18 min read ⭑
“I want to reintroduce the justice nature of Jesus and illuminate the experiential role of the Holy Spirit in empowering the average Christian toward works that lead to social righteousness.”
With a heart for social justice and the soul of an artist, Jonathan Tremaine Thomas’ life has been marked by a blend of holy activism, pastoral ministry and creativity. As executive director of the Civil Righteousness movement, he strives for prayer, reconciliation and community transformation. His new book, “Make Straight the Path,” walks believers down the road of biblical righteousness and peacemaking in whatever culture or nation they live in.
In this interview, he opens up about his deep longing to innovate like George Washington Carver, hear from God like Jeremiah and intercede like Rees Howells. Let his call to fasting and feasting challenge you, his stories of healing from spiritual abuse move you and his encounters with the prophetic inspire you. Found here at Rapt, and nowhere else.
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
Food is always about more than food; it’s also about home and people and love. So how does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind your web bio?
My meal of choice would be breakfast at Smith’s Drugs, a pharmacy that has been serving families on the main street of my hometown for 80 years. When I was in seventh and eighth grade, their diner was our go-to destination every day after school. Back then, you could get a char-grilled burger, fries and a fountain drink or pancakes, eggs, grits and a breakfast meat for well under $5 (including livermush).
Despite how gross it may sound, livermush is a delicacy that can only be found in one area of the planet — western North Carolina. Although I moved away 24 years ago, my neighbor-wood used to be a secret. But it’s quickly becoming overpopulated by wealthy city dwellers who are captivated by the romance of rural life. I say wood instead of hood because that’s exactly where and what Forest City, North Carolina, is — a small town nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Smith’s was the first place where I tasted adolescent independence with a small group of friends, spending my allowance money on a livermush and egg biscuit, then splurging on a pocket knife just a few aisles away. I don’t eat liver, but livermush is something else entirely. It’s a good Southern “don’t ask, don’t talk about it” type of food in that you just don’t want to know what’s inside of it. It’s one of many culinary creations borne out of poverty’s grit and our bent toward survival. Spoiler alert: it’s a mixture of the lesser-choice remainders of pig meat, ground together with cornmeal into a patty. That’s the spirit of the blue-collar home I was raised in and the people I was raised around. Looked over, yet creative, unique, resilient, multifaceted. I guess I’m a reflection of them — or it (livermush).
Fidel Fernando; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
What “nonspiritual” activity have you found to be quite spiritual, after all? What quirky proclivity, out-of-the-way interest or unexpected pursuit refreshes your soul?
I’ve always been an outdoor adventurer and an extreme sports guy. If it’s loud, fast and dangerous, I’ve probably had a fixation on it in some way and attempted to master it at some point in my life (to my wife’s chagrin). When people are getting to know me, they are surprised by the number of random things I have a genuine interest in or in-depth knowledge of.
For example, I was at a shooting range on a camping trip with a men’s group a few years ago, and one of the guys mentioned buying his son a dirt bike. As he talked about it, I asked some technical specifics regarding the bike and offered some ownership tips that were unique to that make and model. In complete shock, he asked, “How do you know that?” Because I grew up on dirt bikes and used to race that model. “Wait, you raced dirt bikes?” Yessir. He responded, “Man, I’m perplexed. You shoot, you camp, you preach and you raced dirt bikes. I’ll be honest, I’ve never met a Black man like you.” I said, “Well, believe it or not, we do it all!”
More than my latest obsession, cycling has become a spiritual practice. I used to feel the presence of God when I ran track and cross-country back in high school, but my knees won’t let me do that anymore. On the bike, when my legs are burning and my skin is glistening with the moisture that comes from 50 miles of pedaling in the summer heat, there is a unique type of prayer that gets activated as you realize you have another 50 miles to go to get home. Whether it is a long jaunt on country paths alongside the Mississippi River or a shorter zip through city streets, I always feel the Holy Spirit directing my eyes to people, places and things that he loves. Moreover, I feel him surging through me, propelling my body forward even when I want to quit and increasing my physical fitness and my soul’s capacity to love both him and others.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness; every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re all broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite and how do you confront its power?
