Contents

The Roar of Hope:
The Message from Narnia

Linda Finlayson

“Behold, a Virgin Shall Conceive …”

Ken B. Montgomery

Darrell’s Greatest Treasure of All

Chris Campbell

Home Missions

Ten Cities: A Progress Report

Christian Education

The Urgent Claims of the Gospel Ministry

Foreign Missions

Moving Forward in Karamoja

Stewardship

Profit Worth a Sacrifice

Prayer Calendar

December

Ecumenicity

That They May All Be One

News

Letters

Reviews

Announcements

New Horizons
in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church
December 2012 • Volume 33, Number 11

© 2012 by The Committee on Christian Education of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Editorial Board: The Committee on Christian Education’s Subcommittee on Serial Publications

Editor: Danny E. Olinger

Managing Editor: James W. Scott

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People from Providence OPC in Pataskala, Ohio, and its mission work, Knox OPC in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, enjoyed a fall frolic (autumn fellowship time) together. It took place on Saturday, October 6, at the home of Ben and Jessica Pieper in Johnstown, Ohio. The festivities included great food, a bonfire, games, and a hayride.

The Roar of Hope:
The Message from Narnia

Linda Finlayson

Take four children, a mysterious land, an evil witch, and a good lion, and you have the ingredients for a great story. From the first moment when Lucy burrows her way through the fur coats to find herself in a wintery Narnia, we are hooked.

What is a strange creature—half man, half animal—doing carrying packages and an umbrella? Lucy is the kind of person who helps the fawn and believes the best about him as she accompanies him home for tea. She continues to do the right thing when she finds out he’s really a spy for the wicked witch. Lucy is the kind of person we like and want to protect. What a relief it is when Mr. Tumnus sneaks her back to the lamppost and home.

But then there is Edmund. He reacts very differently when he finds himself in Narnia. He meets the White Witch as she rides by on her sleigh, but instead of running the other way, he’s tempted to betray his brother and sister—all for some Turkish delight. Now Turkish delight is delicious, but it would hardly tempt any of us to be bad. Or would it? Aren’t there times when we’re like Edmund, wanting something so much that we decide that we’re going to get it at any cost?

When the four children—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy—finally end up in Narnia together, the real adventure begins. They soon discover that Narnia is an unhappy place, where it is always winter—or has been for a very long time. So instead of a warm, happy world full of colorful flowers and cheerful songbirds, they find a frozen, white land where the animals huddle in their homes, afraid of the evil witch. There is no joy or hope—no Christmas with presents or a holiday feast to look forward to.

Narnia, in the grip of winter and the White Witch, reminds us of times when our lives are not happy—times when things have gone wrong around us or because of what we have done to others. We can feel like Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, huddling in their dam, surrounded by frozen water and unable to live as beavers usually do—or like Mr. Tumnus, who feels guilty because he has promised to work for the witch when he knows it is wrong.

But then the children hear a name that starts to give everyone hope. “Aslan!” Even before the children know who Aslan is, they know he is important. Something inside them jumps: Peter suddenly feels brave, Susan smiles as if hearing lovely music, Lucy is joyful, and Edmund (the bad one) is afraid.

Aslan, the lion, is going to change things because he is the King of Narnia. He is not a tame lion or even a safe one, because he is very powerful and not to be controlled by others. But, as Mr. Beaver assures the children, Aslan is good—just like God is good. God is the most powerful one in the entire universe. No one tells him what to do. But since God is good, he always uses his power for good and does everything the right way. In fact, like Aslan, he has long determined to make all things right again by sending his own Son, Jesus, to earth.

Mr. Beaver recites a famous rhyme in Narnia to explain to the children what Aslan will do.

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes into sight,

At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,

When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death

And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.1

And sure enough, even before the children meet Aslan, they can already see that “Aslan is on the move.” Small things and big things catch their eyes and ears. The snow begins to melt, birds begin to sing, and they meet Father Christmas, who brings them gifts that turn out to be very useful.

But we mustn’t forget about Edmund. Where is he when these small miracles are happening? He has gone to the White Witch, I’m afraid, looking for more Turkish delight. Edmund still hasn’t figured out that the witch is using his love of candy to control what he thinks and does. Or at least he doesn’t figure that out until he gets to her palace, where he finds that she is angry with him and only gives him stale bread and water. Now, instead of feeling like an important friend of a powerful witch, he realizes he’s not much better than a slave. Edmund is very unhappy and sorry.

When Peter, Susan, and Lucy finally arrive at the stone table to meet Aslan, they plead for Edmund to be spared in the upcoming battle. Aslan assures them that it can be done, but it won’t be easy. And sure enough, things don’t go at all as anyone suspects. Even after Edmund is rescued from the witch’s grip and says he is sorry for his betrayal, the witch still thinks she has won. Edmund must die because of the Deep Magic.

The Deep Magic refers to the laws that govern Narnia—the laws that can’t be changed and must always be paid for if they are broken. What law has Edmund broken? He is a traitor, someone who has betrayed those he should protect, and for that he deserves death. Being sorry for what he has done isn’t enough. That doesn’t satisfy the broken law.

That’s like us, when we break the laws of God: obey your parents, don’t steal, don’t lie, love God and your neighbor. When we break these laws, we can’t mend them. We can say we’re sorry and really mean it, but that doesn’t change the fact that the law has been broken. We still deserve to be punished.

Wonderfully, Aslan knew about something the witch did not: the Deeper Magic. The Deeper Magic is how the broken law is mended without Edmund having to die. The Deeper Magic works when Aslan, who hasn’t broken any laws, allows the witch to kill him instead of Edmund. Aslan takes Edmund’s place. And it isn’t easy.

