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Forward Today: Believe and have life!

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Dear friends in Christ,

One of the things I love about the Gospel according to St. John is that there are a couple of places where the evangelist speaks directly to us, the reader. It’s a bit like in a play or a TV show when one of the characters speaks directly to the audience, breaking the “fourth wall.” The effect can be electrifying, and it’s no different when we run across these moments as we read the Gospel.

This Sunday’s assigned Gospel reading has a moment like this. After describing the appearance of Jesus to his disciples after the resurrection, the evangelist writes: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

Wow! The evangelist meant for us, today, to inspire us so that we might believe. A couple of months ago when I read my way through the New Testament, I was struck afresh by the importance the scriptures place on our beliefs. Believing in Jesus is a big deal, essential, even!

Too often I hear Episcopalians say things like, “you can believe anything you want” or “we don’t have doctrine in our church.” That’s dangerously wrong. While our church does welcome a wide range of theological and social views, we do have core teachings! And we welcome questions, though too we can offer some answers!

Ponder the Gospel for this Sunday (John 20:19-31). Notice how St. Thomas isn’t quite sure, so he is brave enough to name is doubts and questions. But then when Jesus offers assurance, he is just as quick to profess belief and to praise his Lord.

If you have doubts or questions, raise them! But then be ready to read the scriptures, to hear testimony from fellow Christians, and to experience the Holy Spirit.

At a time when the world seems especially challenging, belief in the power of God in Jesus Christ can change your life—giving you peace, strength, wisdom, courage, and confidence to share the love of God in word and deed.

Let us all pray, as the scriptures teach us, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn's signature

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

More from our ministry:

Celebrate Easter all season long with Scott’s Easter devotional

Explore the scriptures with this Bible Challenge: A Journey with John

Hear from Scott at this church growth conference from The Living Church

Pray with us throughout Eastertide: prayer.forwardmovement.org

Forward Today: Anchored in Christ

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green grass field during sunset
Photo by Elena Rabkina on Unsplash

Dear friends in Christ,

Tomorrow we begin our annual pilgrimage through the three holiest days of the year: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Eve. In these liturgies, we are drawn into the heart of our faith. The theological term for this foundation on which our whole faith is built is the Paschal Mystery —the suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.

In the Paschal Mystery, we see God’s vast love for us. Jesus is perfectly obedient to his Father’s will, and his willingness to suffer and to die for us makes possible our salvation, as we are freed from sin. In his rising for us, Jesus opens the gate of eternal life to all who believe in him, thus freeing us from death. And, later on, we will celebrate his ascension, in which Jesus returned to heaven to reign with his Father and to be our mediator and advocate. We are never left alone, never separated from God’s love.

In this tumultuous time, we could all benefit from this Good News! In the events of the first Holy Week, we see that God’s perfect love defeated the worst evil the world could muster. The might of the Roman Empire was crushed by hope and love. Grace and mercy always triumph in the end.

I hope you will find your way to a church for the three holy days. See how Jesus loves perfectly even in the chaos swirling around him. That is still true today. Jesus loves us—and grace and mercy define our world—even when the cacophony of evil and the din of fear seems insurmountable.

Knowing Christ’s love does not eliminate our challenges, but it can give us the strength and courage to face them. Let us all be anchored in God’s eternal mercy and grace.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn's signature

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

More from our ministry:

Lent Madness 2025 ends today! Cast your vote for the Golden Halo

Pray with us on these holy days: prayer.forwardmovement.org

Read or listen to a meditation each day: Forward Day by Day

Forward Today: Enter with joy

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Photo: Scott Gunn

Dear friends in Christ,

This Sunday we begin our annual journey through the solemnity, betrayal, sorrow, pain, grief, and ultimate joy of Holy Week. Our week begins with a short collect as we bless the palms this Sunday:

Assist us mercifully with your help, O Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts, whereby you have given us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

It could seem strange to ask God to help us “enter with joy” as we are about to recall Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and then his passion and death. But of course, his perfect obedience to his Father and his willingness to die for us is how Jesus accomplishes our salvation. Joy, indeed.

And then, of course, at the end of Holy Week, we experience ultimate joy as God’s perfect love overcomes the might of human evil, sin, and even death. Grace and mercy have the last word as Jesus walks out of the tomb on Easter morning. What could be more joyful than this? Grace and mercy always have the last word.

As our world seems more and more chaotic, we might be tempted to turn away from Holy Week. But in fact, this message of God’s love for us is just what we all need. So let us give thanks for the gift of Holy Week. I hope you’ll find your way to a church for all the liturgies we celebrate as we experience anew the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ saving work.

