The Hopeful Activists' Podcast

What does it mean to follow Jesus today? Abi Thomas dives into the lives of four incredible guests who are living as apprentices to Jesus for this special episode with the amazing team at Proximity.Expect inspiring stories, practical insights, and some surprising moments as we explore:✨ Learning and doing on-the-job discipleship✨ Whole-life discipleship: Bringing Jesus into every corner of life✨ Spiritual disciplines ✨ Jesus showing up on your patch ✨ When the supernatural is ... normal✨ Why Jesus has more faith in you than you might thinkContributors:Matt Britton — Is an award winning theatre maker, who brings the Gospel of Mark to life, word-for-word.Krista Coulson — leader of Eden South Bank, near Middlesbrough.Natalie Williams — CEO of Jubilee+, author and passionate advocate for justice and mercy.Joe Warton — Researcher and author exploring what healthy, whole-life discipleship looks like.Take it Further:Curious about spiritual practices? Check out this work from LICC.Want to deepen your prayer life? Explore the Prayer of Examen.Intrigued by Proximity? Find our more here.Whether you're just starting your discipleship journey or looking to deepen your faith, this episode will challenge and inspire you to put your faith into action. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Abi is joined by researcher-activist Naomi Lawson Jacobs, co-author of the book At the Gates: Disability, Justice and the Churches. Naomi's research tells the stories of disabled people; the stories behind the shocking statistics. Naomi tells Abi about activism led by disabled people, the challenges that disabled Christians face, who and what we should be valuing and the problem with the idea of "inclusion". At The Gates: Disability, Justice and the Churches shares disabled Christians’ stories in their own words. These storytellers speak back to a church that has more often told their stories for them, calling for justice for all the disabled Christians who have been left waiting at the church gates.Buy At The Gates: Disability, Justice and the Churches here.Buy The Hopeful Activist book here.

Today, we’re bringing you a powerful story from Hannah Bourazza, who courageously shares her journey after the tragic loss of her son, Nathaniel, who was killed shortly after his 16th birthday.Hannah reflects on Nathanial’s life and legacy, and her work with Power the Fight, a London-based charity dedicated to ending youth violence. Resources:Power the Fight: Learn more about their mission and how you can support their work.Hannah has written a chapter in When Faith Gets Shaken, by Patrick Regan.Previous podcast episodes featuring Ben Lindsay, founder and CEO of Power the Fight, and author of "We Need To Talk About Race" exploring the charity’s innovative strategies:BONUS EP – Power the Fight wins charity of the year!We Need To Talk About Race. The Hopeful Activists’ Book - A perfect Christmas gift for the activists in your life!Subscribe to The Hopeful Activists’ Podcast for more stories of faith-fueled activism, and don’t forget to share this episode with someone who might be inspired by Hannah’s journey.

Welcome to another uplifting episode of the Hopeful Activists Podcast! This week Abi is delighted to be joined by Rev Dr Kate Coleman, author, leadership coach, and founder of Next Leadership. Kate shares insights from her transformative book, Metamorph, which explores how leaders can embrace growth. Kate’s wisdom is not just for leaders but for anyone to make a difference in the world. Whether you’re a seasoned activist or just beginning your journey the church and the world need leaders who are willing to evolve, and go where God is leading.Buy Kate’s book Metamorph here and discover resources for your leadership journey with Jesus.You can buy The Hopeful Activists' book here. A great Christmas present!

An extended interview with Ellie Gage on this episode, CEO of Kintsugi Hope, a UK charity working to make a difference to peoples mental wellbeing. Ellie shares brilliantly about culture and how to be a healthy Christian, lessons learnt from her time at CAP in Bradford, and in her new role at Kintsugi Hope.Buy The Hopeful Activist book as an ebook here or in paperback here.