The witch is ugly in her triumphant glee, and her followers treat Aslan terribly as they tie him up and drag him to the stone table. Poor Susan and Lucy cry bitterly as they watch the magnificent lion beaten and bullied. When the witch raises the knife to kill Aslan, she laughs and says,

And now, who has won? Fool, did you think that by all this you would save the human traitor?… Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and you have not saved his. With this knowledge, despair and die.2

And so the witch kills Aslan and thinks she has won. But she is wrong—just like all those years ago, when Jesus was arrested, tried, and executed. The leaders then thought they had gotten rid of an annoying man who was telling everyone who would listen that they had broken God’s laws and needed to stop. The leaders thought they had won by killing him, but Jesus wasn’t an ordinary man. He was God’s Son, and he had come to earth to take our punishment by dying for us. We all deserve death because we have broken God’s commands, and even being sorry for that doesn’t mend the broken commandments. Only death does that. But Jesus loved us so much that he was willing to be beaten and bullied and finally killed, so we would not have to be punished.

But that isn’t the end of the story. Aslan, because of the Deeper Magic, comes back to life! The stone table is broken, showing that since the King of Narnia himself has used the Deeper Magic, there need never be another sacrifice like his again. And the same is true about Jesus, the Son of God. He roared back to life as the victorious King. His sacrifice for sin is finished for all time. Best of all, everyone who believes in him will find true forgiveness and will live with him forever. Isn’t that the greatest news?!

The throne room at Cair Paravel

After Aslan returns to life, Peter and Edmund lead the animals to victory in a battle against the witch and her forces. At the end, the four children are crowned and sit on the thrones of Cair Paravel to rule Narnia as Aslan’s representatives. And that is what all those who trust in Jesus have to look forward to when he makes all things right in a new heaven and a new earth. Meanwhile, while we still live here, we can have peace with God and rely on him to help us in times of need.

The author is a member of Cornerstone OPC in Ambler, Pa., and an author of children’s books.

Footnotes

1 C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (London: Fontana Lions, 1980), 75.

2 Ibid., 140.

Carl Trueman reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the park

Narnia in the Park

Carl Trueman

When it comes to outreach, Cornerstone OPC in Ambler, Pennsylvania, faces the same challenges as many other OP congregations: a diverse, unchurched, secular context, a leased building that does not look from the outside like a place of worship, and a congregation drawn predominantly from outside the immediate neighborhood.

Typically, we had always done a summer VBS, but it drew the attention of few outsiders. So our outreach committee suggested a new idea: a public reading of C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in a local park. Our goal was threefold: to provide a service to the community, to build community for our church, and, most importantly, to disseminate the gospel.

We obtained permission from the borough to hold the event over five nights. Church members, led by Matt Swann, made superb banners to serve as a backdrop. We hired some decent sound equipment. Somebody even managed to rent an appropriate-looking portable street lamp. Linda Finlayson wrote (and Ben Currie illustrated) a small booklet connecting the Narnia story to the Bible. And on Monday, August 6, we started.

Each night, church members engaged in the Herculean task of setting up the banners and the stage. The reading was preceded by a short musical presentation. We did a cultural tour of the British Isles: English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh folk music, Irish and Scottish dancing, a piper, and an Irish band.

Then came the reading. I did three or four chapters a night. As my confidence grew, from Wednesday on I started by highlighting parallels with the Bible story, pressing the need to read the booklet and encouraging people to come to church to hear the Bible story itself.

Each evening closed with free water ice, distribution of the booklet, and informal conversations with visitors. We had between 80 and 130 people of all ages in attendance each night and far more contact (all positive!) with the local community than at any previous event. Next year, it will be Prince Caspian.

Music before the reading of Narnia

“Behold, a Virgin Shall Conceive …”

Ken B. Montgomery

Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph less than nine months after they had been married. That was probably the basis for the Pharisees’ accusation against our Lord: “We were not born of sexual immorality” (John 8:41)—insinuating that Jesus was the result of an illicit union. The real scandal, however, is that Jesus of Nazareth was not conceived by a sexual union at all, because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary (cf. Matt. 1:18–25; Luke 1:26–38). God ordained that his Son would be produced in the womb of his mother, apart from the normal means of human procreation. Thus, by the Spirit, God worked the quietest miracle of all.

Thus, by the Spirit, God worked the quietest miracle of all. The clear teachings of Scripture are usually among the first doctrines to be ridiculed by skeptics. This should not be surprising, for everything about “Christ crucified”—including the manner of his incarnation—is a stumbling block (Greek: scandalon) to the mind of the flesh (1 Cor. 1:22–25). God’s wisdom, revealed in Christ, capsizes human power and expectation. The miracle of Jesus’ conception in the Virgin Mary’s womb tells us from the very beginning that “salvation belongs to the Lord” (Jonah 2:9), so that “(our) faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:5). If any part of our Savior’s arrival could be traced to the will and work of mankind, then the gospel would cease to be about the gift of salvation and would instead become a message about human achievement, with the angelic chorus singing something like “Let us find the good in all of us” rather than “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14).

The Messiah came to his people in an undeniably miraculous way. Our wonder can only be magnified when we consider that this “sign” was announced long beforehand by the prophet Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). As a trailblazer clears away trees and brush to make a path, the Lord through the prophetic word creates the way for the coming Messiah, revealing both who he will be (God with us) and how he will come to his people. It is worth considering the biblical context of this divine promise, as the setting illumines the redemptive significance of this prophecy and its fulfillment.

The Isaiah 7 passage focuses on Ahaz, the faithless king of Judah. During his reign, the kings of Syria and Ephraim had marshaled their armies to overtake Jerusalem. King Ahaz and all of Judah were terrified as they faced this double threat—their hearts “shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.”

The Lord then summoned Isaiah to bring word to Ahaz that the enemy alliance would soon be broken and their plans to seize the holy city would be thwarted. Isaiah faced Ahaz and declared, “It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.… Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be a people.” In short, Ahaz was told, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10).

To reassure Ahaz about the certainty of divine protection, the Lord commanded him to ask for a sign: “Let it be as deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But in a moment of feigned piety, Ahaz refused to ask for a sign; in disobedience, he rejected what God had offered. In response, the Lord rebuked Ahaz. But in spite of the king’s unbelief, God pronounced the miraculous sign to come: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive.” How does this background sharpen our understanding of this important prophecy about Christ?

