Prophetic Justice Conversations is a series of 11 video interviews exploring biblical justice through the voices of global leaders. Designed for deep reflection, each session includes guided questions, meditations, and prayers.
Jonathan Tremaine Thomas was raised in the southern foothills of western North Carolina along with his brother, worship artist Jaye Thomas. As a fifth generation “preacher’s kid”, and the grandnephew of the late Civil Rights activist and music legend Dr. Nina Simone; Jonathan represents a unique blending of artistic history and divine calling.
After earning a B.S. Communications at East Carolina University and pursuing an M.A. in Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary; Jonathan was commissioned in by Bethel World Outreach Center as a missionary to the most violent neighborhoods in Nashville, TN. While serving in these communities, he was personified as Tony in the 2006 Sony Pictures film The Second Chance. In this context, Jonathan began to employ his theatrical, film, and media production skills to equip and encourage young people through establishing a non-profit creative company. As president of Uproot Media, LLC; he worked as an actor, host, and voiceover talent appearing with prominent roles in two feature films and over 150 commercials, industrials, and radio ads.
As a missionary and prayer mobilizer, Jonathan has spearheaded extensive evangelism, prayer, and repentance gatherings in stadiums and cities across the nation including The Call Detroit, The Ferguson Response, Azusa Now LA, Awaken The Dawn, The Tent Charleston, OneRace Stone Mountain, and CLEAN. He gained a voice nationally due to his peacemaking efforts during the 2014 civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. In 2018, while serving on the pastoral team at Destiny Church St.Louis, he founded Civil Righteousness, Inc.
Today, through the Civil Righteousness movement, he directs prayer fueled evangelism, community transformation, and ethnic reconciliation initiatives in hundreds of cities across the globe. With a strong conviction to “earnestly contend for the faith”; Jonathan carries an uncompromising message of identity in Christ and eternal perspective.
He currently resides in Ferguson, MO with his wife Mollie and their young daughter.
Aaron White served as the National Director and Communities Director for 24-7 Prayer Canada, and helped lead the movement in Canada for 22 years. He has served as the Resident Theologian at Jacob’s Well, a faith-based community in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside; as the Vancouver representative for the International Association of Refugees; as a lecturer with the Westminster Theological Centre; and as part of the global Infinitum Network. He is currently a co-director of Boundless Publishing and the principal of the Deep and Wide Academy.
Aaron has been a pastor, missioner, justice worker, and prayer instigator in the DTES of Vancouver for the past 21 years. He lives with his wife, four children, and granddaughter in a community home. They seek to be good neighbours, pray well, and give and receive hospitality.
He is the co-author of Revolution and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Kingdom of God; co-creator of The Creative Way Down discipleship resource; and author of Recovering: From Brokenness and Addiction to Blessedness and Community.
Drew Jackson is a poet, speaker, and public theologian. He is the author of God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming, which was a finalist for the Christian Book Award, and Touch the Earth: Poems on The Way. His work has appeared in Oneing from the Center for Action and Contemplation, The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad, Christianity Today, Made for Pax, The Journal from the Centre for Public Christianity, Fathom Magazine, and other publications. Drew was a contributing artist on Jon Batiste’s Grammy-nominated album World Music Radio, and also appeared in the award-winning documentary American Symphony on Netflix. Drew is also a co-host of the Everything Belongs podcast from the Center for Action and Contemplation.
Drew received his B.A. in Political Science from the Univ. of Chicago and his M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the founding pastor of Hope East Village in Lower Manhattan, which he pastored until handing off leadership in 2022. Drew currently works as the Managing Director of Formation for the Center for Action and Contemplation, and lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and daughters.
You can connect with Drew and his work at www.drewejackson.com and find him on Instagram @d.jacksonpoetics.
Over 40 years Roger has pioneered in leadership, being involved in starting Churches, Christian movements (including 24-7 Prayer and Fusion), and Fishing businesses. In several of these contexts he has been involved in healthy succession, enabling him to move forwards and the teams behind to flourish.
Over the last decade, Roger has led the 24-7 Communities network team as the network has been formed recently, handing the leadership to Alain Emerson. He spends his time coaching leaders, church teams, supporting church networks, writing, and, where possible, fishing. He’s also on the board of Westminster Theological Centre where he lectures, his passion being Church, Leadership, Theology and Ecclesiology. Roger is part of the leadership team in Revelation Church. He’s married to Maggie, and they have two children who are now grown-ups!
