Hopeful Activists: How to Flourish

The (Un)successful Podcast is hosted by Pete Portal. In each episode Pete is asking what does human flourishing look like, for followers of Jesus, in a world that is growing sick pursuing the wrong sort of success. You'll hear from a variety of guests who live and work in different sectors and with diverse spheres of influence.

The story of Maruwaan Scullard, a young man once wrecked by addiction and violence, who found Jesus one night through a miraculous healing, and lived his life forever changed.

In this teaching, Pete shares with Kings Cross Church London.

In this conversation, Pete talks about how choosing unsuccess might be the best path to human flourishing. He shares his own story and the struggles that inspired this idea. In addition, he invites us to consider an alternative way of ordering our lives that looks less like the messages filling billboards and magazines and more like the one of scripture.

We all have feelings of failure and disappointment, in this conversation we learn to reframe our view of success within Jesus’ framework. Pete Portal was born in the UK but has lived in Cape Town, South Africa for the last 15 years.

In this 6-part series, explore how we as followers of Jesus can respond and walk through the disorientating moments in our lives, in the complexity of today’s culture, by looking to the ancient paths of Jesus. Kyung Chul (Charlie) Kang is your host for this podcast, joined by Dr Jason Clark in the studio as they discuss mission and how we’re called to participate in it. Later in the episode, we’re joined by Pete and Sarah Portal who are part of the 24-7 Prayer Community in Manenberg, South Africa, an area of poverty, high crime, and high unemployment. They speak about the ups and downs of ministry, having made the bold decisions to follow the leading of Jesus yet facing incredible amounts of betrayals and disappointments. In this episode, we discuss: Dealing with disappointmentsFinding Jesus in the places where injustice is rampantWhat does it mean to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly?How justice might cost us in terms of time, effort and reputationThe difficult balance between justice

Is the church in the West asleep? Brian and Hannah are joined by Pete Portal, who lives with his family in Manenberg, a township in South Africa. Pete and his wife share their lives with young men coming out of addiction and gang violence, and they’ve seen God do incredible things in their community. Pete talks about how to grieve well in a context full of loss, violence, and injustice, and how Jesus enables impossible hope. He describes how a life in ministry has confronted him with how drastically God’s idea of success is different from the world’s. How has a worldly idea of success crept into the goals of the church? And what’s the solution?

Pete Portal shares from his new book, How to be (Un)Successful: An Unlikely Guide to Human Flourishing, and what it means to really know Christ more, based on Philippians 3:10-11. Pete is based in Cape Town, South Africa. Along with his wife Sarah and daughter Simi, they do life with young men coming out of gangsterism and drug addiction and help these young men find faith, freedom and wholeness.

“What does it look like to be an unsuccessful prayer movement in a world where there is an obsession with being seen?” Pete Portal spoke powerfully about what it looks like be an unsuccessful prayer movement and how our pain can either be transferred onto others or be transformed by giving it to God. “An unsuccessful prayer movement will measure itself by two metrics: the presence of Jesus, leading us to love the poor… We need to remember that the purpose of our life lies beyond ourselves” Recorded live in Vienna at The Gathering '23