Come Monday morning, it will all heat up as the Faithful Four begins. One of four saints will soon take home the coveted 2018 Golden Halo. We hope you have enjoyed the ride. It's been another great year of Lent Madness, as tens of thousands of people from around the globe have learned about the saints together. Once again, we have enjoyed a wonderful online community together. (Name another site where you actually want to read the comments!)
It can all seem a bit silly at times, we know. And that's the point. Lent Madness also gives us an opportunity to reflect on all the ways the love of Jesus Christ is revealed in women and men of all sorts, in all places, in all times. Perhaps someone from the Lent Madness Global Viewing Public will one day be remembered by the church as a saint.
Tim started this madness on his blog in 2010. Scott got involved that very year, running a proxy campaign for George Herbert, the first-ever Golden Halo winner. When Scott went to work at Forward Movement, Tim suggested they team up to kick the madness up a few notches. And the rest is history.
Back in 2012, it might have seemed unlikely. Why would a staid publishing company choose to sponsor Lent Madness, which is anything but predictable? Simply put, it's because Forward Movement was in the midst of embracing a deeper calling, to be a discipleship company, not just a publishing company.
Lent Madness is but one of many ways Forward Movement has expanded over the last few years. Families can get encouragement and ideas for practicing faith at home on Grow Christians. People have gathered for inspiring conferences on evangelism and discipleship. Free curricula are now available so that churches can teach people the wonders of scripture or the breadth of diversity in the saints. Lately, Forward Movement has offered more and more resources for free to prisoners, people deployed in the military, nursing home residents, and hospital patients.
What do all these new and expanded ways of serving the church have in common? None of them brings in much net income. The expenses to offer resources to today's church often exceed what comes in. And yet we know that these are exactly the kinds of resources that lead to transformed lives in today's church.
Here's your chance to give thanks for Lent Madness and many other new resources for the church. Please consider making a gift (large or small!) to support this work. Make your gift in honor of your favorite saint, if you like. Make your gift in honor of someone who has received free material. Make your gift in hope that Forward Movement will continue to inspire disciples and empower evangelists in tomorrow's church.
You can make a gift online, you can send a check to Forward Movement, 412 Sycamore Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202, or you can call 800-543-1813 during business hours. Your generosity will allow Forward Movement's ongoing generous response to the needs of the world and the church.
8 comments on “Help make more Madness”
I am blessed to be able to skew small monthly contribution to FORWARD MOVEMENT, in gratitude for years of reading FORWARD DAY BY DAY! Thank you!
This is always the best to be involved in regarding Lent. Of course my pick has won the the past Florence Nightingale so I shall see if my pick wins this year. Thank you to the wise team for your choices this year.
Forward Day By Day and it’s reading calendar has been the backbone of my daily spiritual formation ever since a Lutheran minister friend, whom I met in the Holy Land, passed me a copy after a lunchtime visit in Moscow, ID. FDBD led me to Lent Madness and even to practicing praying the hours (using Phyllis Tickle’s outstanding works).
I’ve also utilized other materials I’ve found from the Forward Movement sight. Truly, truly once that tiny but mighty little devotional landed in my hands .... I launched on a path of systematic spiritual formation. Not just reading the Bible, active participation in church, but systematic growth where I’ve found immensely rich communion with God.
I’ve relished being a part of the Episcopalian community via Forward Movement.
Lent Madness has been my indispensable Lenten companion for most of its years. Greatest gratitude to Forward Movement for supporting! I'm betting (figuratively) on Maria Skobtsova to go all the way! I notice that her last name is misspelled throughout the bracket poster, and occasionally by the SEC (gasp!) and her wonderful Celebrity Blogger.
Skobtsova - Yes!
Skobstova - No
Could the bracket spellings be corrected?
Many thanks!
Thank you for adding insights on the diversity and actions of our saints to our lives! Thank you for expanding my vision on so many of these Holy People. AND THANK YOU FOR PUTTING SO MUCH FUN INTO MY LENTEN JOURNEYS THESE PAST 10 YEARS!
A check will wend its way to FW soon.
Thank you, FORWARD MOVEMENT, for sponsoring/supporting Lent Madness. This is only my third or fourth year participating in it, and my first year of contributing Comments. Each year, I seem to go deeper and deeper into the process. This year was particularly meaningful to me. The more I researched each saint, the greater became my understanding of what a Christ-centric life looks like. This year, I was particularly moved by St. Dymphna. A saint for mental health is exactly what the world needs right now!
It’s also great fun, of course, and I love the levity...dare I say ‘absurdity’?...of some of it! As a college basketball fan, I enjoy the bracket and its artful representations of some of the saints. (Is Adam Thomas responsible for the artwork as well as the actual bracket?)
Last year I made a contribution to FORWARD MOVEMENT but not exclusively because of Lent Madness. I’d discovered the wonderful volume, “Hour By Hour,” a shortened version of the Daily Office, four ‘services’ per day for seven days. No more juggling the BCP, Psalms & the Bible while trying to perform private, personal services at home or while traveling. This volume has transformed my spiritual practices. So, thank you, FORWARD MOVEMENT, for publishing such a book. I will be sending in another contribution this year. Thank you also for providing us with the wonder called Lent Madness!
The art work, from what I've read elsewhere on the site, comes from Saint Gregory of Nyssa, San Francisco, one of the most liturgically innovative parishes in the Episcopal Church.