Forward Today: Inspiring and empowering

In the new Forward Today, Scott reflects on a recent retreat with the Forward Movement leadership team–and inspiring projects to come.


Dear friends in Christ,

This week’s Forward Today is a bit later than usual. Sometimes I work ahead, but this week I did not. In fact, I was away Monday and Tuesday on a retreat with the leadership team from Forward Movement. So here I am, just now writing my weekly message.

Perhaps it is because I just spent two days thinking about our work at Forward Movement, but I want to share with you a few thoughts about life on the staff of Forward Movement.

 

 1) I am blessed to serve with wonderfully gifted and faithful colleagues. When people compliment me on the work of Forward Movement, I always say that our good work is because we have a good team. If you read Forward Day by Day, enjoy Lent Madness, get inspired by reading our books, use our apps, or attend our conferences, you are the beneficiaries of extraordinary people doing extraordinary work.

2) Much of what we are doing relies on the support of our readers and friends. We surely do offer plenty of traditional products which have traditional revenue. But more and more of what we are doing to support the needs of today’s church is made possible by generous gifts and sustained prayers. Today’s church needs resources to be free online. Today’s church needs resources in Spanish. Today’s church needs to be able to serve people in prisons. Without traditional revenue, we have to look for creative funding. As a staff we are grateful for the support that makes possible our work.

3) Serving an evolving church in the evolving world of publishing is hard! Anyone who works in the church can tell you about the challenges of the church. Anyone who works in publishing can tell you about the challenges of today’s market. Church and publishing! Thanks be to God we all love a compelling challenge and we see the higher purpose of our work. We know that figuring out how to serve today’s church with today’s resources is important to draw people into a transformed life with Jesus.

4) We are the heirs of a wonderful legacy. For more than eighty years, Forward Day by Day and other vital resources from Forward Movement have enriched the church. Don’t worry friends, we’ll try not to mess up what is working well!

5) Our future will be better than our present. We have big plans for new resources to offer the church. Stay tuned.

Please do pray for us. And stay tuned for news and inspiration. We love doing what we’re doing, and we can’t wait to tell you about our next resources!

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director


To get future reflections from Scott in your inbox, subscribe to Forward Today.