Christians for Social Action Marks Year One of Storytellers Collective, Rolling Out Stories of Gospel Hope
(October 8, 2025, Philadelphia, PA) Christians for Social Action (CSA), a center at Palmer Seminary of Eastern University, is marking the first year of the Storytellers Collective, a multi-year effort to surface, craft, and share stories of Christian faith and life from often-overlooked communities.
The inaugural cohort, consisting of five Christian organizations — Chasing Justice, Leadership LINKS, HopeWords, A Rocha USA, and CAAPIC — completed an 8-month training sequence with storytelling practitioners and theologians and will begin releasing multi-format stories this fall — short documentaries, podcasts, essays, music, and tool kits—designed for churches, schools, and community organizations.
“Stories shape not only how we see the world, but how we live in it,” said Nikki Toyama-Szeto, Executive Director of CSA. “At the heart of this work is Gospel Hope — the kind of hope that fuels resilience through faithful action and compelling goodness, regardless of outcomes. In year one we’re already seeing powerful witness emerge from places and people the spotlight often misses.”
Over the next four years, CSA will convene additional cohorts (reaching 20–30 organizations in total), expand story production and distribution, host public events and webinars, and publish curated series of Gospel Hope that will serve as a beacon of encouragement and imagination for the wider church.
This past summer, the cohort joined a songwriting retreat with Common Hymnal, a renowned community of songwriters and creatives known for gospel-grounded artistry. A new album featuring these stories of Gospel Hope is in development; many of the songs will be recorded and performed at the Christian Community Development Association’s (CCDA) national gathering in Grand Rapids, MI, in early November.
This initiative — Stories of Gospel Hope: Rooted and Resilient — is supported by a $4,172,305 grant awarded in December 2024 to Eastern University by Lilly Endowment Inc. through its National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life. The Endowment’s initiative helps organizations identify, produce, and share compelling stories that portray the vibrancy and hope of Christian faith and life with a wide variety of audiences. Learn more about CSA’s Storytellers Collective at christiansforsocialaction.org/the-storytellers-collective.
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion and maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.
A primary aim of its grantmaking in religion is to deepen the religious lives of Christians, principally by supporting efforts that enhance congregational vitality and strengthen the leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment values the broad diversity of Christian traditions and endeavors to support them in a wide variety of contexts. The Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding about religion by encouraging fair, accurate, and balanced portrayals of the positive and negative effects of religion on the world and lifting up the contributions that people of all faiths make to our greater civic well-being.
About Christians for Social Action
Christians for Social Action is a nonprofit organization and network of scholars, practitioners, and activists committed to stirring the imagination for a fuller expression of Christian faithfulness and a more just society. Founded in 1978 by Ron Sider, professor and author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, CSA has long been a voice calling the church to integrate faith and social engagement.
Media:
Laurie Nichols
Director of Communications
laurie.nichols@eastern.edu