February 2011 Ordained Servant

From the Editor. On the first Lord's day on which the new Directory for Worship became our standard for worship our congregation enjoyed the privilege of participating in both the Lord's Supper and the baptism of a newborn infant. Appropriate portions of the new directory were read. I was reminded that one of the greatest strengths of these new forms is their theology of the sacraments. The Lord's Supper and baptism are taken seriously. The seriousness of the sacraments is not a popular idea in the American context among Evangelicals, but we can hope and pray that our new directory will help us all take these marvelous means of grace more seriously.

So, this month we have two articles dealing with important, and often controversial, aspects of the two sacraments. Pastor John Mahaffy makes a solid and judicious plea for using wine in the Lord's Supper. I have chosen to leave the local references as to the origin of this article because I think it is exemplary as a wise approach to potentially divisive issues in the life of a congregation. Elder Bryan Holstrom makes a strong case for requiring the baptism of infants in his article, "Baptism and Church Membership: A Plea for Confessional Fidelity."

Stephen Migotsky reviews a very popular book on heaven, Heaven by Randy Alcorn, with a cautionary take.

I have also included a new feature, Book Notes, in which a book, or a cluster of books, on an important topic will be briefly reviewed. This month the topic is "Augustine: His Life and Thought."

Finally, don't miss the second of George Herbert's famous poems on love.

The web cover this month is "Augustine at His studies" by Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510).

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

From the Archives: INFANT BAPTISM and THE LORD'S SUPPER

http://opc.org/OS/pdf/Subject_Index.pdf

• "Infant Baptism Optional?" (D. G. Hart & John R. Muether) 7:4 (Oct. 1998): 78-80
• There are sixteen articles on the Lord's Supper in our archives, most dealing with fencing the table and frequency, but none with the elements.

Ordained Servant exists to help encourage, inform, and equip church officers for faithful, effective, and God glorifying ministry in the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Its primary audience is ministers, elders, and deacons of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, as well as interested officers from other Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Through high quality editorials, articles, and book reviews we endeavor to stimulate clear thinking and the consistent practice of historic, confessional Presbyterianism.