About Sean

Sean Forrest is a former Baptist who converted to the Catholic Church in 1995. He is grateful for his Baptist upbringing, but thrilled that God has led him home to the Catholic Church. Sean and his wife, Julie, live in Connecticut with their three young children – Liam, Erin, and Hannah.

Sean has a deep love for God and the Church, and works every day to spread that love and the Truth of the faith through his talks and music. He is honest about his own sinfulness and conversion, and shares, “It scares me how I could be given so much by the Lord and still so easily sin against Him.” Sean is not a saint or a holy person – and does not claim to be. He is an average guy who is trying the best he can to hear the Father’s call and do His will. Sean’s honesty about his own life is what enables him to preach with passion about the mercy and love of Our Lord.

If you are seeking to have a really holy person come and speak to your group, then you may want to keep looking. But if you believe what you need is a guy who loves God and will speak passionately of Him, while using his own life’s successes and failures to witness, then you may be interested in Sean’s ministry. Sean loves to speak about the Lord and will go just about anywhere to do it, so if you pray on this decision and feel that God wants Sean to be a part of your ministry efforts, then please contact us.

 

Bio

Sean Forrest is the Founder, President, and Executive Director of the Catholic not-for-profit organization Movin’ With The Spirit, Inc. (MWTS). He is an international speaker, performing artist, author, radio host, and retreat leader. He speaks to more than 30,000 youth and adults each year about the love of God and the truth of the faith.

Sean was the recipient of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry’s “For God and Youth” award, as well as the United Catholic Music and Video Association’s award for Best New Artist. His television appearances include EWTN’s “Life on the Rock” and an upcoming music special with the singer Dana, and he will soon debut as the host of a new weekly Internet broadcast. He is currently studying Theology at Holy Apostles College and Seminary, where he is an instructor to the college’s seminarians. Sean lives in Connecticut with his wife Julie and their three children.

Through events, materials, and personal witness, Movin’ With The Spirit, Inc., inspires and educates teens and adults with God’s Truth, in line with the authority and teaching of the Catholic Church. In addition, several years ago, Sean traveled to Haiti, and his life was changed forever by his experiences with the poor there. He and an inspired team have established MWTS Mission Haiti, and have launched plans to build an orphanage, school, and medical facility. Learn more about Sean, MWTS, and MWTS Mission Haiti at www.mwts.org.

    Awards & Honors

1. ✤Sean received the National God & Youth Award from the Hartford Diocese in 2004.
   

2. ✤Sean Forrest was nominated in five categories, including Artist of the Year and Album of the Year, by the United Catholic Music & Video Association. The awards ceremony was held November 19, 2000 in Washington D.C. The event was broadcast globally by the EWTN Network. Sean won "Best New Artist of the Year" and his song "Keep Your Eyes on Me" won for "Best New Contemporary Alternative Rock Song".
   

Sean’s Story

The following article appeared in the Union-News Sunday Republican on August 24th, 2000:

"Sean Forrest had it all. Or so he thought. Every winter weekend night from the mid-'80's to the mid-90's, he'd pack 'em into the Wobbly Barn in Killington, Vt. Fifteen hundred people a weekend, singing along to his music.

Not bad for an East Longmeadow kid who started his music career by taking requests at Western New England College's Franklin Hall. The money up at Killington was great. The benefits better: Free lodging, the same lack of price for meals. A ski pass. The role of semi-celebrity. Sean would raise his trademark shot glass full of German spirits and shout "Social," and the party would begin.

The actor William Baldwin liked Sean Forrest's high energy human jukebox act so much that he'd invite him to play at swanky Hamptons benefit parties overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on Long Island.

It felt a long way from Springfield's Mory's Pub, where Sean used to play for 50 bucks a night. Or across town at Shannon's, where he built a reputation with then-partner Jamie Livesey.

When Sean performed at celebrity gigs, movie stars cheered. Later, they would buy him drinks. He even made the gossip columns, Joan Rivers pondering about how many shots he and one of the Baldwin brothers had thrown back. Once sitting in the front row, was Billy Joel, Sean's hero. The Piano Man cheered for the kid from East Longmeadow.

It got better. Sean made enough money for life on the Connecticut shore, in a luxury condominium complex that had four private beaches. He was 28 five years ago when he had it all. Or so he thought.

One Sunday morning he woke up alone. Like so many times before, he'd stayed too late after a show and couldn't wake to walk the beach with his wife Julie.

"It just hit me," Sean says five years later. "I had everything I wanted. Everything the world could offer. Everything but my faith. And, all I could think was, 'Wow, this is so empty.' "

He got down on his knees and prayed. He had been raised a Baptist. Considered himself a Christian, but didn't think he could have been convicted of being one. His prayer was to do God's will.

He started by embracing his marriage. He stopped partying. He no longer stayed out late. The former basketball and track standout incorporated a stringent workout routine into his day. Some old fans were worried about him.

"What's wrong with Sean?" they wondered.

He also resumed writing songs. They all had a spiritual bent. This wasn't party music, but soul music. He had written songs as a child, but always had been too terrified to play them in public. It was easier singing someone else's words.

Several months after waking that morning, Sean Forrest had what he thought was a stroke. His right side was paralyzed.

Doctors were never quite sure what happened. They gave it a name: vascular spasm. Recuperation was nearly a year long. Sean spent it reading and praying. He met people who talked to him about an inner life, a spiritual life, a life dedicated to something beyond the cheers of a crowd.

When Sean got better, he decided to fly to Medjugore in the former Yugoslavia, where the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to appear.

"I went as a skeptic, came home with a burning desire to be a Catholic," he says.

Sean - not yet a Catholic - was hired as the youth minister for a Catholic church near his Connecticut home. He wrote a book about his conversion experience, "From Happy Hour to Holy Hour," and recorded an album full of his songs. Church halls replaced bars as his venues.

Three years ago, on Easter Sunday, Sean Forrest officially became a Catholic.

He expanded his youth ministry, "Movin' With the Spirit," concentrating on teen-agers, the elderly and the disabled, offering various parish retreats. He continued to write and record. He downsized his life, moving with Julie - "God's ultimate gift to me" - to Columbia, Conn., outside Willimantic.

Earlier this month, Sean's fourth album "Can't Look Back," was released. (It can be purchased from his website, www.seanforrest.com). He also played at the Christian Woodstock, "The Inside Out Soul Festival" in New Hampshire.

There, he shared the stage with Christian music superstars Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith. Among his fans is New York Liberty star Rebecca Lobo.

Sean and Julie recently found out they are expecting their first child.

They see their life as now full, truly, and in many of the best ways.

Amen."

(all rights reserved, reprinted with permission)