Welcome to the online C.V. and portfolio of Ben Rey. My hope is that this will give you an opportunity to get to know me better. Of course nothing will take the place of meeting one another in person, so please visit the Contact page and get in touch.
Let me also say on a word on humility. Resumes, portfolios and C.V.’s often highlight the strengths of a person. So I have tried my best to represent my vision, personality and gifts with both their strengths and shortcomings on this page.
God has given us a vision to plant Gospel churches that draw those who are far from God to Him, that place the lonely into communities and that renew America’s cities by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Identity
At the center of any vision for ministry is one’s identity. It is too easy for pastors and church planters to forget that their primary identity lies in their relation to God, not in their vocation. Therefore, our vision for ministry is rooted in Romans 8 where Paul declares:
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Romans 8.15-17
Our vision is rooted in the fact that we are children of God and that there is absolutely nothing we can to to earn God’s love or to have it be taken away from us, for we are children of God because of Christ’s death on the cross. Therefore, we are not loved based upon the success or failure of our ministry, but rather because of the unbelievable grace of God. This identity then informs our calling as Paul reminds us that we are coheirs with Christ and therefore sent out to join him in the reconciliation of all things.
Our Identity
God has never called a people apart from their culture. Therefore, while our identities are rooted in Christ they are often shaped by race, class, education and their geographical location. But in this post-industrial world, many of these distinctions are being blurred. In many ways, my wife and I are hybrids. We are socio-economic hybrids. I was born in a wealthy Chicago suburb with plenty of opportunities and strong social capital, but my family declared bankruptcy when I was 19 years old and that forever changed my life. Monica grew up in Virginia where with her father working at the local shipyard and her immigrant mother working various jobs. Monica is now completing her second master degree and her education has opened up a different world, a world much similar to my childhood. We are race/ethnic hybrids. I grew up in a Baptist church where at the age of eight, my majority white church called a black pastor. An instrumental part of my childhood was being part of this racial diverse church. Monica is the daughter of a Peruvian immigrant and man from a strong Polish family. Our household will always be a place of racial diversity. We are also denominational-hybrids. We have both been influenced by Reformed theology, the charismatic gifts and a rootedness in the historical church. We value Biblical, theological preaching, contextualized worship and an ancient spirituality. Ben has been a member of the AME church, licensed to preach in the Baptist church and ordained in the Anglican church, whereas Monica grew up Roman Catholic, came to know Jesus in an Assemblies of God church and was matured in the faith through an Acts 29 church.
Reconciliation of All Things
The Biblical witness uses many different words to describe what God has done throughout salvation history and especially in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. One of these words is reconciliation. In Colossians 1, Paul explains that Jesus is both the firstborn of all creation and the firstborn of the dead, “for in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” This therefore gives Jesus the authority to “reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col 1.19-20). Jesus death and resurrection opened the door for humanity to be reconciled to God. Where our sin had caused a great chasm between Creator and creature, Christ’s blood has crossed that chasm to make us children of God.
Our Call to Reconciliation
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5.18-20
As ambassadors of Christ, we are called to participate in the Holy Spirit’s work of reconciling people to their creator. We desire to proclaim this Gospel call to America’s cities and to join Christ in the renewal of all things. While this reconciliation is primarily one of salvation, the implications of this reconciliation are expansive, they in fact call for the reconciliation of the arts, systemic structures, and industries (just to name a few) to Christ.
Making It Happen
We believe in the power of authentic, contextualized worshipping communities in the places where people live – their neighborhoods. Cities, in many ways, are a collection of neighborhoods and each of the neighborhoods is unique. It is in the neighborhood that one lives, plays, shops and spends much of their time with family and friends. Therefore, it is important that neighborhoods have churches that look like them and that live out the Gospel in them. Defining a city as a collection of neighborhoods also means that something is important about that “collection”. The neighborhoods are united with a similar ethos and are connected through social systems and structures. If our call is to not just renew individuals and where they live (neighborhoods), but also the systems and structures they work and live in, we need a strategy that also reaches the city. We envision that these neighborhood churches would be connected together and meet together quarterly for worship and mission. This allows for a city-wide witness and for individuals across the city to affect systemic and social change.
