Is this thing still on?

NEW Post | The ethical complexity of the urban context is only increasing as these communities face the intersecting challenges of globalization, immigration, racism, and economic injustice. Future urban ministers require more education and training, not less. benhein.substack.com/p/the-future...

Joshua McIlvaine: It is to be feared that the gospel of the Presbyterian church “is generally confined to those who are able to pay for it; our membership is composed almost exclusively of those who are well to do in the world.” benhein.substack.com/p/the-remedy...

This is one of my least read essays, but its one I feel that has been most important. It defines a good deal of my ministry philosophy and presence online: benhein.substack.com/p/the-danger...

The popular, progressive narrative on gentrification paralyzes good actors and prevents positive change in neighborhoods that are trapped in spirals of disinvestment. Some lessons I’ve learned:

Neo-Calvinist application of the institute and organism should look much more like a dance with a lead who supports the unique beauty and skill of their partner, not a rigid corporate structure of predefined tasks and responsibilities.

NEW Post | So, you’re worried about gentrification? Relax: you’re probably not the bad guy. Someone is going to buy that new or renovated house, and it’s better for everyone if it’s someone who gives a damn. benhein.substack.com/p/so-youre-w...

NEW Post | So, you’re worried about gentrification? Relax: you’re probably not the bad guy. Someone is going to buy that new or renovated house, and it’s better for everyone if it’s someone who gives a damn. benhein.substack.com/p/so-youre-w...

The best review I can give for LOTR: War of the Rohirrim is I have sat down to watch it twice and I only make it about 20 minutes before turning it off to go do something else.

Both the wealthy and religious elite are here condemned in their lust for power. Luke later demonstrated that the true church sees and protects those whom the powerful oppress (Acts 6).

Luke 21:1-4 is an example of a text that has suffered from a long tradition of poor interpretation. The widow is not an exemplary giver, she is a victim of exemplary injustice. She is an illustration of a vulnerable one whose house is being devoured (20:47) by an exploitative religious system.

The sinful inequality in people’s lot in life offends Jesus, and his wrath is ignited at the hardness of those who have. Abraham Kuyper, Christ and the Needy

Everywhere and at all times, the love ethic of Jesus is a radiant light revealing the ugliness of our stale conformity. Dr. King, "Transformed Noncomformist"

Truly just theologies and ecclesiologies must be done in proximity to the poor and marginalized. Theories, ideologies, or statements on social media from a distance will not do. Such work must be done with the poor flowing out of deep relationships and daily realities.

According to property records, of the 30 or so houses on the street behind me, about 12 are owned by a large property management company, 10 are owned by 3 different churches, & 4 by a private landlord. Conversations on gentrification/affordable housing need to include all these parties.

NEW Post | The mourning bench is a terrible place without company. The ministry of the mourning bench is sacred. I thank God for those who have sat on it with me. I will keep my seat warm, ready to cry again with those whose hearts are looking for rest. benhein.substack.com/p/the-minist...

NEW Post | The mourning bench is a terrible place without company. The ministry of the mourning bench is sacred. I thank God for those who have sat on it with me. I will keep my seat warm, ready to cry again with those whose hearts are looking for rest. benhein.substack.com/p/the-minist...

The Reformed social ethic is as alien in its nature to the inflexibilities of conservative orthodoxy that does not take into account the evolution of human situations as it is to any revolutionary ethic that frees itself from the Word of God. Biéler, 456

Biéler: OG Calvinism opposes the dangers and vices of capitalism “with absolute rigor”: Calvin had never accepted the idea that economic and financial existence could have its own moral rules for Christians and be detached from God's loving and just plan for human beings,

It is a common principle of justice which extends to all nations and to all ages that we should keep ourselves from plundering and devouring the poor who are in distress and want. John Calvin, Psalm 15:5

Those who have abundance do not enjoy their possessions as they ought unless they communicate them to the poor for the relief of their poverty. John Calvin, Exodus 22:25

Those who roar like a lion behind the keyboard but hardly squawk in their neighborhood do not yet know bravery or courage.

God wants me to serve my neighbors and not to be useless to them. So I would be a monster and challenging God if I could not devote myself to serve my neighbors as God has given me the means to do so. John Calvin, Sermon XIII on 1 Corinthians 11-16

He who knows how to take in cleverly the simple & oppress the poor by treachery is deemed the smarter. Since the world boats of vices as if they were virtues, & thus freely all excuse themselves in sin, God wipes away all this gloss, when he pronounced all unjust means of gain to be so many thefts.

Calvinism gets a bad rap for the “cage stage” many new adherents adopt. But there are countless cage stages people experience today: new politics, new sexuality, new denomination, exvangelical, evangelical, you name it.

