Kingdom Rice

The Mission: Equipping Communities for Transformation

Equipping communities to navigate identity, belonging, and mental health by reimagining shame and honor through cultural engagement and immersive learning.

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We are committed to reversing shame, embracing cultural narratives that honor diversity, and creating spaces for transformative growth

Even in 1946, WWII anthropologist Ruth Benedict said that "shame is an increasingly heavy burden in the United States and guilt is less extremely felt than in earlier generations.”

"Christian theologians have 'rarely if ever stressed salvation as honoring God, exposure of sin as shame, and the need for acceptance as the restoration of honor'" - Bruce Nicholls, founder of the “Evangelical Review of Theology"

If we don't talk about shame, we don't talk about transformation

We highlight the value of distinct cultures, and show how who we are in our diversity can be an advantage to ourselves, and a gift to others - Dr. Kristin Caynor

Join us in our mission:

Imagine ...

Being secure without the fig leaves of your own shame, and the transformation the brings
Seeing how your own story and culture is an asset to yourself and as a gift for others
Learning the dynamics of shame and honor and its impact on your own voice creativity, your vocation, and your community
Being able to see other neighborhoods beyond a consumeristic lens
Learning the history of your culture, church, and peoples in a way that helps you name what to leave behind, and what to bring with you
the integration of faith and shame/honor dynamics that is free of Christian Nationalism and empire.

Embody ...

Character is what you do out of habit. We train on the character level.
Our programs help us identify the inherent biases we carry of others, ourselves, and our Higher Power.
We can actually become the kind of person who can "put down the armor" and able to find solidarity with communities once thought unimaginable

Learn How

What different does a shame-reversal lens make?

Video courtesy of Jeffrey Chung

Snapshots from the field...

Bringing Intergenerational Trauma Healing to the classroom

March 14, 2025

Through the years, I’ve guest lectured to students of medicine, ethnic studies, therapy, urban studies, divinity, and more. In each case, I’ve presented how a narrative of shame-reversal can serve each of their respective disciplines. In the Fall of 2024, Dr. Aizaiah Yong invited me to facilitate a session for three early career faculty members of…

HOME – BELONGING – RESTORATION – EMBRACE

September 23, 2023

by Pastor Andrea Wong of Hong Kong When people first meet me, they often ask, “Where is home for you?” A seemingly simple, yet complex question… You see, ordinarily, my default is to say: Hong Kong. It’s where I was born, where I’ve spent most of my life, but also where I currently reside. But…

Sharing love with San Francisco’s interfaith worshipping communities

July 30, 2015

On a recent Sunday morning, I took my family to church as I do most Sundays. But this Sunday was different. After our worship service, bicyclists began gathering outside my church from San Francisco’s diverse inter-faith community. I welcomed everyone to my church and began my role of presiding over this first-ever inter-faith service on wheels.…

As an Anglo-American pastoring a majority Asian-American church, Steve’s perspective has shaped my ministry and me in profound ways: 1) to open my eyes to greater degrees the structures of power and privilege within American society, and the way that many in our community experience that; 2) the way that the Kingdom of God subverts the bondage of guilt, shame and fear through the Gospel. I am so grateful for the ways that God has met us as we’ve committed to mutual submission.

Sean Curtis

Former pastor of The Great Exchange Covenant Church, San Francisco

Kingdom Rice rethinks and restructures paradigms and systems in light of Kingdom values with a prophetic voice. They provide a theological and cultural big picture and education and development to every level of the organization. They integrate emotional health, theology and cultural dynamics in all aspects of life and ministry.

Various members

Epic Movement’s Leadership Development Team

Steve’s ministry gave me such a shock, in the best way possible. Sitting in class with our missions training students I was learning things I hadn’t heard before. Things like how the gospel relates differently throughout the world, and that when we push the guilt/righteousness mindset we are not relating Christ to other cultures. I was woken up to the reality that culture gives others a different perspective, and that it is good. Steve taught how the ‘honor/shame’ culture of Asia depicts a beautiful view of the Kingdom of God. The students learned to step into another culture, to understand their thoughts and what Christ would want to do in the lives of those we would be sharing with.

The students were given the opportunity to re-write their testimonies so they related to the Asian culture we would be sharing with, and it had such a deep impact. I saw students who had no words to share the gospel before Steve’s teaching able to relate what God has done in them to a culture they never knew before. I experienced a new and deeper friendship with people I had met on previous missions trips simply because I tried a new way of relating to their culture. The best part of working with Steve is that he doesn’t just teach from book material, but he invites others into living out what he shares. He brings everyone into an interactive format that is taught and experienced throughout his ministry. Through Steve’s teaching everyone was better equipped to share the gospel in a culturally relevant way.

Kassi Palmer

Discipleship Training School, Youth With A Mission, San Francisco

Drawing from the most grand of honor-shame narratives, the narrative of Jesus shunning shame unto honor, we've been invited to train faith-based, non faith-based, academic, and community organizations.