'Anything We Do Can Be Called Ministry'

Benjamin Perkins, MDiv '00, CEO, Upstream Impact Solutions Consulting (Dedham, MA)

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Describe the work you do today:

I’m the founding partner and CEO of Upstream Impact Solutions Consulting, an equity-focused consultancy practice. As a social entrepreneur, my work helps individuals and organizations tackle deeply rooted structural challenges through holistic, heart- and data-informed strategies. Shaped by my calling to resist injustice, I seek to create spaces for honest dialogue, healing, and co-creation. I bring a multidisciplinary approach—coaching, capacity-building, and deep listening—aiming for long-term impact and collective well-being. I want clients to leave with more than solutions--I want them to gain clarity, courage, and a deeper connection to a broader movement for justice and human flourishing.  I am also an ordained community minister (Disciples of Christ/Christian Church) and a program leader for the Groundwater Institute, where I lead racial equity workshops.

How has your HDS degree influenced your career journey?

My HDS experience helped me to understand that the distinction between the sacred and secular is specious. I came to realize that anything we do in the world, especially when it's imbued with care and concern, can rightfully be called ministry. And while I eventually became an ordained minister, it was some 15 years after I graduated from HDS, during which I worked as a public health professional (HIV/AIDS and cardiovascular disease). That work was and is part of my ongoing ministry, and I am profoundly grateful to HDS for helping me to understand ministry more expansively.

What career advice would you offer to current HDS students?

Howard Thurman said it better than I ever could when he said, "Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Share your gifts; the world needs you!