The Thread, from Alpha

Content note: Due to technical issues on site, this episode does not include video content. We're sorry!
Al Gordon and Farida Matthews interview creatives who are leaving a mark and making space for the Creator Spirit in their work: Omoyemi Akerele, founder of Lagos Fashion Week; DC3, the Northampton-raised artist fusing hip-hop, gospel, and jazz with an unashamed faith; and Steve Chao, Emmy-nominated filmmaker and founder of Signal Flare Productions.

Frequently our imagination for cultural change is limited by narrow views of calling and influence. In this episode, Andy Crouch introduces Praxis’s ‘redemptive frame’, helping Christian leaders identify and pursue redemptive opportunities in their spheres. He shares on how to apply a redemptive design to the goods and services we offer, to operations and systems, and to our personal scripts for success.

Theologian and pastor Darrell Johnson reflects on communion with God as the only foundation strong enough to sustain transformative leadership. As we live in Jesus’ relationship with His Father, we are more and more drawn into and caught up in His praying and we find ourselves liberated from "prayer-as-work" to "prayer-as-breathing", thereby experiencing fresh joy and freedom as prayerful leaders.

To lead people through the complexities and opportunities of this cultural moment, we desperately need to understand them. In this episode, Stephen Foster, Louise Perry, author of The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, and Jon Tyson, Pastor of Church of the City New York, discuss how we can lead with wisdom, discernment, vision, and boldness in this fascinating time.

This episode explores whether Gen Z has exposed an identity crisis for the Church and its relationship to culture. Drawing on theologians who have wrestled with the question of what the Church is during times of social and political upheaval, Jack Driver-Szekely, Fr Peter Wojcik, and Rachel Wooldridge consider how the Church can offer a hopeful witness without starting from anxiety about cultural change.