In this second episode of our brilliant collaboration with Proximity, Abi Thomas explores how to keep going for the long-haul when you are living and working for justice in urban estates and beyond. Wherever it is you’re trying to make a difference, you'll find practical wisdom for keeping your activism centred on Jesus and preventing burnout and we'll hear from four incredible guests who share their experiences of finding strength in challenging circumstances.And Abi isn’t just talking about s lowing down—she’s giving you space to actually do it. You'll find space to rest and reflect with words from the Bible and beautiful music from Emma Grant.Trigger Warning: This episode touches on some real-life struggles, including burnout and mental health, with mentions of suicide. If that’s not what you need today, we have lots of other episodes to inspire you instead.ContributorsDai Hankey – Church planter, founder of Manumit Coffee and Red Community and author of Hopeward. Sam DH – A church leader from St Barnabus, Hattersley, in Greater Manchester.Natalie Lane – From the Life Centre in Salford.Ellie Gage – CEO of Kintsugi Hope.With grateful thanks to Emma Grant and her team for permission to use her fantastic music. You can buy her album Friend in the Fire here. You heard: Coming Home and Eyes on Me.And to Matt Britton for reading Psalm 23 to us.Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans can be bought a...

Ahead of an online event on the 9th August Abi speaks to Rev Dr Israel Oluwole Olofinjana about racial justice in the UK.We also discuss the intersection with climate justice, mental health and how the UK church can respond and recover.

Abi has been out and about again, visiting the wonderful people at Leeds Craftivists to hear about their collaborative and crafty campaigns. Including campaigns around food waste, the cost of living crisis and local transport.If you want to know more about the principles behind craftivism, we have two episodes here and here with Sarah Corbett, author and founder of the Craftivist Collective. Or you can buy her books here.Abi met Emma Temple and Anna Bland, who co-founded the Leeds Craftivists. I was also able to talk to Husain Alogaily, who co-founded Compost It, a fantastic organisation collecting food waste from households and delivering it to local growers who then turn it into compost. The Leeds Craftivist group is open to anyone who loves to craft for change.To donate to The Praxis Centre please visit our website (scroll right to the bottom) or go to PayPal here.

A super short episode to draw our attention to the new resource from Jubilee+ called Voting Like Jesus. Natalie Williams calls on Christians to engage with politics, to pray and to look honestly at our own hearts, as we face a general election.

The first in our exciting new series in collaboration with Proximity, a new resource hub for urban Christians. In this episode we discover the joys and challenges of following Jesus on an urban estate. We'll hear from Allan Finnegan from Emmanuel Baptist Church in Netherton in Liverpool, Tom Grant, also from Emmanuel Baptist Church and Head of Proximity, as well as Tal Watkins and Marie Robinson from the Netherton Community Grocery. And finally from Bishop Philip North, who tells us that there are two stories: amazing life and hope on urban estates, and also a church that has deep inequality within its structures. Allan's GoFundMe for his treatment is here.Clip from Britain's Got Talent used with permission.

Meet the Hopeful Activist team, including the authors of The Hopeful Activist book and find out why we are so proud of it! Most of the team came to The Lodge Café in Bradford to hear the story of how a subsiding building became a thriving community space and find out how to be a hopeful activist. Abi also speaks to Thobekile Ncube from Harare in Zimbabwe, to hear about her contribution to the book and how her view on hope has changed.Ezekiel 37 can be read here.Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™With thanks to Beth, Rich, Eilidh, Rachel and Thobes.

Brian D. McLaren is a very well known author, speaker, activist and public theologian and joined Abi from his home in Florida. Brian works with Father Richard Rohr at the Centre for Action and Contemplation and is proud to be an activist! We talk about Brian's new book Life After Doom, covering:how to welcome the reality of our climate crisishow to be contemplative and protect your mind and what's the problem with hope?We also talk about the parable of the rich fool and the Lord's Prayer ..."may God's dreams for the earth come true."

Grace Hills has been digging up the grass verges, planting fruit trees and increasing the biodiversity on her street, with the help of her neighbours and their children. Abi met two of the children who are part of her Flower Fairies group, where Grace teaches them to enjoy and appreciate nature, and to do plenty of planting, despite living on a suburban housing estate!If you’re a gardener this is a good episode to listen to whilst you’re doing some digging and planting, and if, like Abi, you appreciate nature, but don’t see yourself as a gardener, we know you’ll be inspired by the small steps that started Grace Hills on her guerrilla gardening journey. We also talk about being a neurodiverse Christian activist, a subject we'll return to soon!You can find Grace on Instagram @sparkingcommunityThe book she mentioned is called Get Guerrilla Gardening by Ellen Miles. You can find out more about guerrilla gardening here and there's a beginners guide here.