Enjoy this short video from our wedding day!
The wedding is one of life’s most important days and I believe it speaks a lot about a couple. There are a few things you can glean from the video above. First, Monica and I both love the city. Not only did we both feel called to the city before we were married, but we have always enjoyed living in the city. Our ideal vacations are in cities. When we feel tired we don’t escape to the countryside, but explore a new part of the city. Our hearts beat with the city. Second, our wedding day wasn’t the climax of our relationship, but rather the beginning. We view marriage as a marathon, not a sprint. We can’t wait to look back over our lives and see how Jesus has taught us to love each other well. Third, community is vital. We discerned our call to marriage in community and we believe all major life decisions should be decided with the input of your community. Finally, we saw our wedding as an opportunity for mission. We had those who were de-churched or non-Christians both in the wedding party and attending our wedding. Our prayer was that they would see Christ through us at our wedding ceremony and throughout the rest of our lives (Ephesians 5).
And these things apply to our ministry as well. We look forward to missionally serving a diverse urban community for the rest of our lives.
Fast Facts About Ben
Hometown: Glenview, IL
Current Town: Boston, MA
Current Job: Assistant Pastor at Church of the Cross in Boston, MA
Previous Career: Urban Youth Work
Credentials: Ordained Presbyter (Elder) in the Anglican Mission in the Americas, Licensed Baptist Minister by Converge (formerly Baptist General Conference), member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Education: M.Div. Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Urban Ministry & Anglican Studies), magna cum laude, B.A. Wheaton College, IL (Biblical Studies)
Favorite Authors: N.T. Wright (Biblical Studies), Eugene Peterson (Pastorology), Rene Padilla (Missiology), J. Kameron Carter (Up and Coming Theologian), Beverly Tatum (Psychology of Race), Martin Lloyd-Jones (Homiletics) and John Calvin (Theologian).
Hobbies: Bicycling & Music
Favorite Thing to Do With Monica: Riding Bikes and Relaxing with Friends
Below you will find my current Résumé . Please click the image to view the document in a new tab/window or to download.
Below you will find a sample of the work I have completed over the past four years as Assistant Pastor at Church of the Cross. These include a recent sermon, a workshop I lead at our denomination’s national gathering, our neighborhood group model paper in which I was one of two contributors, the 2011 Lenten Devotional I wrote and designed, our church’s website which I designed and contributed to, and the videos I shot and edited for our website. Please click on the images below to view my work in a new tab/window or to download.
Christianity is fundamentally a communication event, rooted in God’s desire to reveal himself to us and our reaction to his revelation. Any serious study of God involves a study of the way he communicates and the way we communicate God to others. This workshop explored how different mediums have affected the gospel throughout history and how current mediums are potentially affecting the way we hear and spread the gospel. There was a particular focus on the web, television and video, Facebook and Twitter.
In addition to the audio, please also see the slides.
Our desire was to create a small group ministry that thoroughly engaged the Bible and brought about discipleship, but also had room for mission and was welcoming to non-Christians. In Boston, where Christians are a small minority and where the church has been marred by scandal, it is imperative for the church to take up the missionary call, and it is imperative that we do so in a new kind of way. This paper outlines the reasons for and the way we worked out that calling in our Neighborhood Groups.
It is more important than ever to have a well designed website. In fact, studies show that individuals visit 6-12 websites before attending a church in person. In my design of the Church of the Cross website, I sought to combine a clean design with a simple functionality that directs visitors to the right pages. My role in this project was to handle all the design and functionality as well as write a good portion of the content.
Communicating the Gospel in a clear and relevant way is important, but in an age where the average person is bombarded with thousands of advertisements a day, it can pose a great challenge for the Church. In addition to a functional and clean website, I also shot and edited several videos on our website. This enabled our church to speak directly to our visitors. Finally, I sent out a weekly video to improve communication within our parish.
Email: brey@benrey.org
Twitter: @ben_rey
Phone: 617-817-6675