Featured Peacemaker: Chris Rice

by Rick Love

Chris Rice spent 17 years in Jackson, Mississippi serving in an inner-city neighborhood and, more recently, has spent the last 10 years as Co-Founder and Director of the Center for Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School. He grew up in Seoul, South Korea and is now heading back to facilitate a Northeast Asia Reconciliation Initiative with the Mennonite Central Committee.

I first met Chris in January of 2010 when Jim Mullins and I flew to Duke Divinity School to share with him about the birth of Peace Catalyst. I was impressed with his wisdom and gentleness and noticed that he exuded such peace that he seemed like a bit of a mystic. I liked being around him.

We met again at the Lausanne gathering in Cape Town, South Africa in October of 2010 where he masterfully facilitated the reconciliation track I participated in.

Chris's three award-winning books are Reconciling All Things (Christianity Today Book Award), the memoir Grace Matters (Publishers Weekly Best Adult Religion Book of 2002), and More Than Equals: Racial Healing for the Sake of the Gospel (Christianity Today Critic's Choice Award). In my opinion, Reconciling All Things is one of the best books available on peacemaking.

Chris’s latest interest concerns mission drift and recovering the “faith” in faith-based organizations. He recommends three books:

The Miracle, the Message, the Story: Jean Vanier and L’Arche
by Kathryn Spink
A wonderfully written story of a ministry struggling to keep its identity through thick and thin.

Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism
by David R. Swartz
A history telling a story of evangelical commitment to the least of these

The Ephesian Moment: At a Crossroads in Christian History
by Andrew Walls
Why does diversity matter for growing into the full stature of Christ?