Andrew Forrest

email: c/o Claudia Kuby, kubyc@mungerplace.org
office: c/o Claudia Kuby, 214.272.0572
Twitter

I was born in Virginia. When I was in first grade, my parents moved as missionaries to Sierra Leone, West Africa, where my dad taught in a Bible college for African pastors, and my mom worked in a maternity clinic. We moved back to Virginia, where I attended middle and high school. I went to college at Columbia University in New York City. After college, I worked for five years as a youth director at a Methodist church in Richmond, VA. In 2007, my wife and I moved to Dallas so I could attend seminary at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. I received my Masters of Divinity degree from SMU in May 2011. While in seminary and before I got involved at Munger, I worked part-time as associate pastor at Christ's Foundry, a small Spanish-language United Methodist mission congregation in Dallas. I am married to Elaine, and we have a little son named Jack. In June 2011, I was commissioned as a provisional elder in the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Who were some of your influences/inspirations? My dad is a Methodist minister, as was my grandfather, and with regard to what a pastor should be like, both of those men have been important influences for me. And, my dad is a very good preacher, and I grew up listening to him preach. I like to read and listen to pastors and leaders like Bill Hybels and Andy Stanley. My favorite preacher in the English language is a South Africa pastor named Trevor Hudson. He is the preacher I most want to be like.

My all time favorite movie is… I don't have one favorite, but here are some movies I like (in no particular order or grouping): To Save a Life, Harvey, The Sting, Facing the Giants, The Mission, High Noon, Casablanca, the Indiana Jones movies, Jean de Florette, Manon de Source, Hoosiers, The Great Escape, The Bridge Over the River Kwai, The Philadelphia Story, Cool Hand Luke, In the Name of the Father, The Royal Tenenbaums, Groundhog Day, You've Got Mail, Bringing Up Baby, Big, The Grand Illusion, It's a Wonderful Life, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lawrence of Arabia, and Forrest Gump. I know that's a long list, but there are a lot of great movies out there, right?

My favorite East Dallas restaurant is…I love New England-style pizza, and my favorite local pizza joint is Scalini's, in Lakewood. I also think the hummus at Izmir Deli on Lower Greenville is great stuff.

My favorite part of East Dallas is…Since I live there, I really like the whole Lakewood/Munger area. I love being able to walk to the grocery store, the bank, the library, our pizza joint (see above), etc. I also really enjoy being within walking distance of White Rock Lake.

My favorite sport is...soccer, to play and watch, although right now I'm really getting into running. Also, I've started getting into Crossfit. We'll see....

What's on your Ipod? Audiobooks! Some of my recent favorites include The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens and the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. I also have a lot of music by Switchfoot, my favorite band.

What's one of the most important lessons you've learned in life? Planning is invaluable.

My favorite quotation is... "The world is charged with the grandeur of God," from the poem "God's Grandeur" by the English Jesuit poet Gerald Manley Hopkins.

What most excites me about what we are trying to do at Munger is how we get a chance to create a certain type of culture in the church. From day one, we have been able to share a vision about how we want Munger to be a place where people who don't feel comfortable in other churches can feel like they belong at Munger. We'll also be able to hold ourselves to a high standard, that of allowing the Lord to help us love him and love our neighbors as ourselves.

My favorite scripture is…Romans 8:18-39.

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:"

For your sake we face death all day long;we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.