Rachel and Rich (authors of The Hopeful Activist) listen to Abi's interview with Dr Andy Knox, author of Sick Society.Dr Andy Knox argues that our society is broken because we have built it on values that are not working for too many people. Sharing moving stories from the people he has met in his clinic as a GP, we see a system that is stacked against certain people in society and is profoundly unjust. Arguing against "hero leaders", and for hosting, listening and working together with love at the core, Andy challenges us to be outraged by the injustice in our society, and then do something about it.To buy Sick Society visit Boz Publications.

Laura Young has been leading a campaign with groups supporting health and the environment and at the end of January their campaign to have disposable vapes banned in the UK was successful!The campaign is just 16 months old, and has made a huge impact, with legislative change now around the corner and Abi was delighted to be able to talk to Laura so soon after this amazing result! Laura, also known as LessWasteLaura is an award winning climate activist, environmental scientist, and ethical influencer. for more ideas on waste reduction visit her linktr.ee@lesswastelaura across social media

Thanks so much to Sarah Edwards and Rosie Venner from the Just Money Movement for answering some tricky questions in today’s episode. If you’ve ever asked questions of capitalism, if you’ve thought about whether direct action or becoming a shareholder is the best way to make change in our financial systems, or if you feel like you don’t have enough money to make a difference anyway, you’ll find something in this interview for you!Find out more about the Fair Tax Mark here.

A great interview with the Rev Dr Ash Barker today! For over 30 years Ash has lived on the front line of urban poverty with his family, and Ash is the founder of Seedbeds, which is all about growing the capacities of urban leaders where they live. I went down to Birmingham to meet Ash at his community church building and there are so many riches to mine from him and we’ll also hear more from James Crystal, who we heard from in our Christmas episode about his experience on the Change Makers Programme, which Ash Barker set up. Find out more about Generosity Dinners here.

A special episode about faith and mental health. Please be aware that this episode includes reference to sexual assault, suicide and self-harm. Today we hear from three brilliant contributors. Aaron Shah from Worship on the Streets shares his personal mental health journey.  His book is called Being Still, A Quiet Revolution and you can get a copy here, or by signing up at his Patreon. You can hear more from him on this previous episode.Bryn Abbott works for Mercy UK and talks to us about The Big Christian Mental Health Campaign. Do look at their website for more details on The Freedom Course.James Crystal is a mentor to young men coming out of prison with the brilliant organisation In2Out. He is also a speaker and he shares his story of recovery from addiction and mental health struggles.For other support with your mental health visit the NHS here if you are in the UK. You can also get support from The Samaritans. 

Pete Portal was born in the UK but has lived in Cape Town, South Africa for the last 15 years. We all have feelings of failure and disappointment, in this conversation we learn to reframe our view of success within Jesus' framework.Pete shares about the continuing impact of Apartheid on his community and how the Tree of Life Community are seeking to be a sign that another reality is possible. This includes hosting a programme for young men coming out of addiction and gang activity and also a home for abused women and children. Tree of Life is a 24/7 prayer community.You can buy Pete's book here and find out more about it here.Henri Nouwen's book In the Name of Jesus can be bought here.

Abi and Rich get together to discuss deep interviews with artist Barbara Keal and liturgist and author Cole Arthur Riley. They delve into embodied and contemplative activism and creative responses to injustice and trauma.We hear all about the Coat of Hopes - there is a 10 minute video here telling you more about the project.Cole Arthur Riley also shares about her book This Here Flesh and her digital project Black Liturgies.Other helpful resources: Nine Fold Path - a resource to help you work through Jesus' Beatitudes.Our episode on Peacemakers seems particularly apt at the moment.