Biéler: True Calvinism is a dynamic force that resists oppression. Wherever Calvinism has remained faithful to its founder’s basic principles, it has borne fruit in social initiatives that tend to give all workers a sense of meaningfulness against all forms of oppression.

How do you search through your previous posts or engagements with other uses here? Nothing I’ve tried seems to work.

W. Fred Graham: Justice for the poor should be as much a “yardstick” for true Calvinism as any doctrine: In the face of Calvin's insistence in sermon and Scripture commentary on the solidarity of mankind, his concern to make the law of love the Christian's social and economic ethic,

Our friend Erin Hall, director of the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic and a deaconess on the advisory team of our church plant, was featured in this article about the church’s role in caring for immigrants. Thank God for Erin and NCLC. www.christianitytoday.com/2025/03/how-...

No form of life is more praiseworthy before God than that which yields usefulness to the common society of humanity. John Calvin, Matt 25:24

In the age of social media and performance, we often believe that others must see and praise our efforts for them to be validated. Jesus tells us that this desire to be seen robs our good deeds of value and invalidates our ministry. benhein.substack.com/p/on-charity...

NEW Post | If any church, “from any cause whatsoever,” cannot say, “with a large and full significance, ‘The poor have the gospel preached unto them,’” it will have lost the evidence necessary to show that it is a true church. benhein.substack.com/p/the-danger...

Hence Christ has consecrated poverty in his own person, that believers may no longer regard it with horror. By his poverty he has enriched us all for this purpose—that we may not feel it hard to take from our abundance what we may lay out upon our brethren. John Calvin 2 Cor 8:9

NEW Post | If any church, “from any cause whatsoever,” cannot say, “with a large and full significance, ‘The poor have the gospel preached unto them,’” it will have lost the evidence necessary to show that it is a true church. benhein.substack.com/p/the-danger...

I really just want a fun space online to dream of positive visions for the church while staying away from the power grabs of White evangelicalism and the obsessive cynicism of exvangelicalism. Why is that so difficult?

The church that is abandoned by the poor will soon come to be abandoned by the Lord:

Although sometimes the foreigners were not members of the body of Israel, nor of the faith, God nevertheless still wished they should be shown pity… if the need arose, God did still want them to be given alms. John Calvin, Sermon XCII on Deut 14:24-29

NEW Post | What if Hodge and McIlvaine were correct? What if a tradition that neglects the poor is truly at risk of being abandoned by Jesus? If this is the case, the threat of apostasy remains very real, and we might be running out of time. benhein.substack.com/p/the-danger...

We are murderers when we kill our neighbor’s soul. This happens when we flatter our neighbor’s pride, incite their evil lusts and desires, weaken their tender consciences, shock their faith by our doubt, crush their faith by our ridicule, or offend them in anything whatsoever. H. Bavinck RE 2:454

NEW Post | Lessons learned from being slandered by Christians. Few things have shaped my walk with Jesus more than studying the Ninth Commandment. benhein.substack.com/p/words-that...

If the minister has the means through which he can console and give physical help to the suffering poor, he will spare nothing in doing so, and will display a genuine example of loving-kindness to everyone. John Calvin, Geneva Catechism

To sum up, what the same man said in another place we see to be very true: “Whatever, then, the church had was for the support of the needy.” Likewise: “The bishop had nothing that did not belong to the poor.” Calvin, 4.4.8

John Calvin: We are not only content at this day wickedly to suppress that which we have in our hands, but do also rob others. We invent a thousand subtle shifts to draw all things unto us by hook or by crook. There reigneth at this day an insatiable desire to buy.

The church has gold not to keep but to pay out, and to relieve distress. John Calvin (approvingly quoting Ambrose), Institutes 4.4.8

We defraud our neighbors of their property if we repudiate the duties by which we are obligated to them. John Calvin, Institutes, 2.8.45

In order that we may not be condemned as thieves by God, we must endeavor, as far as possible… that our neighbor’s advantage should be promoted no less than our own. John Calvin, The Eighth Commandment

If you could only tell a new or non-Christian one thing about the Lord's Prayer, what would it be?

Has anyone tried one of the live AI translation services for worship services? I'm concerned it will feel very impersonal, but I'm willing to give it a try if it alleviates burdens for our French and Spanish-speaking core team members in the early years.

Calvin: When the rich do not help the poor, they become like wild beasts who murder those whom they should have helped. The rich should not be like wild beasts and gobble up the poor and suck their blood and substance…

If I could only give one piece of advice to church planters: Start a garden. Learn to observe, cultivate, guide, and nurture various plants that are almost entirely outside of your control. Learn patience. Learn to adapt. Learn to see beauty in imperfections.