 A member of the American Academy of Religion, Forde had also been active as a member of the board of "dialog, A Journal of Theology"; the Lutheran–Roman Catholic dialogue; the commission for the new Lutheran Church; and the editorial board of "The Lutheran Quarterly".In 1987, the journal "Lutheran Quarterly" was relaunched in the midst of the negotiations that led to the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.In the lead issue of the "new series" of "Lutheran Quarterly" Forde provided a future view for American Lutheranism titled "Radical Lutheranism".