My kryptonite is the fear of manipulation and control. Not the fear of being manipulated or controlled but of operating in it as a ministry leader. This undoubtedly proceeds from the unfortunate track record of spiritual abuse that has plagued the church for generations and the abuse that my wife and I endured at the beginning of our married life together.
I never wanted to go into ministry or missions occupationally, but after a series of unmistakably divine disruptions during my senior year of college, I turned down a dream job offer in New York City to attend a graduate school of ministry in Nashville, Tennessee. As a zealous 21-year-old, my great desire was to please God with my life.
In the ministry school, I was immediately immersed in an environment that emphasized discipleship, spiritual family, accountability and submission to authority. Although I was raised in a solid church and a godly household, the outworking of these concepts within this Nashville community was radically different from my foundation. These leaders were the most dynamic preachers, teachers and evangelists I had ever seen, and the school was part of a church that served as the “apostolic hub” of a global movement. Being at the center of this church network’s universe with direct access to the “apostolic team,” I was made to believe that it was a high honor and a unique privilege to be discipled by these leaders.
In hindsight, they were anointed narcissists. I could write a book on the measure of spiritual abuse that my wife and I endured, but the embarrassing truth is that we were victims in what could objectively meet the definition of a cult. Because I’m very aware of the fact that men who operated in the spirit of manipulation and control had a profound impact on my formation as a leader, I never want to be guilty of doing to others what was done to me.
This has created a notable tendency toward hypervigilance against it in how I lead — even to a fault. It has impacted my ability to say what I truly think about certain situations when discipling others, and it’s negatively influenced how closely I allow myself to walk with others who seek mentorship from me. For example, the manipulative leaders from my past were involved in every detail of my life, demanding to be consulted about every decision and every move I made. Today, my disengagement from such requirements can sometimes be perceived by those who desire mentorship as disinterest or apathy.
The most difficult challenge from it has been the enduring impact of that season on my marriage. My wife saw through their bulls— (pardon my language) from the very start, but I had already drunk the Kool-Aid, allowing them to put us through some things that we should never have experienced. Because of that, she is the definition of “unimpressed” by all things and people who could be categorized as church, ministry and missions, and God faithfully uses her to keep me from drinking my own.
I’m thankful that at the very beginning, God allowed us to have a front-row seat to the proclivities of men who hold power and position. I know that he is proactively walking through the lampstand of the church today, removing toxic leaders and the systems that have propagated countless stories that are similar to ours. Our marital journey has been marked by a wounded, limping love from such toxicity. But after 21 years of marriage, we’re still here, embracing weakness and taking comfort in knowing that he will faithfully complete what he started in us, working for our good!
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?
I’m really excited about the moment I’m in right now. I’m transitioning from spending the bulk of my energy as an organizational leader to investing in thought leadership through creativity. I’m a missionary, messenger, minister and entrepreneur, but I’m also an artist. For almost a decade, my creativity has mainly been expressed within the context of the daily operations of either a local church or our nonprofit organization, Civil Righteousness — and that life has been incredibly exhausting.
For years, people asked me when I would write or if I had a book, but I’ve always wanted to be “about that life” more than talk about it. Although I wasn’t formally writing in those times, I had been living out our story and capturing elements of our convictions on paper for a very long time. In early 2025, we signed with Thomas Nelson, an imprint of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, and my upcoming book “Make Straight the Path” became a reality.
After over a decade of rage in relation to real and perceived social injustices, racism, police abuse of power and political polarization, people on every side of all the issues are fatigued. Moreover, among believers, there is a lack of clarity concerning Jesus’ personhood and activity in the midst of our times.