On a MUCH more mundane note, during Holy Week—when we figured most of our readers would be pretty busy in their churches—we at Forward Movement are going to be launching our new website. So we’ll be offline for a few days. God and technology willing, our new website will launch before it’s time to celebrate Easter.

Speaking of which, if you are looking for a way to encourage people to celebrate the fullness of Easter, why not order colorable Easter calendar posters to give away—perhaps as gifts for families with kids who show up at your church on Easter Day? But order them TODAY before our website goes offline this evening.

Blessings to you in this holy time.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn's signature

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

More from our ministry:

Hear from Scott at this church growth conference from The Living Church

Pray with us throughout this holy season: prayer.forwardmovement.org

Cast your votes for the Elate Eight at lentmadness.org

Forward Today: Sharing Christ’s love

A church built of grey stone/brick, with a red door propped open and an Episcopal flag flying above the door.
Photo: Scott Gunn

Dear friends in Christ,

I’ve recently had the opportunity to chat with leaders at a few rapidly growing churches. It’s striking that none of them are growing because of a gimmick or some fancy trick. They are simply preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and running a solid operation—good administration with healthy governance.

But that’s not all. Each of the growing churches I’ve run across is actively sharing the love of Jesus by proclaiming the Good News in word and deed.

One church leader I spoke with recently told me about a local advertising campaign. They are buying ads—digital and physical—in the community. Another leader told me how their church is growing because people keep showing up having heard about the church’s ministry and worship. And a third leader shared with me how the members of the church keep inviting people to come along.

Growing churches aren’t sitting around in their lovely churches waiting to be nice to those who show up.

Here’s some math for you. If every person who comes to your church invited one person per year, and if just one-third of those people actually came to church, and then if only one-third of those people decided to stick around, you’d have just over 10% growth. It’s that simple.

As we come up to Holy Week, it’s a splendid time to engage the community. Invite people to Palm Sunday and Easter Day! Buy ads! Put up a billboard! Host a community Easter egg hunt! There are plenty of ways to draw people into the most important week of our year— and the most important story in the world.

The world gets more chaotic and challenging by the way. Giving someone the gift of Christ’s love will change the world, one life at a time.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn's signature

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

More from our ministry:

Presiding Bishop Rowe mentions Scott Gunn in this podcast interview

In case you missed it: Come join our team!

Road-tested tips for evangelism and church growth: Signs of Life

Stories and tools to transform your church: Invite Welcome Connect

Forward Today: Good news about the Good News!

Silhouette of mountains during sunrise
Photo by Ivana Cajina on Unsplash

Dear friends in Christ,

You may have seen the news. Forward Movement has received a $4 million grant from the J. C. Flowers Foundation to fund transformational discipleship resources for the Episcopal Church.

The centerpiece of the four-year project will be a new video-based course to help new-ish Christians go deeper as disciples of Jesus Christ. This would be for someone who took an Alpha course, or perhaps Forward Movement’s Transforming Questions, or maybe just came to church for a while and has decided to get serious about practicing their faith. We’ll also be creating some smaller courses on topics such as prayer and scripture.

Forward Movement’s data from the RenewalWorks program suggests that the Episcopal Church is pretty good at welcoming new members, but we often don’t do a very good job of encouraging spiritual growth. And because people who are less spiritually mature may struggle to share their faith with others, we don’t invite people to join us. So the intention of this grant-funded work is to make committed disciples who naturally reach out to make more disciples. We think we can make a difference in the Episcopal Church, and through our Christian faith, to have a positive impact on the world around us.

Please stay tuned for more details. For now, my first task is to start building the team. If you or someone you know might like to join this work, please check out our listing of open positions. We are growing rapidly to meet the needs of today’s church.

All of this is good news, because we’ll be able to help our church experience and share the Good News of the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn's signature

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

P.S. If you have been a donor to Forward Movement, thank you! Though we have received a large gift, your gifts matter. Our grant will pay for new work. Ongoing donor gifts fund free materials for prisons and hospitals, apps, podcasts and online resource. Every gift, whether it’s $25, $250, or $250,000 helps us change the world one life at a time.

More from our ministry:

A time-tested tool for daily discipleship: Forward Day by Day

Explore the way with Jesus: Faithful Questions

Join the Madness this Lent: LentMadness.org

Forward Movement is growing. Come join the team!

Please note: The application window for the jobs listed below closed on April 15, 2025.