The Ways of God

First, this promise shows that God’s ways are not our ways, for the sign certainly does not appear to resolve the nation’s immediate plight. Remember the powerful enemy forces that were knocking at Jerusalem’s gates. Ahaz might have thought to himself, “Perhaps I could raise my hands like Moses and see our adversaries scattered” (see Ex. 17). The Lord God could no doubt have intervened in this way for Judah as he had in past days, but here he chose to demonstrate his sovereignty in quite an unexpected way. God announced the sign of his presence in a maiden and her newborn son.

But was the gift of an infant boy, born to a young (virgin) woman, any way to win a war? Not for Ahaz, who sought the support of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, and his army to rescue Judah (2 Kings 16:7–8). Judah’s king had turned to an earthly shield of defense, rather than turning to the strong tower of God’s heavenly name. Thus, the divine sign of the virgin birth stood against Ahaz’s attempt to “fight fire with fire.” The Lord and his kingdom would triumph in a way diametrically opposed to the way of the flesh: an instrument of inherent and apparent weakness (a virgin and child) would overcome those who had conspired to overthrow God’s reign. As John testifies in Revelation 12, the child and the woman prove from the heavenly perspective to be stronger than the dragon, Satan. This can only be true when God himself is engaged in the battle.

The hostility between the heirs of God’s promise and his enemies goes back to the declaration of war in Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity … between your offspring and her offspring.” In Isaiah 7, we see a further disclosure of how the woman’s seed would defeat the serpent’s—“not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). The virginal conception of Christ is one of many extraordinary examples of how God works out his powerful purposes through his weak chosen vessels, so that the glory will belong to him and no other. Mary’s exultant song reaffirms that God’s saving providence topples the world’s hubris and hierarchy: “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate” (Luke 1:51–52). The sign provided by God through Isaiah points to the singularity of divine wisdom in working contrary to the pattern of our natural expectations.

Son of David

Second, we see the importance of the setting when we read that the promise of the sign came to Ahaz as a member of the royal dynasty of David. The prophet’s rebuke included Ahaz, but it also extended beyond him: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?… Behold, the virgin shall conceive …” (Isa. 7:13–14). The sign of the virgin birth was indeed a seal of security in light of Judah’s approaching foes. But it was also an antidote to the corruption of David’s royal dynasty. This prophecy addressed the internal and spiritual barrenness of the “root of Jesse” as traced through the descendants of David.

Ahaz, as a “son of David,” together with his predecessors and progeny, represented one great apostasy that contributed to the covenant nation’s exile (cf. Dan. 9:8). God’s judgment extended from the head (crown) to the feet (citizens) of society, beginning with the unfaithful kings who had failed to rule in righteousness. Therefore, during their captivity in Babylon the Davidic throne lay vacant, as “there remains in it no strong stem, no scepter for ruling” (Ezek. 19:14).

During the Exile, the results of royal infidelity and the nation’s rebellion were painfully acute, for the covenant people were ruled by a foreign king in a foreign land. This provokes the question, does Israel’s faithlessness nullify God’s faithfulness? In short, will God’s kingdom perish because of the disobedience of the sons of David? Certainly not, for the Lord’s covenant with David is sure: “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom” (2 Sam. 7:12). God’s promise to bring David’s son (and Lord!) to his people would not fail, because he would create fruit by the Spirit, even when the flesh could not. The rebellious sons of David had grown spiritually barren, unable to produce a faithful heir. The Lord had to be the one to bring life from the dead, and so he sent his Son into the world: this too belongs to the significance of Isaiah’s sign! So while Jesus would be numbered in the generations of David (Matt. 1:1–17), the household of David would not generate the final royal heir: this work belonged to the Lord alone.

Only a little while later, Isaiah expanded on the character of this promised Son when he wrote, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; … Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (Isa. 9:6–7). The sign that confronted Ahaz would at the same time bring comfort to God’s waiting people, for the word that lays low the flesh also lifts up those who embrace it in faith. Indeed, Christ’s incarnation in the womb of the Virgin Mary is part of the scandal and the wonder of the gospel: “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (Ps. 118:23).

The author is associate pastor of Redeemer OPC in Beavercreek (Dayton), Ohio.

Darrell’s Greatest Treasure of All

Chris Campbell

Max and Darrell walked up the path next to where a man steadied himself over a golf ball and then putted. They watched as the ball rolled by the cup. Darrell’s mother, his grandma, his grandpa, and Kendra, his four-year-old sister, followed close behind. Darrell and Kendra carried plastic bags that they hoped to fill with golf balls.

“Here?” Darrell asked, as he followed Max up the hill, looking into the clumps of last year’s grass. Max had picked up dozens of balls that spring, coming out on his lunch hour, and he had suggested to Darrell’s grandma that she bring him out when she told him that Darrell collected golf balls. With Darrell along, this walk would be different—Max didn’t want to disappoint Darrell, who seemed to be a boy who took things seriously, perhaps more than he needed to. Max remembered being like that when he was a boy.

Kendra, barely into the grass with her grandpa, found the first golf ball. This bothered Darrell. “She doesn’t really care about finding them,” he told Max. Then Max spotted one, half buried in the ground. Darrell picked it up and checked its marking. “It’s all dirty,” Darrell said. “I’ll have to wash it.”

When Darrell found one on his own, he put it in his bag and went looking for more. His mom and grandma stood by and chatted about the time Darrell, on a visit to a farm, picked up a chicken egg and dropped it into his bag—forgetting that, unlike a golf ball, it would break.

Half listening to their talk and half watching Darrell, Max recalled his trips to the chicken coop—nudging the hens aside with a board, then reaching to snatch the eggs from underneath. He had been pecked enough while doing that to put on gloves, but after he gathered the eggs, he would take the gloves off and hold a warm egg in his hand.

This was an experience he came to in his thirties, not as a boy. His landlord had built a chicken coop and ordered the chicks through the mail. Max and his family did the chores each day, and the landlord shared the eggs and meat with them. During an April blizzard, when they were without power for three days, there was as much warmth inside the coop, with the chickens huddled on their roosts, as there was in the house.

The memory pulled on Max. He thought back to the time when his children were young. The chickens, going about the yard in quick, jerky movements, pecking at the ground, were part of their life and provided more than just eggs and meat. But then he remembered an errand he needed to take care of, and realized he was tired and not much of a companion for Darrell. “You’re here to help Darrell with his hunt,” he chided himself.