This book captures the ways in which Jesus has faithfully led me to engage the culture by following him across the boundaries of our ethnic and political borders. I want to reintroduce the justice nature of Jesus and illuminate the experiential role of the Holy Spirit in empowering the average Christian toward works that lead to social righteousness. Although it is historically, sociologically and theologically dense, I didn’t write it as an academic, and it isn’t necessarily for super heady spaces. In fact, I can’t stand how cerebral we’ve made the justice conversation. As a practitioner, not a theorist, I desire to see a mass wave of “holy activism” as people are inspired with fresh hope for healing, reconciliation and restoration. My organizational leadership responsibilities spawned from the missionary assignments I’ve taken on through following Jesus into cities and communities with no plan except obedience. That said, the stories and the suggested “practices” (which are rooted in prayer and proximity) are what set me and this message apart from so many others in the space.
Isaiah 58 has been an anchoring scriptural passage for not only this book but our work in general. Particularly verse 12, which says: “And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in” (Isa. 58:12, ESV).This passage provokes me to believe that God is restoring a grace to the church in this generation for the healing of generational psychological and spiritual wounds, the physical healing of the land and the renewal of cities through urban development.
To that end, I’m embarking upon a 3,300-mile bicycle pilgrimage across America, retracing several Underground Railroad routes and engaging holy activism in significant communities along the way. Being navigated in at least 11 segments, each one will be filmed and released episodically, inviting the nation to participate in the conversation and the journey in a multitude of ways. The goal is to model listening, learning and courageous conversation in ways that can inspire a national movement toward a comprehensive truth and reconciliation process, which is something America has never done.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Whether we’re cashiers or CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need God’s love flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?
I love this question. Throughout the Old Testament, we see two patterns that reveal how God directed the movements and activities of both kings and prophets. We could consider the inaugurations of any of the major prophets’ ministries as examples to consider, but look at Jeremiah 1:2: The word of the Lord came to him in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah. There was a very specific moment of encounter where the word of the Lord approached him. This was a disruption in his normal mode of operation that changed the trajectory of his life, and it eventually happened regularly, changing the trajectory of his months, weeks and days. After receiving instructions, another supernatural experience occurred: “Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth” (Jer. 1:9, ESV). Jeremiah’s ability to accomplish what the Lord had instructed him to do was followed by supernatural empowerment by God’s hand.
My life and work have been radically marked by directive supernatural encounters like those of our ancient prophetic mothers and fathers. For example, in the summer of 2014, I was in North Carolina taking care of three family members who were all battling for their lives in three separate hospitals. On Aug. 9, 18-year-old Mike Brown was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and cities around the world erupted in response. Nine days later, I had just sat on the edge of the bed in my dad’s guest bedroom to take off my shoes after an exhausting day at hospitals when the word of the Lord came to me. The voice wasn’t discernible with my physical ear; it was internal. It arrived disruptively and settled into my mind like a pronounced thought that was so concrete and so far from the realities of my physical activity or circumstance that it was clearly not my own.
The voice said, “Zechariah 8:18.” I was startled to attention by the voice, so I frantically looked around for my Bible. Unable to find it, I grabbed my phone and noticed that it was 8:18 p.m. as I Googled the scriptural passage. In paraphrase, it essentially said that “the fast shall become a feast.” As I pondered this, I suddenly had an open vision of myself typing an email and putting “Meet me in Ferguson” in the subject line. I was so astounded by the vision, I ran into the living room and recounted it to my wife, who said, “Well, what else does the passage say?” I continued to read and landed at verse 21: “The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going’” (Zech. 8:21, ESV).
I interpreted this to mean that people from other cities were all traveling to one place to ask for God’s favor — or to pray. “Meet me in Ferguson” meant that God was going to Ferguson, and I was to meet him there to seek his favor. Seven days later, I visited the city to prayer walk, and during that time, the hand of the Lord came upon me, directing me with wisdom and insight, which led to 90 days of intensive mission amid civil unrest. Those 90 days have turned into 12 years of residency, as we sold our home and relocated to Ferguson permanently.
