January 2013 Ordained Servant

It is always good to begin a new year by focusing on the most important things in life.

“Who Reads Scripture?” could be taken in several ways—all important. How many Christians actually spend serious study time reading God’s Word? In our distracted age the answer might not be completely encouraging. But that is not the subject of my editorial essay. I look at the most important reading of Scripture, the public reading by a minister of the Word each Lord’s Day. May anyone read Scripture, or is public reading in worship an authoritative act of a minister of the Word?

Glenn Clary’s article, “The Public Reading of Scripture in Worship: A Biblical Model for the Lord’s Day,” gives us a helpful and inspiring history of the place of Scripture reading in the biblical history of God’s people, along with five practical implications.

Each year every member of the session in our local congregation reaffirms his commitment to the standards of our church. It is always important for us to examine our faithfulness to those standards. G. I. Williamson challenges us to consider whether or not we are being faithful to Scripture and confession if we do not affirm a six twenty-four hour day creation narrative in his article “What I Learned from my Dutch Reformed Brethren.”

T. David Gordon reviews Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other in his article, “Alone Together: The Great Irony of Modern Communication.” The once optimistic MIT researcher sounds a thoughtful caution about the de-humanizing tendency of electronic communication.

Finally, one of Shakespeare’s finest sonnets, twenty-nine. A marvelous commentary on Shakespeare is George Morrison, Christ in Shakespeare. There is more than meets the eye in Shakespeare—which is the way of the true artist. This sonnet certainly seems to transcend human love. I have been memorizing it on my morning walks. The full meaning of this profound piece really sinks in when the words flow effortlessly.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

From the Archives "WORSHIP"

Subject Index

• “A Comparison of Some Historic Reformed Liturgies.” (Larry Wilson) 3:3 (Jul. 1994): 71.
• “An Examination of the Liturgy of the Westminster Assembly.” (R. Dean Anderson, Jr.) 3:2 (Apr. 1994): 27–34.
• “On Revising the OPC Directory for the Public Worship of God.” (Larry Wilson) 12:2 (Apr. 2003): 24–29.

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.