Darrell was pleased with what he had found. Max dropped the few balls that were in his pocket into Darrell’s bag, and Kendra, riding on her grandpa’s back, told Darrell he could have all of the balls she found—she really didn’t want them anyway.

Back in the parking lot, Max said good-bye to Darrell and asked him if he had enjoyed the hunt. Darrell said he had, and asked his mother when they could come back. “We have to wait for them to hit more up there,” Max said.

“Why do they hit them up there anyway,” Darrell asked, “and just leave them?”

Max was reminded of Darrell’s question when he arrived at the store and realized he didn’t have his wallet. He searched his van, and, when he didn’t find it, drove back to the office, but it wasn’t there, either. Other times when he had misplaced his wallet, he would retrace his steps and find it, but for some reason this time he didn’t know that he would.

He went back to the hillside where they had been hunting for balls, but he wasn’t sure which clump of grass he had bent over when Darrell slid off his back. The shadows grew, making the grass look different. Returning to the van, Max noticed a man who was leaning up against an SUV as he changed out of his golf shoes. That man could go home and relax, but Max had a lost wallet to find.

He called his wife and told her he wouldn’t be able to run the errand; he would check once more for his wallet and then come home. She told him it would turn up, and said she was going outside to rake the grass she had mowed. He phoned Darrell’s grandpa and grandma, but they were out, and as he was leaving his message, he wondered why he had called them. It had been his idea to invite Darrell out, and Max didn’t want the evening to turn in a different direction.

He called his daughter, who happened to be shopping at a nearby thrift store with her younger sister. He told them what had happened, and added that he wasn’t sure he could do anything more about it that evening, and that he would meet them at the thrift store. There he found his daughter walking to the changing room with several blouses draped over her arm. She was getting married at the end of May. She would finish school and have a few weeks to prepare for her wedding. It would be, she told them, a simple, country wedding. Her fiancé would arrive a few days before with his family, including his godmother from France and his groomsmen. They asked Max to read during the wedding ceremony the story of Abraham’s servant, Rebekah, and Isaac. For their honeymoon, her fiancé would take her fishing, and then, after a few days of visiting, to their home in Canada.

Max enjoyed shopping on occasion at thrift shops, looking for clothes you wouldn’t find in the department stores. His daughters enjoyed it as well, he knew, but as he looked at his daughter by the mirror, discussing the pros and cons of a blouse with her sister, he wondered how she might change when she moved to Canada with her husband.

This evening, looking through the clothes racks didn’t interest him. He told his daughters he was going back to the golf course. They said they would come over when they were done.

When she arrived at the golf course, his younger daughter began walking aimlessly through the grass, even after Max explained the route that had been taken. “How would she know any better,” Max thought. “She hadn’t been here with us; how could she find her way now?” His older daughter, wearing sandals and not wanting to scratch her feet, stayed on the cart path. Her mind was on other things. He told them he would look for a while longer, and sent them off. “Hope you find it, Dad,” the younger one said. It was easy for her to have a cheering effect on him, but this evening it wasn’t that way, and he tried to keep himself from blaming her, or anyone else, for his mood.

His thoughts turned to his elderly mother—how she would become confused and search the house for something she might not need at that moment, but needed to find in order to put her mind at ease. On a bad day, her agitation could build into anger, as what was once in her grasp now eluded her.

He didn’t live close to his mother, so he relied on his sisters and brothers to keep an eye on her. When they talked on the phone recently, he reviewed with her the lines from the Apostles’ Creed—born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. On the third day, he rose from the dead. “Yes, I remember,” she said. She enjoyed sitting at the table with a slice of tomato or the blueberries that a family friend picked and dropped off. She put them in the freezer and took them out a bowlful at a time.

Max walked to his car along with the last group of golfers, aware not only of his mother’s feebleness, but of his own, and found himself thinking about how his daughters would come to view him.

That night he cancelled his credit card and went to bed. He didn’t sleep well, walking in a dream through long grass, but realizing when he woke that it was an old farm he had walked to as a boy. In the dream, he arrived expecting a gathering and a chance to go inside the buildings, only to find that everyone had left. During his coffee break the next morning, he went to the hillside and looked once more, but soon decided it was best if he forgot about his wallet.

The days passed, and Max’s thoughts turned to an older friend who had recently passed away. He had traveled to Canada with Max’s family, and would take his daughter out of the car seat and carry her under his arm like a football—he was a large, kind man. He prayed for his friend’s wife, now a widow. He thought about Job, a wealthy man, and how the Lord had taken all of his possessions. God took his family, too, and that was a greater hurt, and afflicted his body with boils, but it also hurt to lose his possessions.

Then there was the man Jesus told about who found a treasure in a field and sold all he had to buy that field. Just as a boy’s heart moves on from one treasure to the next, there is a letting go—daughter, mother, husband, all that Job had. Max thought about the walks he took as a boy through the fields behind the abandoned farm. He had no wallet then—he had his troubles—and was ready to sell what he had, but didn’t know what it was he needed to buy. He now could tell the boy to empty his wallet and buy the field Jesus talked about. Although much will fall away, what is lasting will remain.

The author is a member of Bethel OPC in Carson, N.Dak.

Home Missions

Ten Cities: A Progress Report

It was in the fall of 2003, more than nine years ago, when presbytery home missions representatives and the staff of the denominational Committee on Home Missions decided on a bold course of action. Ten cities in North America were chosen where the OPC had no presence. And it was determined to lay those places before God and the church in prayer with the hope that he would raise up new churches there. While most of our new churches have been started by helping mature congregations begin daughter churches or assisting interested groups who approach us, it was felt that it was time to have a second, more intentional approach to our church-planting efforts.

A city in need of the gospel

For five of those chosen cities—Chicago, Detroit, Miami, New York, and Washington, D.C.—we zeroed in on the urban centers. For the other five—Memphis, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Tampa, and Toronto—we targeted the sprawling metropolitan areas, where we had few or no contacts. With clear resolve to undertake this difficult task through hard work and extra funding, those ten places were publicized in printed materials, talked about in presbytery meetings, and prayed about in congregations all over the OPC.