Today, I refuse to make moves from day to day without the directive of the word of the Lord and the accompanying evidence of his hand. I know it’s God when it happens because he almost never invites us into the things that are possible for us. He leads us into that which is overwhelming and impossible in our strength or wisdom but probable through his Spirit.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you in this season?
After years of fasting, I’ve actually been discovering the holiness of the Lord’s feasts. I champion fasting with prayer and meditation as the single most transformative practice for unlocking the realm of wonder, mystery, beauty and power in and through my life. I’ve fasted one day a week for the past 20 years and engaged in at least one 21- to 40-day fast annually. I don’t share this as some sort of pious accolade to be applauded or even duplicated. I share it because these have become rhythms and disciplines that have radically shaped my walk with Jesus and my experience with the Holy Spirit.
However, the greatest fast is not the one that is done out of discipline but the one in response to his invitation. There are times when he gently beckons us to choose for our flesh to be weakened, denying the feeding of our bellies in order for our spirits to be strengthened with heavenly bread. But there are also times when he invites us to sit at the table, enjoy a meal with chosen family and celebrate who he has shown himself to be among us. Feasting can be as holy as fasting, and fasting with wrong motives can be as sinful as gluttonous feasting. 1 Kings 19 records the moment that the prophet Elijah ran for his life but then wanted to die after being threatened by Jezebel. Elijah fell asleep, and then God responded to his somewhat suicidal plea by saying, “Wake up and eat some cake!” He eats and takes a nap, and an angel wakes him up again, telling him to eat. These spiritual practices of feasting and intentional rest have been powerful restorative exercises for my family and me recently.
There are also times when God invites us to come away with him and step outside of the camp or our normal routines and pull aside in the wilderness. This is when and where wild things happen. These are Hosea 2:14-15 invitations into restoration: “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope” (Hos. 2:14-15, ESV).
After a decade of being poured out, ministering in the valleys of trouble and carrying the ministry of reconciliation, my soul has been weary. Instead of demanding that I dig a fresh well through the labor of fasting and prayer, God began giving me opportunities to spend a few days alone on a mountainside and a few weeks in a place with no Wi-Fi, where I would be greeted every morning by a herd of deer grazing a dew-covered field in the sunrise. In these two places, the wilderness and the table, he has been restoring my soul.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed reality and changed your heart?
Perhaps the single most impactful book that has shaped my pursuit of Jesus is A.W. Tozer’s “The Knowledge of the Holy.” It is dense, taking focus and meditation to truly grasp. It’s the only book I have read over and over again throughout the years, with each read provoking me to hunger anew for a right revelation of God.
“The Man Who Talks with Flowers” by Glenn Clark is a portrait of the life of George Washington Carver. It highlights the mystical communion with God that Carver shared and the divine intelligence that he received as a result of such intimacy, which resulted in him becoming one of the most prolific scientists in American history. He’s credited with creating 325 uses for peanuts, 108 applications for sweet potatoes and 75 products made from pecans while also discovering new paint colors and innovating a host of agricultural practices that are still being used around the world today. His life has inspired me to ask and believe God for architecture, patents, blueprints and witty inventions for the purpose of social transformation.
If you can’t tell, much of what has shaped me is old. (Although that term is relative). I’ve studied the lives, sermons and social conditions of many Great Awakening revivalists — from Charles Finney and Evan Roberts to Richard Allen and William Seymour. One common denominator between them all has been the centrality of prevailing prayer. That reality has led me to study the lives of intercessors like Daniel Nash and Rees Howells, whose life and ministry is detailed beautifully in Norman P. Grubbs’ “Rees Howells, Intercessor.”
Certain things can be godsends, helping us survive, even thrive, in our fast-paced world. Does technology ever help you this way? Has an app ever boosted your spiritual growth? If so, how?
What the Holy Spirit has imparted to me through all three of these aforementioned areas of holy pursuit has come together in a mobile app that the Lord has recently allowed me and a team of people to create. In 2022, I was tasked with helping to design a department of biblical justice and mercy at a growing local church in Portland, Oregon. The newly appointed pastor there (Tyler Staton) desired to see an expression where “justice is at the center of our prayers and prayer is at the center of our justice work.”
