What happens when the unimaginable has happened? Where is God? What happens when our plans, our world falls apart? Join us as we learn from the experience of the Disciples when their lives were disrupted.
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Rev. Josh makes a connection between the man beaten, robbed, and ignored by the religious elite in Luke 10 and the senseless violence, silencing, and marginalization of the LGBTQ+ community. However, the Samaritan had compassion. How might we use our empathy to advocate and care for those harmed or overlooked or how might we go about reclaiming our voices after being silenced in our closets?
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Thinking leads to action, so prayer will not only change my thinking but my living. But how do I face where my heart has turned to stone, the truth of harm I have participated in? The surprising, overwhelming mercy of God literally forgets what we have done, freeing us to risk praying anew, and seeking repair.
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Our Sacraments Sermon Series begins with a spotlight on marriage. Rev. Venida talks about the history of marriage, how it has evolved over time, and how we can reposition our ideas about marriage to further incorporate Jesus’s words to love God, ourselves, and others. This can start with marriage partners focusing on the love they have for each other, and then extending that love to intentionally work as agents of change through God’s love, so that double the lives can become recipients of Jesus’s love, healing, power, and joy.
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Rev. Josh makes modern-day connections to our lives from the parable of the wheat and the weeds. He highlights some of the people in his life who felt like a weed, or perhaps not the people as much as the beliefs they held that seemed to get in his way or take nutrients from his life. He shared how he is often tempted to pluck them, shame them, and cast them aside. As we start PRIDE, might we give people the grace and space to learn how to love us, accept us, and eventually affirm or celebrate us.
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In this first sermon in our "Why Communion and the Cross" series, Pastor Angela explores the history behind Communion. The sermon aims to challenge and remove the barriers set by the guilt and shame culture and to replace it with Joy and Gratitude.
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The 5th Week of Lent highlights John 12, and a very unique experience which Jesus has in Bethany while sharing a meal with friends. This selfless act helps us consider the special ways we too can confidently give of ourselves with abandon, and exercise lavish love for ourselves which can ultimately be extended to others as we seek to build community.
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A predominant religious view is that God can’t be around sin, God must separate Godself from humans' sinfulness. Its this very reasoning that led to the religious elite of Jesus' day, isolating themselves from people who they deemed sinners. However, in this sermon Rev. Josh challenges us to let go of certain views of God and cultivate a view of God that recognizes that God never distances Godself from us but we in our shame estrange and hide from God. So Did Jesus come to change God's disposition toward humans or to change humans' disposition toward God? How we answer this just might change how we love ourselves, God, and others?
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Pastor Josh kicked off our advent series, “From Generation to Generation” with a kid-friendly sermonette by highlighting the generations of Jesus' ancestry from Matthew 1. In that long list of names, we remember the trauma and triumph of those who came before; each name holds a story and their story gives way to Christ’s story. What is your story? Who is part of shaping your story? And how are you loving and living to shape the next generation?
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Pastor Josh wraps up Our Values series by highlighting how love of God, self and others informs every part of our values and theology. We will explore how we can be intentional to foster a deeper understanding of God’s love for us, so that we can grow in our love for ourselves and ultimately then extend that love to others. Many of us have been taught in fundamentalist forms of Christianity that we are inherently evil, bad, broken, and flawed. It’s hard to love yourself when you’re taught that you’re not loveable. It’s no surprise then that the same folks who are taught to believe they are inherently evil, don’t love themselves and in effect do a really shotty job loving others. Because they truly are loving others as they love themselves, which is not very much. So let’s recalibrate our love this Sunday!
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Denia will offer an interpretation of Ruth 1:16-17 that centers platonic intimacy and suggests that it is a way to understand and grow closer to God.
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Here is Rev. Venida sharing the opening sermon in Forefront's new series, The Holy Spirit and You. She provides insight on who the Holy Spirit is and how her fruit manifests itself in our lives.
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We aren’t the first generation to deconstruct or recover from church trauma… this has been apart of our human life cycle forever! In this sermon, Rev. Josh Lee focuses specifically on the wilderness season that Peter and the disciples found themselves in after Jesus death… full of questions, doubt, regret, uncertainty, perhaps certain of what they didn’t believe but unsure of what they do believe. Sunday we will glean from our ancestors on how they navigated reconstructing their faith after it all came crashing down.
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Rev. Venida Rodman Jenkins explores forgiveness in this service. This sermon marks the end of our "Keepin' It Real" series.
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Mak Gomez takes to the stage and speak about the disciples and community. In the midst of loss, change or fear, where do we turn for stability, for reassurance? In this sermon, Mak reminds us of the love that surrounds us all as being part of a community. We aren't meant to go it alone.
God is on your side.
Jonathan Williams tells us that when Jesus delivered the Beatitudes during his Sermon the Mount, Jesus was saying that God is on your side -- even when you're in the midst of a crappy year and it doesn't feel that way.
God doesn't need you to believe in certain principles, policies, or social agendas -- God just needs you to believe that God is on your side.
This is the first sermon in our “Be” series.
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Building a community through uncommon kinship.
Sarah Ngu unveils one of Forefront Brooklyn's new core values: uncommon kinship. Common kinship often focuses on taking care of people who are in the center, but what makes kinship uncommon is taking care of people who aren't in the center of their community, and how it's worth having a community that will take a risk to ensure those who aren't typically centered feel loved, valued, and elevated.
This is the second sermon in our "Make A Joyful Noise" series.
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Speaking truth to love.
The vitriol and divided discourse is at an all time high. We've lost the art of speaking truth to one another. What if speaking truth means having empathy for the pain and fear of others before anything else? Would it change our country?
In this third sermon in our Fruits of the Spirit series, Jonathan Williams talks about love, the greatest fruit of the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 13 1: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
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