February 2013 Ordained Servant

From the Editor. I toyed with the idea of calling this issue “Pot pourri,” because it contains a number of themes, and then punning with the word, insisting that we not confuse this with popery. Which brings me to the point of our lead article by Steve Doe, “Reversing the Journey: When People Leave Reformed Churches.” Occasionally an officer or member leaves one of our Reformed churches for Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. Doe asks us to consider how we should think about such departures and what we might do to help prevent them, especially in light of our Presbyterian form of government.

T. David Gordon responds to an issue raised by Theodore Turnau’s recently published book, Popologetics: Popular Culture in Christian Perspective. Do the forms of culture influence the content? How are the forms that various aspects of a culture take related to their content? Our embodied existence demands an answer to these questions.

Dennis Johnson continues his series review of Hughes Oliphant Old’s The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures with a review of volumes 4 and 5.

Allen Tomlinson reviews a fascinating new volume of Machen’s letters written home to his mother and several others during World War I: Letters from the Front. This correspondence reveals a personal side of Machen that only adds to our admiration.

Finally, don’t miss another George Herbert gem, “Sonnet 1.”

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

FROM THE ARCHIVES “PRESBYTERIANISM, PASTORS”

Subject Index

• “A Postscript to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (And Others Who May Benefit) On Perfecting Fellowship.” (John P. Galbraith) 7:2 (Apr. 1998): 25–26.
• “Princess Adelaide and Presbyterianism: The Death of Context and the Life of the Church.” (Gregory Edward Reynolds. 15 (2006): 16–18.
• “Fatigue in Christian Ministry—Its Causes (and Cure).” (Lawrence Bilkes) 12:2 (Apr. 2003): 32–33.
• “How Can a Session Shepherd Its Pastor?” (Lawrence Eyres) 8:2 (Mar. 1999): 29–31.
• “The Presbytery’s Role in Shepherding Pastors.” (Peter J. Wallace) 8:3 (Jul. 1999): 59–61.

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.