On my first day at work, I was supposed to arrive at the church for an 8:30 a.m. prayer meeting. I had visited Portland a few times and thought I knew it enough to successfully navigate to the church without GPS. Well, it was a complete fail. I missed my exit but didn’t realize it because, as I was driving, I felt like I heard the Lord speaking to me about the city. This Scripture popped into my heart: “For a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Cor. 16:9, ESV). Then I heard, “It’s Door Day.”
As I contemplated what this meant for Portland and the work I was headed toward, I realized that I was wildly off track, so I took the next exit to turn around. At the exit, there was a massive houseless encampment with an overturned vehicle that had a pentagram graffitied on it. I was stunned by the intensity of the site and felt the Lord invite me to stop and get out of the car to pray there. I was already massively late for the prayer meeting, but I soon realized that God had another plan for me that day. He showed me that Satan had marked the city in various ways, but God wanted me to invite the church into marking the land as holy ground. The rest of my car ride turned into an adventure around the city as the Holy Spirit led me from site to site. I would just stop and take pictures or videos of each place that caught my attention, without knowledge of that location’s relevance. Then the idea of designing a mobile prayer app that tracks prayer on the streets entered my heart.
Shortly afterward, I connected with a lady named Renee Boucher, who I discovered also had this idea years earlier and had piloted it with 24/7 Prayer International. We put our heads together and launched a beta version in April 2023 with the question: What would happen if every space in every place was covered in prayer?
Today, Holy Here has 22,000 users prayer walking daily and weekly in over 110 nations around the world. It brings together prayer, mission and justice by using technology to connect people in every place with God’s burden for the whole earth to be filled with the knowledge of his glory. I’m blown away by the fact that through this, he’s answering my longing to be entrusted with divine technology in the spirit of what he did with Carver, Booker T. Washington and many other enslaved or descendants of enslaved persons whose first resort was to be educated in the school of the Spirit when being educated in civil society was not the most accessible option.
QUESTION #8: dream
God’s continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
I’ve mentioned that God has been awakening the artist in me. Over the next three to five years, you can expect to see me stepping into my calling as a messenger and a creative in some unique ways. I’m not really a singer, but I come from a very musical family. Recently, a well-known music artist who is a friend of mine approached me about cowriting a song with him, and we workshopped it this summer. Additionally, I’ve contemplated the prospect of beginning to release some spoken word poetry that has been growing in my secret place for years.
Beyond that, I’m exploring ways to faithfully steward the message not only in written form with more books but through various mediums, including theater, documentary and film. But the first step toward that is the episodic series that we are currently preparing to produce during my “Freedom Road” bicycle pilgrimage. I pray that through these various mediums, our generation will not be able to say that I became a great influencer; instead, they’ll hear the One with a voice like the sound of many waters and, like John, turn and behold the glorious One who is speaking with them. He who was, is and is to come. Then they’ll volunteer freely to become preparers of the way and make straight the path for his return.
It’s no secret our culture is painfully divided today — politically, ideologically, doctrinally. Yet there is one thing more powerful than division: prayer.
Whether we’re prayer walking through the streets or kneeling in the secret place of our bedrooms, our petitions have the power to impact our culture for generations to come. As we gather together to intercede for our nations and communities, let’s remember God’s promise to us:
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14, ESV).
Jonathan Tremaine Thomas is the author of Make Straight the Path: Following the Just One into Righteousness and Peacemaking through Holy Activism and executive director of the Civil Righteousness movement. As a fifth-generation “preacher’s kid” and the grandnephew of the late civil rights activist and musical legend Nina Simone, Jonathan has served some of the most underrepresented neighborhoods in America. He has pastored in various roles and spearheaded several extensive strategic prayer initiatives, including Azusa Now LA, Awaken The Dawn, OneRace Stone Mountain, The Send and Pray On MLK.