forefront.

Jonathan’s final Sunday preaching will be August 8th.

Jonathan’s final Sunday preaching will be August 8th. If you’d like to RSVP to attend in-person, you can do so here through Planning Center.

If you would like to express your appreciation or to wish Jonathan well in his next adventure, here are the following ways you can do so:

  • For our remote members, there will be a Zoom Celebration on August 5th at 8pm ET. Log on to give the Williamses your virtual love! RSVP here.

  • For folks in the Brooklyn area, there will be a get together on August 8th between 12-3pm ET. Families are welcome! Learn more and RSVP via Planning Center to attend.

    Please note: Staff will help monitor current safety measures for the number of folks gathering at one time, and the event will have outdoor space available.

  • For folks wanting to contribute a goodbye gift that will go toward both the cost of our celebration and to the Williamses themselves, you can Venmo @FFBK-LT or reach out directly to Suanne Lee.

Congratulate Jonathan personally at an online Zoom on August 5th or live in Brooklyn on August 8th!

This news also comes with a second announcement, one that the staff and Leadership Team feel overwhelmingly positive about:

We have welcomed Venida C. Rodman Jenkins onto our Executive Council as our new teaching pastor. With her infinite wisdom, warmth and a collaborative spirit, we knew she would be a wonderful fit to join our EC alongside Makenzie Gomez. They are working toward creating sermons, series, events and more to continue to take excellent care of our community. Here are links to Venida’s previous sermons (1, 2) and you can learn more about her at our website.

Venida will be commissioned into the EC during service on August 1st. If you’d like to RSVP to attend in-person, you can do so here through Planning Center. 

We owe a very big thank you to the Search Committee: Sam Nulton, Mary Obasi, Joe Jean-Baptiste, and Susanne Eleazer. We are thankful for your wisdom and partnership.

Welcome to Venida C. Rodman Jenkins as our new teaching pastor and Executive Council Member!

Your Leadership Team is abundantly aware that this feels like a season of change for our community, but who hasn’t changed over the course of 2020 and its sequel 2021? Change can be unsettling, and it can also be refreshing. We feel powerfully confident that God is at home in our Forefront community. Our values will remain focused on God’s love, justice, and generosity. We commit to always remaining a church where all are welcome and celebrated without exception. We feel powerfully confident in our Executive Council’s ability to lead and care for our community. We feel powerfully confident in the friendships and care that form the bedrock of community here. You are gracious, flexible, curious, and ready to keep growing into your calling of ushering in the next 500 years of Christianity. Let’s continue to work together to make the Christianity we leave behind better than the one we inherited. 

You are gracious, flexible, curious, and ready to keep growing into your calling of ushering in the next 500 years of Christianity. Let’s continue to work together to make the Christianity we leave behind better than the one we inherited. 


If you have more questions, check out this FAQ document with more details from Jonathan or reach out to the LT at ffbklt@forefrontnyc.com; and if you require prayer or support, you can contact care@forefrontnyc.com. You can reach Venida directly at venida@forefrontnyc.com or Makenzie at makenzie@forefrontnyc.com.

The Forefront Leadership Team
Suanne, Kimberly, Sami, Jillian, Leslie, Robbie and Phil

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