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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

I already forgot about this post

Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

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...

benhein.substack.com

The Future of Urban Ministry Training

"Let us beware of incurring the displeasure of the Lord of the harvest.”

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

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...

benhein.substack.com

The Remedy for Our Great Evil

Becoming a Church for the Poor

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

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...

benhein.substack.com

The Danger of Spiritual Gentrification

When the issues of White Evangelicalism come at the expense of my immediate neighbor, I am a spiritual gentrifier.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

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:

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

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.

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Reposted by Ben Hein

Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

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...

benhein.substack.com

So, You're Worried About Gentrification?

Relax: You're probably not the bad guy.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

benhein.substack.com

So, You're Worried About Gentrification?

Relax: You're probably not the bad guy.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

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.

media.tenor.com

a poster for the war of the rohirrim shows a dark background

ALT: a poster for the war of the rohirrim shows a dark background

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

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).

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Like the rich man in Luke 16 who is condemned for no other reason than his failure to care for Lazarus, the religious leaders and their system is condemned for no other reason than their failure to protect a widow such as this one.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

The religious leaders and the wealthy failed to care for the widows. That was their basic duty. They created a religious system that was impressive because of its size, wealth, and power. Jesus pledges to tear it all down.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Correct. Unfortunately this reading goes back to church fathers who seemed to over spiritualize the passage. It’s reinforced by bad pericope divisions. Take out the pericope headings and spiritualized tradition and the natural reading is she’s a victim, not an example to follow.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Jesus’ mission is to bring good news to the poor, including this widow, not to impoverish the poor even further.” (NICNT Luke, 728) In Luke’s gospel, This concern for wealth and power while the poor are neglected and exploited motivates Jesus’ judgement on the entire temple system (21:5-6).

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

As Joel Green says: “Note that in no way does Luke suggest that Jesus finds the widow’s action exemplary or praiseworthy. How could he, when the religious system was supposed to care for such as these, not render them utterly destitute?

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

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.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

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

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

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"

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

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.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

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.

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Reposted by Ben Hein

Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

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...

benhein.substack.com

The Ministry of the Mourning Bench

No one can grieve alone for long.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

benhein.substack.com

The Ministry of the Mourning Bench

No one can grieve alone for long.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

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

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

[so] Calvinism in its original form could not fail to see the dangers and vices of capitalism from its very beginnings and oppose them with absolute rigour. André Biéler, Calvin’s Economic and Social Thought, 454

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

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,

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

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

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

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

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

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

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

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

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

John Calvin Sermon XCV on Deut 15:11-15

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

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.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

We should also be skeptical of movements and ideologies that just started yesterday. Look for ideas that are time-tested, movements that have taken root outside of one demographic, and trusted leaders that have taken it on the chin for their convictions.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Zealous, outspoken, reactionary, and narrow-minded followers are the ideal to build a brand and platform. These behaviors are easy to spot in others. They’re hard to admit in ourselves. A few trusted friends who will tell us the truth no matter what will go a long way.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Some movements and traditions are better than others at teaching its new followers wisdom and self-control. “New Calvinism” did a poor job at this. However, in our polarized culture, most movements are built on keeping people in the cage stage.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

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.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Some movements and traditions are better at teaching its new followers wisdom and self-control. “New Calvinism” did a poor job at this. However, in our polarized culture, most movements are built out of keeping people in the cage stage.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

and has produced a conservatism that had often been reactionary, totally contrary to its original social dynamism. André Biéler, Calvin’s Economic and Social Thought, 366

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

On the other hand, when Calvinism has withdrawn into itself, turning into an orthodoxy that finds its faith and justification in itself, it has identified itself with other conservative forces

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

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.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

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

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

W. Fred Graham, The Constructive Revolutionary, 76

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Certainly they place Christ's church on the side of the poor-and in our day when the revolting poor of the world are generally found outside the church, this is a sobering thought. Will we who are rich continue to support our pastors and teachers when they march at the side of the poor?

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

This author would insist that Calvin's social and economic teachings were clearly just as important to Calvin himself, and might just as well be used as the yardstick of Calvinist orthodoxy.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Those so-called Five Points of Calvinism merely hardened one aspect of Calvin's thought and helped erect Predestination as the shibboleth by which one could quickly take the measure of a churchman.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

and his acceptance of the right of the state to interfere in business practices—in the face of all this, is it sufficient that one be able to affirm the theological gargoyles of limited atonement (Christ died only for the elect) and predestination for one to be called a Calvinist?

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

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,

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

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-...

christianitytoday.com

The Legal Hurdles Killing the American Dream - Christianity Today

Most evangelicals want undocumented immigrants to have a path to citizenship. But ICE detentions and a growing lawyer shortage can make it feel impossible.

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