Over the intervening years, we have watched in awe as God has powerfully answered our prayers and blessed our efforts. The first to develop was Providence OPC in Bradenton, Florida, at the southern end of the greater Tampa area. When organizing pastor David Smiley arrived in the fall of 2005, he was greeted by a group of nine families who had been divinely assembled where no contacts had existed a year before. Today a thriving congregation worships in their own 8,600-square-foot building.

The building purchased by Mission OPC in St. Paul, Minn.

Then it was Mission OPC in St. Paul, Minnesota—one of the Twin Cities, along with Minneapolis. Although the following up of periodic requests for an OP presence there had met with failure for two decades, something was different when organizing pastor John Shaw arrived in the summer of 2006 to work with just three other families who shared a desire for Reformed worship and witness within the city of St. Paul, rather than in the surrounding suburbs. Five years later, the growing, multicultural congregation of eighty was able to purchase the historic 17,000-square-foot Warrendale Presbyterian Church building, where they had rented meeting space since their start, in the Como Park neighborhood in the very center of St. Paul.

John and Anne Shaw

In 2008, an unexpected call came from Christ Presbyterian Church (PCA) in the north St. Louis suburb of Hazelwood, inquiring about joining the OPC. By the end of that year, God had opened a new OP frontier in Missouri with that mature congregation’s presence. Two years later, the session of the now Christ OPC responded to a call for help three hours south in Doniphan, where Kent Harding is now the organizing pastor of Sovereign Grace Reformed Church. And earlier this year Gateway OPC began in the south suburbs of St. Louis, where Todd Wagenmaker serves as the organizing pastor.

John and Wenny Ro

In the spring of 2009, John Ro became the organizing pastor of Gospel Life Presbyterian Church in the Loop area of the city of Chicago, and that fall Brad Hertzog began his labors as organizing pastor of Reformation Presbyterian Church in Queens, New York. And finally, in the fall of 2010, Mark Winder arrived in the Memphis suburb of Collierville to be the organizing pastor of Wolf River Presbyterian Church.

Not everything we tried turned out well. Things didn’t work out for Chris Sandoval, who labored to plant a Spanish-language church in Chicago from 2006 to 2011, or for Jorge Barros, who worked among Portuguese-speaking immigrants in Toronto from 2004 to 2008, or for Josh Curl, who tried to establish an inner-city church in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., from 2008 to 2010. But their labors and our support were sincere and significant.

Isn’t it amazing how much God has blessed our prayers and our plans! We certainly have a long way to go in our efforts to establish new churches in urban centers. But our praying and planning continue. So don’t count out Detroit, Miami, and Washington just yet. Jesus reminded us to pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Let’s pray and plan some more.

A New RHM

The Presbytery of Michigan and Ontario has welcomed the Rev. Glenn Jerrell as its new Regional Home Missionary. Glenn is no stranger to the presbytery or the OPC.

He served as the pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Walkerton, Indiana, from 1998 until he took up his RHM labors in July. Early in his pastorate, the church moved from independency to the OPC. Grace Church is the only congregation in the presbytery outside the state of Michigan and the province of Ontario.

Glenn grew up in South Jersey and was a member of Calvary (now New Hope) OPC in Bridgeton. He was one of the first two seminary interns on the staff of the Boardwalk Chapel in 1970 and 1971. There he met his wife, Kathie, who was part of a gospel outreach ministry sponsored by the United Methodist Church in Wildwood.

Glenn and Kathie Jerrell

Glenn and Kathie went on to serve OP congregations in Winner, South Dakota, and Roswell, New Mexico, before Grace Church.

The transition from pastor to RHM has had its challenges. The second Saturday night after Glenn became RHM, he was traveling home from an airport. Momentary panic set in as he realized he couldn’t even remember the text for his sermon in the morning. He was aghast at how unprepared he was. But in a moment panic changed to peals of laughter as he remembered he wasn’t preaching.

Glenn’s goal for the first six months as RHM is to visit all twenty-four churches of the presbytery. At the three month mark, he had visited sixteen.

The main thrust of Glenn’s presentation has been the need and urgency for church planting today in the Presbytery of Michigan and Ontario. Glenn wants to come alongside the churches to aid them in seeking opportunities to plant new congregations. He has already amassed a long list of suggested areas to target. Recently he obtained an expedited travel ID from Nexus to facilitate easy movement between Michigan and Ontario.

To learn the ropes as an RHM, Glenn has spent time with Jim Bosgraf, the RHM for the Presbytery of the Midwest. The Presbytery of Michigan and Ontario was born out of the church-planting labors of the Presbytery of the Midwest.

Please pray for Glenn and Kathie. Ask God to keep them safe as they travel extensively. Pray that God would be pleased to bring new Orthodox Presbyterian churches into existence through Glenn’s labors.

Home Missions Today

For up-to-date Home Missions news and prayer updates, e-mail HomeMissionsToday@opc.org. New editions: December 5, 19.

Christian Education

The Urgent Claims of the Gospel Ministry

David Winslow

Urgency for gospel ministry can be heard in our Savior’s familiar words: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matt 9:37–38 niv). Surely there is a sense of urgency that wells up from Jesus’ compassion for the harassed and helpless crowds that surrounded him as he preached the good news of the kingdom. We hear an echo of Isaiah 6:8: “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

As Orthodox Presbyterians, we must share in the compassion of Christ by praying that our God would continue to send new workers into his harvest fields. We do this when we pray that new home and foreign missionaries would arise, when we pray for summer and yearlong interns, and when we pray for men who have been licensed or are under care. We also do this by praying for the Lord’s blessing on past and future OPC Timothy Conferences.

It is our conviction that the OPC Timothy Conference is vitally connected to the urgent claims of the gospel ministry in our time. The conference, designed for OP men aged 16–21, will help a young man in your congregation who has been endorsed by his session to answer questions such as:

• What does it mean to be a minister of the gospel?

• How do I know if the Lord is calling me to be a teacher, a missionary, or a pastor?

• How do I prepare for the ministry in my personal life, my education, and my church?

• What is the process for becoming a minister in the OPC?

Mid-America Reformed Seminary

The 2013 OPC Timothy Conference will be held April 17–20 in the Chicago area, hosted by Covenant OPC in Orland Park, Illinois, and New Covenant Community Church in New Lenox, Illinois. Mid-America Reformed Seminary will also provide gracious assistance by opening its doors so that conference attendees are exposed to seminary classes. Three ministers from the Presbytery of the Midwest (Brian De Jong, John Hilbelink, and Bruce Hollister) will be conference speakers, joined by Danny Olinger and Dave VanDrunen of the CCE.

The conference is supported by offerings to Worldwide Outreach, so there is no cost to the young men who attend.

A full description and an application can be found at www.OPC.org, under the Christian Education page.

Spring MTIOPC Registration

The Ministerial Training Institute of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church is pleased to announce its Spring 2013 courses: OPC History, Form of Government, Ecclesiology, and Westminster Standards. Classes begin February 4 with online reading and writing assignments, and conclude with mandatory Intensive Training May 21–23 at Bethel Presbyterian Church in Wheaton, Illinois. OP ministers, elders, men licensed to preach, and men under care of presbyteries have until January 25, 2013, to register. Travel scholarships are available for qualified applicants.

OPC historian John R. Muether teaches OPC History, which surveys the history and character of the OPC and considers what distinguishes it from other Reformed churches in America. The one-credit course seeks to answer the question, why the Orthodox Presbyterian Church? “Some seventy years [after the OPC began],” Muether explains, “OPC ministers are confronted with that question in the context of a changing theological and denominational landscape.”

Alan D. Strange teaches the Form of Government class. The one-credit course focuses on the meaning, history, and polity of the OPC; church government; church officers; the governing assemblies and local administrations; the process of licensing, ordaining, and calling ministers and other ordained officers; ways to amend the constitution; and Robert’s Rules of Order.

Ecclesiology, a two-credit course, is taught by A. Craig Troxel. “The student will walk away with a better understanding of the Reformed view of the church and will gain resources in order to answer contemporary and antiquated challenges of sacramental, ecumenical, consumeristic, and postmodern views of the church,” explains Troxel. “The first theological controversy you face in the ministry will probably involve ecclesiology. And most of the practical questions a minister routinely hears have to do with the church’s government and worship, not just her doctrine.”

Westminster Standards is a two-credit course, taught by Chad B. Van Dixhoorn. “The primary purpose of this course is to help the theologically literate become theologically fluent,” says Van Dixhoorn. The class looks at the Westminster Assembly and the Presbyterian confessional standards, equipping students to defend our confessional standards from the Scriptures.

Applications are available at www.OPC.org under Christian Education, then MTIOPC. Any questions? Contact Danny Olinger (olinger.1@opc.org) or Pat Clawson (CCEsec@opc.org) or call 215/830-0900, ext. 4.

Congratulations

The Shorter Catechism has been recited by:

• Will Hannon (Covenant OPC in Grove City, Pa.)

Four Favorites

Books for the Coffey Table

British historian John Coffey is one of the best writers on seventeenth-century British religious history.

1. John Coffey, Politics, Religion and the British Revolutions: The Mind of Samuel Rutherford. Cambridge, 1997.

This is the first modern intellectual biography of the Scottish theologian and political theorist Samuel Rutherford (ca. 1600–1661) and one of the most historically and theologically sensitive ever written. It provides a thorough discussion of Rutherford’s religious and political ideas, and their role in the ideology of the Scottish Covenanters and the Puritans, whose resistance to Charles I provided the context for the Westminster Assembly.

2. John Coffey, The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism. Cambridge, 2008.

The terms of Puritan and Puritanism have been misunderstood by friends and foes alike. The essays in this book explore Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and European adaptations of Puritanism, as well as English and American versions. It will challenge OP readers to reevaluate this crucial tradition within its wider social, cultural, political, and religious contexts.

3. Alister Chapman, John Coffey, and Brad S. Gregory, eds., Seeing Things Their Way: Intellectual History and the Return of Religion. Notre Dame, 2009.

Coffey argues that religious thought needs to be afforded the same respect in intellectual history as scientific or political thought. Religion often played the central role as the underlying presupposition in constructing all meaning. Thus, argues Coffey, only when religion is reinserted into historical accounts will intellectual historians be able to deliver a richer, more complete and honest kind of history.

4. John Coffey, Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England, 1558–1689. Longman, 2000.

At the heart of this study are civil and ecclesiastical toleration. Coffey is critical of historians who have blurred the distinction between the two. A third form of toleration is toleration in its social context; the practical tolerance of religious dissidents in neighbors, relatives or friends. Beginning with St. Augustine, Coffey emphasizes the importance of the theological arguments that formed the basis for both early modern and modern forms of toleration.

Charles Jackson

Out of the Mouth …

During our family Bible reading, Papa asked why the people wept at the reading of the Law in Nehemiah 8:9. Abraham, 6, answered, “Because they still had four books to go!”

—Aimee Friz

Huntingburg, Ind.

Note: If you have an example of the humorous “wisdom” that can come from children, please send it to the editor.

Foreign Missions

Moving Forward in Karamoja

Robert J. Wright, Jr.

Living in Uganda provides great opportunity to learn how to adapt to change. As soon as we get used to something here, it changes. We and our children often have to cope with friends and colleagues relocating to new assignments. The Karamoja region itself has undergone significant changes since we moved here in 2000: there has been a tremendous increase in peace and prosperity since the Ugandan government disarmed much of the area. Even weather patterns have changed!

All these changes can lead to situations we would never imagine in the U.S. For instance, the only road leading to the outside world from our place in Nakaale turns from bumpy dirt in the dry season to something resembling chocolate mousse when the rains come. The pits in the road left by heavy trucks—thanks to economic development—are so deep that muddy water comes up to the windows on our truck. A trip that took about an hour and three-quarters a few years ago can take eight and one-half hours and rip taillights and fenders off our vehicles!

