December 2014 Ordained Servant

From the Editor. Paul tells us that death is our last enemy—the last to be conquered by our Savior. By God’s grace in Christ the sting has been removed. So it is always with a curious mixture of joy and sorrow that we remember a departed saint. So it is with Grace Mullen. Danny Olinger has written a touching memorial to this great servant-saint, based on his close personal relationship with her as a worker and friend. She held no special office, shunned the limelight, and gave herself, as Danny says, to service in the shadows. Her form of door-keeping in the household of God was as an archivist. But much more than that, she loved the history of the church, laboring tirelessly to help preserve our little corner of that history, because she loved the church and the Lord of the church above all. She treated everyone with whom she worked with the utmost respect and deep kindness. She was an example to us all. We shall miss her.

Jeffrey Wilson brings his series on the sursum corda to a close with “The Sursum Corda Promotes Corporate Worship.” One does not need to agree with everything Jeffrey Wilson suggests, in terms of implications for our liturgies, in order to appreciate the importance of taking the history of Reformed liturgy more seriously. There are untold unexplored riches there.

Stephen Michaud brings his considerable knowledge of music to bear on his review of Calvin R. Stapert’s Playing before the Lord: The Life and Work of Joseph Haydn. We have five hymn tunes in the Revised Trinity Hymnal composed by Haydn (12, 117, 269, 345, 396). The extraordinary output of this musical genius is flavored with an expansive portrayal of Christian truth. The range of human emotion and religious experience in his composition is often forgotten today. He is truly the inventor of the fundamental symphonic form.

Darryl Hart reviews Anthony Bradley’s Aliens in the Promised Land: Why Minority Leadership is Overlooked in White Christian Churches and Institutions, dealing with a controversial and often polarizing subject that we should never be afraid to honestly address.

I review an important and insightful new book on media ecology by Douglas Rushkoff—Present Shock. Finally, two poems for the Yuletide season, one by one of my favorites, Christina Rossetti; the other is my own offering.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

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.