Chris Heuertz’s office reveals his quirks. Toys neatly line the border of his desk, everything from Star Wars action figures to tiny, plastic breakfast foods smoking cigarettes. To his left, he has pinned up pictures of such historical figures as Gandhi, Romero, Che, Mother Teresa and Bob Marley. Behind him is a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf filled with magazines like Harvard Business Review and Adbusters, International Bulletin of Missionary Research and Blender and books by authors like Henri Nouwen and Arundhati Roy. On the wall to his right is a portrait of a beautiful young Indian girl, Suryakala, whose life and death have deeply shaped who Chris is today.

Chris brings stories of friends like Suryakala into conversations that direct Christian culture. And while he is an important voice in today’s progressive Christian scene—recently publishing his first book, Simple Spirituality: Learning to See God in a Broken World; speaking at conferences like Catalyst, Urban Youth Workers Institute, Passion, and Faith, Film and Justice, as well as at several colleges each year; offering counsel at Lausanne, Urbana and To Write Love on Her Arms; and writing for Christianity Today, The Other Journal and Lausanne World Pulse—Chris is real, and his life is shaped by the lives of his friends like Suryakala.

Having made friends throughout several years of travel to nearly 70 countries, Chris has seen God’s heart for the vulnerable revealed. As he comes to know God’s heart, Chris stands as a prophetic voice, calling the church to act. An activist, author, ordained minister through the Association of Evangelical Churches and Ministries, adjunct professor at Lakeview Seminary in Chennai, visionary and public speaker, Chris believes in provoking imaginations toward a revolution of peace, justice and simplicity in the face of a world marked by appalling disparity.

After spending several months in Kolkata, India, in 1993 volunteering with Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity, Chris knew he wanted his life to count for those who are poor. He returned to India after living a semester in Israel and after graduating from Asbury College. From 1994 to 1996, Chris worked to help establish two Word Made Flesh children’s homes in Chennai, India, that cared for children with AIDS, Hansen’s disease (leprosy) and special needs. He also established a board of directors in Chennai, as well as a constitution for the running of the Word Made Flesh Chennai ministry.

Chris married Phileena Bacon in 1996, and the two began their life together in India. Shortly thereafter, Chris was named International Executive Director of Word Made Flesh. Chris and Phileena moved to the U.S. to serve in pastoral and administrative roles, frequently traveling to the WMF communities around the world (even living in Peru for a time). The two have given and found life in the WMF community, as they have befriended some of the most vulnerable of the world’s poor—Roma (gypsies), children with AIDS, prostituted women and girls, recovering drug addicts, former child soldiers, children on the streets and refugees.

Chris and Phileena now live in Omaha, Neb., and continue to travel widely in the States and abroad for speaking engagements, for community building and encouragement, to share what God has done in and through their lives, to find God anew and for fun.