Rescuing a mission vehicle on the road in Karamoja

While a few members of the Mission really enjoy “mudding,” we all cling to God’s promises even as the road continues to deteriorate. We pray that God will give us the grace to consider it joy when these trials come, and also pray that the Ugandan government will honor its promises to improve the infrastructure.

Thankfully, as we struggle with the road, we are acquiring the skills to deal with it. We pass through bad sections—with our kids and teachers in the back of the truck, bouncing and laughing!—which would have kept us home in the past. However, this has meant we have not been able to transport building materials up country to finish some construction projects, and we have had to suspend drilling operations in the wet season (roughly March–October, but sometimes even into December). Over the past several years, an important component of the diaconal work of the Nakaale Mission Station has been to drill pipe wells, known as boreholes, in Karamoja and other needy places in Uganda, providing clean water for people and livestock. We even designed and manufactured a new and much more powerful drilling rig for this work, with the help of former missionary associate (MA) Ed Wright from Frederick, Maryland. This new drilling rig is a massive piece of machinery that we tow on a trailer with a powerful four-wheel-drive truck, but unless the rains let up, we just can’t get the rig to many drilling sites.

Recently the Lord granted us a few dry days, and we completed one of the best well-drilling jobs yet, at a church and preschool outside Namalu, our local town. We drilled down 105 feet, cased the bore with plastic pipes, and gravel packed and grouted the well—all on the first day. When we came back the second day to clean out and develop the well, we found water spilling out of the casing, without even a pump: we had an artesian well! This was a first for us, especially in a place like Karamoja, which is known for its arid climate. The pastor and congregation there were also amazed and thankful to God for his provision for their needs. We hope that diaconal ministries like this will help our pastors to continue to develop positive relationships with other evangelical churches and provide opportunities for teaching as well.

Although we struggle with the rain, it does mean there is opportunity for crops to grow, and it appears that this year has been a good one for the farmers around us. We hear dancing and singing almost every night in the villages, which means there is plenty to eat and there has been grain for making beer. Sadly, after a few months, most of our Karimojong neighbors will have used up all their harvest and be struggling to find food for many weeks or even months until the next harvest. Trying to teach people good stewardship of what God has given them is an important part of the diaconal work here in Nakaale. However, in a culture where alcoholism affects almost every household, this is a major challenge.

We have had the opportunity to plant some of our 190 acres with hibiscus—grown for tea, juice, and health elixir—and beans. This has given us opportunities to put people to work as their food reserves were running low at the beginning of the planting season. Now the crops have come in, and it might be a bit more difficult for us to find people willing to work in the fields. During a recent visit to our local public primary school, we found that children were very eager to come out and weed on Saturdays and be paid in pens, notebooks, and soap! This also gave us an opportunity to share God’s Word with them, particularly the passage from Colossians 3 about working “unto the Lord.” The first week didn’t go well, as some of the children spent much of the morning sitting under a tree and not working, but they responded well to discipline and rebuke—they had their pay docked for doing so little work, and we spoke seriously to them and their teachers at the school—and in the subsequent weeks they did a fantastic job.

Not all the changes in Uganda present difficulties. One of the benefits of all of the transitions is that we have new people on our team. MAs Chris and Chloe Verdick arrived in July, bringing much-needed help—and humor!—to the team in Nakaale. Chris shares his gifts with me in the workshop and on the farm, and Chloe uses her skills in bookkeeping, administration, and teaching our children math. They are a welcome addition in our currently shorthanded state.

So what exactly is happening with the Wright family? We took a short, ten-week furlough earlier this year, and our trip to the U.S. was a whirlwind of driving, speaking engagements, doctor’s appointments, and loading another shipping container with parts and equipment. We said good-bye to our eldest, Rachel, in June, when we returned to Uganda. She spent the summer at the Boardwalk Chapel in Wildwood, New Jersey, working as part of the ministry team, before heading to Houghton College in upstate New York, where she is a freshman. This fall our next oldest daughter, Anna, started at Rift Valley Academy, a missionary boarding school in Kenya, where she will finish her junior and senior years. This year we are very thankful to have MA Emily Pihl back again to teach our younger daughters, Mary and Christiana, and our son, Bobby, who is now a senior. In addition to taking classes with Emily and his mother, Martha, Bobby is taking a diesel mechanic’s course with his dad. We have practicals most afternoons when we are trying to keep something running in the workshop, in the field, or on the drilling site.

Martha Wright teaching at a school in Nakaale

Martha is busy teaching the children and leading literacy and Bible classes at our local primary school and in one of the villages. It is a blessing to be so warmly welcomed into the public school system here! She continues to work on literacy materials in the Karimojong language. While English is the medium of instruction in the schools, it is best for learners to get a good foundation in their mother tongue, especially so they can read the Bible, which is available in Karimojong—but so few can actually read it! Because of the lack of materials for teaching in their language, Martha has been preparing basic reading texts, an alphabet book, Bible storybooks, and health education texts in Karimojong and English.

Our Mission has also been considering setting up some kind of Christian school, so we are planning to try out a small nursery school for a few children in our community, with the help of MAs Emily Pihl and Erika Bulthuis. We are praying for the Lord’s guidance in this work, as we hope to help raise up Karimojong to become leaders in the church someday.

God gives us plenty of opportunities to work and to serve here. We are hopeful to “make the best of every opportunity,” even when the situation sometimes does not initially look very promising. We can be sure that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). It is a blessing and a privilege to live here and work with the ministry.

What’s New

Comings/Goings

• The Rev. and Mrs. Stephen A. (Linda) Larson completed their missionary service in Rivera, Uruguay, in October and returned to the U.S., where Mr. Larson will seek another call to ministerial service.

Stewardship

Profit Worth a Sacrifice

Joel C. Robbins

Making choices on what we think is “best value” is the story of our lives every day. We’re always making choices based on preference: this music, not something else; check e-mail now or later; black, latte, or mocha. And we generally prefer whatever we think ranks highest in benefits. It doesn’t take a professional to teach us to ask, “Where will I get the greatest profit?”

It does take God to teach us to evaluate profitably how we value things. Jesus was doing that when he asked, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?” (Matt. 16:26). Christ was appealing to our desire for high profits. He was also saying that our way of valuing needs a lifelong inspection.

