brheiny.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

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...

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

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...

submitted 47 days ago • 1 comment

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...

submitted 53 days ago • 0 comments

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:

submitted 54 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

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...

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

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...

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 56 days ago • 0 comments

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).

submitted 56 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 57 days ago • 2 comments

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

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

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"

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 58 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 58 days ago • 0 comments

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...

submitted 59 days ago • 0 comments

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...

submitted 59 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 60 days ago • 0 comments

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,

submitted 61 days ago • 1 comment

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

submitted 61 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 64 days ago • 1 comment

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.

submitted 64 days ago • 1 comment

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.

submitted 65 days ago • 1 comment

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

submitted 65 days ago • 1 comment

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,

submitted 65 days ago • 1 comment

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-...

submitted 66 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 66 days ago • 0 comments

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...

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments