April 2013 Ordained Servant

From the Editor. Enamored by the sensational and exciting as we Western moderns are, a good dose of detailed practicality is always in order. In many areas of modern life order is out of fashion, especially in human relations. Well-run meetings foster healthy relations not only among those in the meeting, but also among those they serve. Alan Strange has become our resident expert on parliamentary procedure. His article “How to Run the Session Meeting” should help us all improve the running of our regular session meetings. The newly ordained minister should especially profit from this wisdom.

Nothing reflects the disorder of our fallen world like death. In Ecclesiastes death is the ultimate vanity or expression that human existence is not according to design. “No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death” (Eccl. 8:8). Brad Winsted brings us the second part of his moving personal chronicle, “A Road of Grief: Hitting the Stone Wall: Reflections on a Biblical Marriage.”

Anyone who has followed the unique research of sociologist Christian Smith on teenagers and emerging adults will want to read the results of his latest research. In this issue T. David Gordon reviews Christian Smith’s Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood. Our fallenness disorders everything. At certain points in history the disorder is amplified in particular areas of culture. In this case, the problem with emerging adults is that they are not emerging with the adult characteristics that have hitherto defined adulthood.

In another area of disorder, David Booth reviews Anthony Selvaggio’s 7 Toxic Ideas Polluting Your Mind, reminding us that not only do the forms of culture alter our thinking but the forms themselves originate in the ideas of those who form culture. The noetic effects of sin call the Christian to bring every thought captive. Selvaggio reminds us, in contemporary terms, of how important this calling is.

The disordered soul is always within the poet’s purview. John Donne’s “Holy Sonnet 14” is a sharply crafted prayer, asking God to dramatically order our sinful lives anew.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

FROM THE ARCHIVES “SESSION”

Subject Index

• “How Do You Run a Session Meeting?” (J. J. Peterson) 2:3 (Jul. 1993): 70–72.
• “Sessional Records: The Importance of Maintaining Complete and Accurate Church Records.” (Luke E. Brown) 7:1 (Jan. 1998): 22–23.
• “Biblical Theology and the Session – Part 1: Redemptive History and the Church’s Confession of Faith.” (James S. Gidley) 9:2 (Apr. 2000): 35–38.
• “Biblical Theology and the Session – Part 2: Redemptive History and the Church’s Discipline.” (James S. Gidley) 9:3 (Jul. 2000): 50–54.
• “Biblical Theology and the Session – Part 3: Redemptive History and the Character of the People.” (James S. Gidley) 9:4 (Oct. 2000): 72–76.

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.