Substack- @rogerellisecclesiologist
Danielle Strickland
Danielle lets Love lead her to inspire, challenge, provoke and disrupt the present, and to live in the future now. Having lived in different cultures and contexts around the world she celebrates diversity and deeply longs for wrong things to be made right. Danielle practises following Jesus daily. This pursuit has led to exciting entrepreneurial exploits (like co-founding multiple charities and non-profits) and a whole host of failures (that we don’t as often talk about). All of this has convinced her of the deep need we all have for hope, faith, and love. Her deepest longing is to demonstrate what living that boundless life looks like.
Danielle has written six books (the latest is The Other Side of Hope), has a podcast called The Right Side Up (which recently celebrated half-a-million downloads), and speaks to people at events all over the world. Danielle leads Boundless Communications Inc. which launches creative exploits like Women Speakers Collective (liberating voices of women around the globe), IMBY (a tiny home movement IN MY BACKYARD), Brave Global (preventing human trafficking), Infinitum (a way of living deeply), and Hagar’s Voice (support and advocacy for survivors of abuse). She lives in Vancouver, Canada with her three sons and husband Steve. Danielle loves getting outside, doing new things, physical adventures, and she can’t seem to turn down a free lunch.
Chris Leech - Northern Ireland
Chris has been married to Debbie for over 25 years and they have 3 amazing children. A Pastor in Emmanuel Church Portadown, he is passionate about the church’s role in bringing Kingdom transformation to the community. Chris believes that Christian involvement in effective community development must come from informed best practice and through a lens of biblical justice. Chris and his wife Debbie moved from Belfast in 2006 to plant a Vineyard Church in Portadown. Setting up their church building as a centre for the community on the site of a former army base, they established several community engagement projects. Passionate about the environment and how Christians engage with creation care, Chris established a community allotment in 2012 on an unused plot of land. His team carried out a number of food growing projects as part of their community engagement strategy. Chris is an anti-poverty campaigner and the Chairman of Craigavon Area Food Bank. Having established a food project during the recession of 2008, this evolved into a regional inter-church food bank in 2012. Chris has been involved in strategic community development with his local district council over the past 8 years, working with various community stakeholders to develop strategic outcomes for tackling poverty in urban and rural communities. He has also been involved in poverty advocacy work with the UK government at regional and national levels. When he is not talking about injustice and the damage that Neoliberal ideas have done to society, he loves road cycling and making frequent coffee stops. Keen to learn from the expertise of others, Chris has spent the last 3 years at the University of Ulster studying for a BSc in Community Development.
Strahan is a writer, award winning folk musician and spiritual director from Aotearoa, New Zealand. He founded Commoners Communion in 2017 to explore what it means to become a deeply prayerful people in our times. Since then, he has written three prayer books - Prayer Vol. 01, 02 & 03 that offer poetic prayers, contemplations and reflections that help the reader deepen their own communion with the God of their hearts.
His work has been featured in the Bridgetown Daily Podcast, Ekstasis Magazine and his poem Never Alone from Prayer Vol. 01 was performed by Amanda Cook and the Cageless Birds during a live worship and prayer recording in 2020.
Strahan’s work helps people to grow a deep friendship with God, seeing prayer as far more than conscious mental dialogue but as way of existing with God in our every day ordinary lives. His prayers and poems are invitations toward an honest, rested and open life lived in the Spirit and his dialogue around how we can incorporate ancient prayer forms into our modern lives has helped give language to a generation longing for a deeper living experience of God.
His music has been described as psalmic, ‘[making] the tension between heaven and earth that much more palpable’. His music has featured Josh Garrels and John Mark McMillan and his debut album Posters won New Zealand’s Gospel Album of The Year Award as well as being named in The Gospel Coalition’s ‘Best Christian Albums of the 2010’s’.
Today he runs spiritual retreats that both teach and embody a more contemplative life, teaches Online Prayer Schools and publishes the Commoners Communion Podcast, a space to further explore the devotional works of his books and what a contemporary christian spirituality can look like in our times.
In 2023 Strahan shares his story of chronic illness and moving from a working relationship with God to a friendship in Beholding: Deepening Our Experience in God.
His new book Thirsting: Quenching Our Soul’s Deepest Desire is his follow up invitation to the rich life of communion explored in Beholding.
Craig Westhoff, formerly known to many as “Craig West” from the K-LOVE morning show Craig, Amy & Kankelfritz, spent over three decades in the world of Christian radio. His voice became familiar to countless listeners across the country, first through his work at KXOJ in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and later on the nationally syndicated K-LOVE network. Throughout his broadcasting career, Craig was known not only for his humor and authenticity but also for his ability to connect deeply with audiences on matters of faith, life, and personal growth.
