Joseph Kolawole Ola is a pastor, theologian, author, podcaster, and mentor whose work sits at the intersection of faith, culture, and generational renewal within African Christianity in the diaspora.

He currently pastors a multigenerational Pentecostal church in Liverpool, UK, while also serving as a lecturer with the Church Mission Society (CMS), where he teaches across programmes in African Christianity, mission, and global theology. Alongside his teaching, Joseph is a doctoral researcher investigating generational differences in faith practices among Nigerian Pentecostals in the UK, with particular attention to how inherited Pentecostal spirituality is being reimagined by younger adults in a post-migrant, digitally mediated context.

Joseph’s ministry is shaped by a deep commitment to discipleship, mission, and intergenerational formation. He is the founder of the Alive Mentorship Group, a decade-long mentoring community accompanying millennials and Gen Zs in faith, vocation, and everyday discipleship. His passion lies in helping young African Christians in the diaspora live out an authentic, rooted, and missional Christianity that speaks meaningfully to their cultural realities.

A prolific writer, Joseph has authored and edited over a dozen books and ongoing projects spanning devotional literature, pastoral theology, African Christian thought, and practical discipleship. His writing often explores themes such as diaspora identity, Pentecostal spirituality, leadership, family discipleship, and the future of the Church in multicultural contexts. He also contributes to academic and practitioner-facing platforms, engaging conversations around African Christianities, postcolonial mission, and global Christianity.

Joseph is also active in digital ministry and public theology. He co-hosts the Not Alone Today podcast and leads a daily Chronological Bible Reading Plan podcast with his wife, Anu, helping listeners engage Scripture devotionally and communally. Through podcasting, teaching, writing, and mentoring, he seeks to make theology accessible, embodied, and attentive to lived experience.

Rooted in an Ubuntu-shaped theology and a Pentecostal imagination, Joseph believes transformation flourishes in community—where faith is practised across generations, cultures are honoured, and the Spirit continues to invite the Church into newness. Above all, his work is driven by a desire to see believers grounded in Christ, attentive to their context, and courageously engaged in God’s mission in the world.