A few days ago, we shared that we now have four openings for staff to join the Forward Movement team. Here is the listing of those open positions:

 

You may have seen the big news announcing that Forward Movement is receiving a $4 million grant from the J. C. Flowers Foundation to create transformational discipleship resources for the Episcopal Church. Eventually, we will be hiring a team of seven people to do that work. We have immediate openings for two staff positions to kick off the project:

 

If you feel that you may be the right person for any of these openings, please send us your materials soon. And kindly share these openings with others in your network. We want to add to our already-dynamic team to offer high-quality materials that can change lives, change the church, and change the world.

Forward Movement receives major grant for discipleship initiatives

March 24, 2025 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Forward Movement receives major grant for discipleship initiatives

J. C. Flowers Foundation awards $4 million to fund transformational work

Cincinnati, Ohio – Forward Movement is thrilled to announce it has been awarded a $4 million grant from the J. C. Flowers Foundation to fund the development of transformational discipleship resources for the Episcopal Church.

“At this critical moment in the life of our church, as the world yearns for a word of hope, we have an opportunity to boldly increase our focus on the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Forward Movement’s executive director, the Rev. Canon Scott Gunn. “I am incredibly grateful to Chris and Anne Flowers for their visionary generosity.”

With this grant, Forward Movement will launch a Center for Discipleship and Renewal, the centerpiece of which is a major video-based discipleship course to help Christians go deeper in their walk with Christ. In addition to this flagship course, which will serve as a follow-up to a basics course such as Alpha or Forward Movement’s Transforming Questions, the newly funded project will create smaller courses on prayer, scripture study, and other subjects to create on-ramps for churches of all sizes and contexts.

Mr. Flowers, the founder of the J. C. Flowers Foundation, spoke of the trajectory of this important work, saying, “We are happy to be on a journey from Alpha to Beta; we hope, with God’s grace, to arrive at Omega.” Data from Forward Movement’s RenewalWorks program suggests that the Episcopal Church does a good job of welcoming seekers but is often ineffective at encouraging spiritual growth and maturity. This new work aims to change that.

The idea for this grant came from conversations between Mr. Flowers and his priest, the Rev. Tim Schenck, rector of the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida. “As we reflected on how to draw people deeper in their faith, we kept returning to the question, ‘What’s next?’ There are so many folks out there who get the basics of Christianity, and even go to church regularly, but who want to grow spiritually,” he said. “This work is all about transforming lives.”

The chair of Forward Movement’s board is enthusiastic about new discipleship resources. The Rev. Kate Wesch, who serves as vicar at the Parish of the Epiphany in Seattle, added, “I have seen congregations grow in numbers, depth, and impact when people focus on ancient spiritual disciplines that shape our lives by connecting us to the love of God. I’m thrilled that Forward Movement will be engaging in this work in a new, wider scale.”

The J.C. Flowers Foundation also supports people returning home from prison in New York City, and works towards malaria elimination with Anglican dioceses in Southern Africa. The foundation is led by executive director Rebecca Vander Meulen, who will work with Forward Movement on this project.

Founded “to reinvigorate the life of the church” in 1935, Forward Movement is a non-profit ministry of the Episcopal Church with offices in Cincinnati, OH and staff across the United States. Its work is funded by sales, donations, and grants.

Learn more about Forward Movement’s work to inspire disciples and empower evangelists at forwardmovement.org.

 

Media contact: Jason Merritt, media@forwardmovement.org

Forward Movement
412 Sycamore Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202 USA
forwardmovement.org

Forward Today: Come join the Forward Movement team!

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Forward Movement logo with the following words below: "Now Hiring! Join the team that inspires disciples and empowers evangelists."Dear friends in Christ,

The Holy Spirit is sweeping through the church, leading us toward revitalization and a fresh desire to make disciples of all nations. I really believe that. The signs are all around.

Forward Movement is growing to meet the needs of today’s church. As is always the case, God has blessed us resources to support the work to which he is calling us. So we’re ready to add some staff.

Today, I’m delighted to announce listings for four positions. If you or someone you know might be the right person, please reach out. Details can be found on a post on our news blog. Please note: The application window for the jobs listed below closed on April 15, 2025.

  • Editor and Content Developer. Writes and edits new content for print and digital.
  • Designer and Production Coordinator (part-time). Ensures our resources look great and work well. Helps to deliver new resources, whether that’s a printing press or a video channel.
  • Finance Manager (part-time). Financial reporting and analysis. Oversees work of our finance team.
  • Sr. Director of Operations. This is a big one! In partnership with our executive director, leads all of Forward Movement’s work, focused especially on operational excellence with a focus on continually improving integration across our teams and disciplines.

