December 19 Today in OPC History

On December 19, 1972, the Rev. William E. Warren was received into the Presbytery of the South as the pastor of Westminster OPC in Valdosta, Georgia.

Ordained in 1964, Warren initially served in the RPCES of Bismarck, ND where his first daughter, Kimberly, was born in the same hospital in which Machen had died. This call also involved preaching at a mission work and another small church so that he conducted four worship services each Lord’s Day with his growing family in tow. Ruling elder Orvis Adams gave the Warrens a large fur coat in case they got stranded in blizzards on the Dakota plains. Following two pastorates in the RCUS Eureka Classis, Warren joined the OPC for the next 50 years of ministry.

Once in the OPC, Warren gained a reputation as a gifted moderator serving for seven years as the Moderator of the Presbytery of Southern California and of the Fifty-eighth General Assembly in 1991. For twenty-two years he was pastor of the Garden Grove/Westminster, CA congregation. There he moderated a session that was at times as large as seventeen members that oversaw five mission works and four languages represented. During this time he mentored a dozen pastoral interns, nine of whom went on to become OP ministers.

Well-known for his interest in church planting, he served for many years on the home missions committees of the denomination and his presbytery. After twenty-eight years as a chaplain in the Army National Guard reserves he retired as a Lt. Colonel. This experience made him an ideal choice to serve on the GA’s Committee on Chaplains.

He and his wife, Jocilyn, spearheaded the formation of a Christian elementary school, which is still active 40 years later. Jocilyn Warren went to be with the Lord in glory on September 21, 2016. In retirement Bill lives in Lebanon, Ohio, and on November 19, 2022, he married Mary Lee Hester. By God's grace, he still preaches at nearby churches when the need arises, especially at Good Shepherd OPC in Cincinnati.

Picture: Bill Warren (left), Mark Brown and Ross Graham at a Home Missions meeting in the mid-1990s.