About Us
Thread is a podcast about finding our place in God’s story. We invite you to follow along with Dr. David Pocta and Hannah DeSouza as they guide us on a journey through the Bible, exploring how the biblical narrative can transform and inspire us to live a life of fullness in Christ..
Thread is more than a podcast. ThreadPodcast.org and the Thread Podcast App are designed to provide immersive and integrated resources for churches and their members to experience new levels of depth and unity. Each week’s podcast topic is integrated into the life of the church through lessons for leaders, sermon starters, family devotional ideas, liturgy, and more. We envision deep and holistic teaching that has the power to transform ministries through the work of the Spirit. We invite you to preach with the podcast and see this vision come to life in your church.
Dr. David Pocta
HOST
David Pocta is a spirituality scholar, ministry builder, and educator. After nearly three decades of pastoral work, he returned to school for his PhD in spirituality. His work blends his experience in pastoral ministry with spirituality scholarship. His research interests include the spiritual journey, spiritual wilderness, contemporary church culture, and Christian mysticism. His dissertation addressed how the spiritual journey of Christians, when in their own wilderness, exposes the need for a reimagined church culture in Protestant evangelicalism. David is a collaborator and builder. He enjoys creating spaces for honest dialogue and authentic learning. He lives with his wife of more than thirty years in San Antonio and treasures having his daughters, son-in-law, and grandchildren nearby.
Hannah Desouza
HOST
Hannah grew up in the UK with a Caribbean-Malaysian father and English mother. She is currently obtaining her Masters in Divinity at Harvard Divinity School and has special interests in the relationship between literature and theology and liberation theology.
Hannah has degrees from King’s College London and Oxford University in English Literature and Spanish (BA) and Victorian Literature (MSt). Before coming to Harvard she worked as a part-time violin teacher and church minister, first in Boston and then in Moldova where she lived with and ministered largely to refugees after the war started in Ukraine. One of Hannah’s pulls for further study was being able to make theology accessible to the everyday Christian which she is excited to help develop with Thread!
Joel Nagel
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Joel Nagel planted and led the Lansing Area Church of Christ for 22 years. He has a passion for helping small churches fight above their weight through collaboration, shared resources, and expository teaching curriculums. He has recently taken on the role of Program Director for the Disciples Center of Education. In that role he helps produce the Thread Podcast, creates immersive and integrated content for each episode, facilitates groups of churches that want to preach with the podcast, and reminds Dave to explain all the big words he uses.