 

There are more jobs to be posted soon, so stay tuned for that. If you wish to apply, or if you have questions, write to jobs@forwardmovement.org.

Most important, please pray for Forward Movement. In this critical moment in the life of our church, we need wisdom, strength, clarity, and courage. God is the one who can give us these things.

And, really, if you know if someone who would love to join us, kindly alert them to our postings.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn's signature

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

More from our ministry:

There’s still time to get your Easter calendar

Navigate church finances with confidence: Finance Resource Guide

Get back to basics with this FM classic: Walk in Love

Now hiring — come join the Forward Movement team

Forward Movement logo with the following words below: "Now Hiring! Join the team that inspires disciples and empowers evangelists."

Please note: The application window for the jobs listed below closed on April 15, 2025.

Forward Movement is expanding to meet the urgent needs of today’s church. Back in 1935, the Episcopal Church’s General Convention created Forward Movement with a mandate to “reinvigorate the life of the church” and we’ve been doing that faithfully ever since. These days, our tagline summarizes our mission: Inspire disciples. Empower evangelists.

With an increased interest in practicing spiritual disciplines and teaching the basics of our faith, Forward Movement needs to grow to support disciples and seekers everywhere. In today’s fast-paced, rapidly evolving environment, we need resilient staff members to join our team, ready to meet the opportunities of today and tomorrow.

We currently have four open positions, and soon we expect to announce a further expansion with additional opportunities. You can find detailed position descriptions linked here. If you’d like to learn more about these positions, please feel free to contact us at jobs@forwardmovement.org.

  • Associate Editor and Content Developer. Full-time. Leads the creative process for new print and digital resources, including writing, editing, and collaborating with other content creators.
  • Senior Director of Operations. Full-time. Along with our Executive Director, leads all of Forward Movement’s work. Using the model from Rocket Fuel, serves as Integrator with our executive director as Visionary.
  • Designer and Production Coordinator. Half-time. Ensures our new offerings look great and work well. Sees to the launch of products, whether it’s a printing press, a video site, or an app store.
  • Finance Manager. Half-time. Oversees our finance team, leading the way in analysis and reporting, keeping us on track with efficient and accurate processes.

 

Applications for these positions should be submitted by April 15, 2025. Knowledge of the Episcopal Church is ideal, but some of these positions may be suitable for someone who is Episcopal-curious. English-language communication is essential, and knowledge of a second language would be excellent.

Please share this notice with anyone who might love to work at Forward Movement. We work hard, but we love our work and the impact of all we do in helping people know the transforming love of Jesus Christ.

Forward Today: There is always hope

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A cross with prayer beads hangs above the center console of a car. All we can see is the clock, a GPS unit, and the cross hanging in the foreground. In the background, through the windshield, we can see the sunrise.
Photo by Jules PT on Unsplash

Dear friends in Christ,

During my recent travels, I had an inspiring conversation with a rideshare driver. He had a cross hanging from the rearview mirror, so I asked him to tell me about his church.

Then I asked him how he became a Christian, because we were in a country that had a low percentage of Christians. The driver told me about his childhood, which was challenging. While he was in school, he got involved in gangs. One time, he was badly injured in a gang fight, and he spent some time in the hospital. It wasn’t his first visit to the hospital about a gang fight.

He told me how one of his schoolteachers came to visit him. She’d been to see him several times on his visits to the hospital after fights. This time, she had a long conversation with him. Finally, she invited him to change his life: she urged him to spend his life doing something good in the world rather than fighting for gangs. She told him about Jesus, and how much God loves him.

The driver accepted her invitation. He joined a church and changed his whole life. He found a worthwhile career. And after he retired from that, he decided to drive for a rideshare company. He said he thinks God put him here to tell people the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He’s certainly good at it!

I thought about all this because too often, in our society we may be tempted to write some people off as hopeless. But in God’s eyes, there is always hope for everyone. No one is beyond redemption.

As our world gets more and more polarized, it can be easy to give up on some people, to begin to tell ourselves that some are beyond redemption. I’m inspired by this teacher’s faith and her willingness to take the time to get to know a “gang kid.” What if we get to know our neighbors so we can love them—and perhaps invite them to know the love of Jesus?

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn's signature

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

More from our ministry:

Order now for a head-start on Easter hope: Easter Triumph, Easter Joy

Join the Madness this Lent at LentMadness.org

Four issues. 365 days of inspiration. Subscribe to Forward Day by Day

Pray with us every day: prayer.forwardmovement.org