OUR ORIGINS
Grace x Strength began with a shared belief that Christian faith and yoga did not need to sit on opposite sides of the room.
Founded by Josephine “Jo” Lau and Alyssa Mak-Joseph, Grace x Strength grew from their own experiences of faith, yoga and the questions that came with bringing the two together. What began as a shared vision became a Christian yoga community offering practices, resources and conversations grounded in the Christian faith.
Both founders brought different experiences to that beginning and helped shape what Grace x Strength became. Later, Alyssa stepped away from the ministry as she entered a different season of life, but her close friendship with Jo and her contribution to the ministry remain an important and valued part of its origins.
Over the following years, Grace x Strength continued under Jo’s leadership. As her own knowledge and experience expanded, so too did the perspective she brought to the ministry. Alongside her background in yoga and Christian faith, her lived experience with migraine and more recent study of psychology and neuroscience have deepened her interest in how the body and mind work, and how this knowledge can sit alongside faith.
GRACE X STRENTH TODAY
Grace x Strength remains, at its heart, a Christian yoga space. Its spiritual foundation has not changed, but its perspective has broadened.
What began with a strong focus on the spiritual relationship between Christian faith and yoga now also includes a growing interest in the body itself: how it responds, adapts and is shaped by our experiences. For Grace x Strength, learning more about the physical and psychological dimensions of the body does not sit apart from faith. It adds another way of understanding the body as part of God’s design.
Its practices and resources continue to draw on movement, stillness, prayer and reflection as ways of engaging with both body and spirit. The existing teachings remain part of the Grace x Strength story, while Jo’s developing knowledge in psychology and neuroscience now informs the broader perspective from which she approaches questions of health, wellbeing and embodied practice.
Grace x Strength therefore continues to hold the Christian faith at its centre while making room for a fuller understanding of the people and bodies that faith speaks into.
Its name still reflects something central to why it began: that strength is not always found in striving, and that grace has a place in how we meet ourselves, our bodies and the circumstances we cannot always change.