The Storytellers Collective
Stories of Gospel Hope: Rooted and Resilient
A multi-year, national storytelling initiative, amplifying stories that challenge despair and stir the Church’s imagination for a more just, faithful future.
Across the U.S., the loudest headlines about Christianity often tell a story of decline — empty pews, church closings, and a generation walking away from institutional religion.
But that’s not the whole story.
At Christians for Social Action (CSA), we believe the Church is still alive — thriving, even — but often in places the world overlooks. In communities that have borne the weight of injustice. In neighborhoods labeled “marginal.” In the quiet, faithful acts of people showing up day after day.
We call this gospel hope — not because it guarantees victory, but because it refuses to give up.
With generous support from Lilly Endowment Inc., CSA launched the Storytellers Collective to gather and share these stories. We are building a national network of organizations, creatives, and community-rooted storytellers who are capturing and amplifying what God is doing — right now, in unexpected places.
What We're Doing (and Why)
The Storytellers Collective is part of Lilly Endowment’s National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life, designed to counter narrow or cynical portrayals of Christianity with stories of vibrancy, faithfulness, and life.
Over five years, CSA is:
Convening four storytelling cohorts of 5–6 grassroots Christian organizations each
Training dozens of storytellers embedded in local communities
Producing and publishing over 50 stories in podcast, video, and written formats
Archiving these stories to expand the canon of Christian witness from underrepresented communities
What We Mean by “Gospel Hope”
We define gospel hope as the animating force — not the outcome. It’s not a shiny, triumphant ending. It’s the why that keeps someone moving forward in love, justice, or faith — especially when things are hard. Many people are cynical about the Church today. We don’t think that’s because Christianity isn’t ‘winning’ enough. In fact, maybe we’ve been winning in the wrong contests. The best testimony of Christian faith is found in stories of faithful action and compelling goodness.
As Hebrews 12 says, we’re looking to those who “run with perseverance the race marked out for them” — even when the road is rough or unclear. That’s what gospel hope looks like.
View the Latest News Release
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.
Meet Cohort One & Their Stories
We are partnering with organizations across the U.S.—ministries, nonprofits, and faith-rooted collectives doing powerful, local work. Each one is training storytellers and sharing stories that reflect the heart of gospel hope. Over the next four years, four cohorts will join this movement.
Cohort 1 features stories from: Chasing Justice, A Rocha USA, Leadership LINKS, HopeWords, and the Coalition for Asian American and Pacific Islander Churches, with additional contributions from Dayspring Partners and Common Hymnal.
📰 Their stories are launch later this Fall 2025.
We believe the Church is not finished.
It’s being reborn again and again — through a faith that gets its hands dirty, through voices that refuse despair, and through stories that ring true.
Let’s reclaim the stories of God together.
