August–September 2009 Ordained Servant

From the Editor. It has been my joy, over three decades of ministry in the OPC, to observe the way our home and foreign missions committees guide the work of spreading the gospel through building the church. In the face of an overwhelming tendency in the American church toward pragmatism, we have sought to be biblical—Presbyterian and Reformed—in our approach, focusing, as such an approach demands, on missions as the supernatural work of God.

I have asked each of the general secretaries of our three program committees to articulate over the next three years the biblical uniqueness of their approach to the three essential ministries. In this issue we begin with home missions. Ross Graham explains the principles of OPC home missions in "How to Plant a Presbyterian Church." None of the work of these committees is possible without the proper funding. Brenton Ferry calls us to consistent stewardship in this area in his article, "Faithfulness in Giving to Worldwide Outreach."

Also in this issue some more servant exchange. It is my policy to invite responses by authors to reviews of their books if I think it will help foster mature discussion and better mutual understanding. The original writer of an article or review gets the last word. So Scott Clark responds to Alan Strange's review of Recovering the Reformed Confession, and Darryl Hart and John Muether respond to Carl Trueman's review of Seeking a Better Country, with a final word from each reviewer.