In 2016, after a long and fruitful radio career, Craig stepped away from the microphone to join his wife, Christine, in full-time mission and spiritual formation work. Together, they have served leaders and communities around the world, offering encouragement, teaching, and soul care across cultural and denominational boundaries.
Craig’s passion for helping others is rooted in his own personal journey. From 1998 to 2008, he battled clinical depression, crippling anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)—a season that profoundly shaped his understanding of emotional suffering and spiritual resilience. Out of that dark and formative decade emerged a calling: to walk with others through the often-unspoken challenges of the interior life.
Today, Craig is a certified spiritual director and a trained emotional and mental health coach. He is the author and creator of The Soul Course, a transformative journey designed to help individuals explore their inner world, develop emotional awareness, and grow in spiritual maturity. He is also the co-founder of The MESH Objective, a global network of professionals—psychologists, coaches, social workers, and spiritual directors—committed to holistic well-being for individuals, leaders, and teams.
Craig has traveled extensively with Christine, serving internationally as a speaker, mentor, and guide for pastors, missionaries, and spiritual leaders navigating complex emotional and spiritual landscapes. He now combines his pastoral heart, lived experience, and practical training to offer hope, clarity, and companionship to others on the path of healing and wholeness.
He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and treasures life with Christine, their two grown sons, their wives, and two beloved grandchildren.
Wendy Powell has belonged to the same local church for 27 years, currently serving as their Community Outreach Pastor. Her great joy is to connect the congregation to their local community in service and generosity, building long-term mutual relationships between the church and local nonprofits. Her passion is to see Christians hungry and equipped to live out their faith in all arenas of society and circles of influence where God has placed them. To find out more, visit ctkserves.org.
Nkosinathi Mbuyazi is the National Director for 24-7 Prayer in South Africa. Nkosinathi is passionate about prayer having been inspired by his praying mom from a young age in the rural setting of KwaZulu/Natal in South Africa. He also enjoys preaching the gospel and facilitating reconciliation initiatives across his nation.
Nkosinathi has been a pastor in Cape Town for the past 18 years, where he lives with his wife Ziyanda, and 3 daughters: Khololukhulu (16), Bonokuhle (13), Dumoluhle (10). When not actively engaging the leadership of 24-7 Prayer in South Africa, Nkosinathi can be found at a local coffee shop with a friend; training for a marathon; cooking dinner for the family; or hosting dinners with visiting friends and family on their long table!
Chris has been married to Debbie for over 25 years and they have 3 amazing children. A Pastor in Emmanuel Church Portadown, he is passionate about the church’s role in bringing Kingdom transformation to the community. Chris believes that Christian involvement in effective community development must come from informed best practice and through a lens of biblical justice. Chris and his wife Debbie moved from Belfast in 2006 to plant a Vineyard Church in Portadown. Setting up their church building as a centre for the community on the site of a former army base, they established several community engagement projects. Passionate about the environment and how Christians engage with creation care, Chris established a community allotment in 2012 on an unused plot of land. His team carried out a number of food growing projects as part of their community engagement strategy. Chris is an anti-poverty campaigner and the Chairman of Craigavon Area Food Bank. Having established a food project during the recession of 2008, this evolved into a regional inter-church food bank in 2012. Chris has been involved in strategic community development with his local district council over the past 8 years, working with various community stakeholders to develop strategic outcomes for tackling poverty in urban and rural communities. He has also been involved in poverty advocacy work with the UK government at regional and national levels. When he is not talking about injustice and the damage that Neoliberal ideas have done to society, he loves road cycling and making frequent coffee stops. Keen to learn from the expertise of others, Chris has spent the last 3 years at the University of Ulster studying for a BSc in Community Development.
Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Lisa is curating a house of prayer and helping unify churches across the city in persistent, collaborative prayer. A seasoned church planter, pastor, and activist, she now serves as a leader in the global 24-7 Prayer movement, where she champions the integrated call to prayer, mission, and justice. Known as a spiritual director to church leaders around the world and a "pastor to pastors," she also works extensively in the areas of spiritual formation, racial justice, and anti-human trafficking. A gifted wordsmith, she weaves language and truth to awaken hearts and minds. Her deepest passion is equipping people to know God’s heart, bear His likeness, and carry His presence and purposes into their corner of the world—living out the two great commandments and the Great Commission with clarity and courage.
***The voices featured in Prophetic Justice Conversations represent a wide range of theological, philosophical, and political perspectives. Their inclusion is not an endorsement, but an invitation to listen, discern, and engage prayerfully.