Sin has twisted our sense of benefit. It has thrown our ideas of what is worth pursuing into disarray. When Adam saw Eve and made his joyful assessment that here was something really, really good, of course he was right! God’s law was the shape of his conscience, the built-in way he went about discerning how profitable anything was. His system of valuation was a reflection of God’s own. He loved what was good. But sin has reduced our discernment of value into chaos and vanity.

Part of God’s training of his people in righteousness involves reshaping our sense of what is truly profitable. Moses was taught to consider the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking to the reward. Paul learned to count all his own personal credentials and achievements as loss, because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord. As a Christian believer, you have your own story to tell, of how God has been changing what you value and reorienting your investing patterns accordingly.

Paul’s final letter prepares the church, through Timothy’s leadership, to invest in what is most profitable until Christ Jesus returns in glory. All through 2 Timothy, he finds ways to say that paying a high price to hold on to the gospel is a truly sound investment. For the climax of his letter, he appeals to us to love the Scriptures and give our lives to see it carried to the ends of the earth. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable” (2 Tim. 3:16). Scripture is what is profitable. Preaching is how God brings the benefits of the Scriptures to the end of the earth (2 Tim. 3:16–4:2). The profit is so high that Paul is unashamed to ask Timothy to lay down his life as an investment in preaching God’s Word.

Some of us are planning our household budgets for 2013. What kind of profit are we hoping to get with the way we invest our money? Investment in the preaching of the Scriptures is as profitable as it gets.

The author is pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Monterey Bay, Calif.

2012 Giving Deadlines

To be considered 2012 contributions, monies must be received at the Administrative Offices of the OPC by Monday, January 7, 2013, with a postmark no later than December 31, 2012.

Checks should be made payable to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and mailed to:

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church
607 N. Easton Rd., Bldg. E
Willow Grove, PA 19090-2539

Prayer Calendar

December

1. Ben and Heather Hopp, Haiti. Pray for continued growth and faithfulness among the church leaders in Haiti. / Ken and Cressid Golden, Davenport, Iowa (formerly Moline, Ill). Pray that Sovereign Grace OPC will receive more visitors and core families as a result of their move to Davenport.

2. Doug and Kristi Bylsma, Beamsville, Ontario. Pray that the Lord would raise up leaders from within the congregation of Living Hope Presbyterian Church. / Ethiopian Reformed Presbyterian Church. Pray for the spiritual needs of the various congregations. / Give thanks for Charles Dunahoo’s thirty-five years of service on the Board of Great Commission Publications.

3. Woody and Laurie Lauer, Numazu, Japan. Pray that God’s Word would take root in those attending outreach activities. / Andrew and Billie Moody, San Antonio, Tex. Pray for continued development in San Antonio Reformed Church’s ministry. / David (and Karen) Koenig, yearlong intern at Covenant OPC in Orland Park, Ill.

4. Home Missions general secretary Ross Graham. / Cal and Edie Cummings, Sendai, Japan. Pray for opportunities to build good relationships with the community around the Nozomi Center. / Short-term missions coordinator David Nakhla asks prayer that the refurbishing of the Ishinomaki Chapel in Japan will be completed by mid-December, enabling the pastor to move into the parsonage by Christmas.

5. Missionary associates Adam and Sarah Thompson, Sendai, Japan. Pray that many students will come to Sarah for English-language instruction. / Sacha and Martina Walicord, Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Pray that visitors will continue to come to Knox Presbyterian Church.

6. Tim and Joanne Beauchamp, Bridgton, Maine. Pray that God would bless Pleasant Mountain Presbyterian Church with additional families. / Al and Laurie Tricarico, Nakaale, Uganda (on furlough). Pray for Al as he speaks at the Foreign Missions Conference in Willow Grove, Pa., tomorrow.

7. Kaz and Katie Yaegashi, Yamagata, Japan. Pray that unbelieving seekers, when confronted with the gospel, will believe. / Kent and Laurie Harding, Doniphan, Mo. Pray for Sovereign Grace Reformed Church as they prepare for officer nominations in the coming months. / Navy chaplain John (and Linda) Carter.

8. Brandon and Laurie Wilkins, Crystal Lake, Ill. Pray for Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church as they bear witness to the gospel in Crystal Lake. / Pray for the labors of affiliated missionaries Craig and Ree Coulbourne and Linda Karner, Japan. / Camden (and Erica) Bucey, yearlong intern at Bethel Presbyterian Church in Wheaton, Ill.

9. Church in the Horn of Africa. Pray for believers who stand for the Lord in hostile circumstances. / John and Lois Hilbelink, Rockford, Ill. Pray for Providence OPC as they seek to bring people under the ministry of the Word of God.

10. Home Missions associate general secretary Dick Gerber. / Pray for missionary associates Jana Crum, Uruguay, and Tessara Raposa, Uganda, as they conclude their terms of service and return to the U.S. / Carson Ryan, yearlong intern at Lake Sherwood OPC in Orlando, Fla.

11. Brian and Dorothy Wingard, South Africa. Pray for increased student attendance in the college-organized prayer groups. / Everett and Kimberly Henes, Hillsdale, Mich. Pray for outreach opportunities at Hillsdale OPC during the winter months. / Army chaplain Jonathan (and Marion) Gibbs.

12. Carlos and Diana Cruz, San Juan, P.R. Pray for more disciples and the faithfulness to minister to each family that God brings to Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada. / Foreign Missions administrative assistant Linda Posthuma and secretary Janet Birkmann.

For six weeks, Reformation Presbyterian Church held a barbecue Q&A at Cunningham Park in Queens, New York City. Following food and conversation, Pastor Brad Hertzog (center) and intern Jonathan Shishko (left) would lead a devotional and then host a question-and-answer forum. People in the mission work attended and invited their friends and acquaintances to join them. Many guests attended. Some people walking through the park stopped by. They were warmly greeted and invited to have something to eat. Many questions about the Bible and the Christian faith were fielded by Brad and Jonathan. Cunningham Park is in the Fresh Meadows neighborhood, where Reformation meets for worship. Pray that this outreach effort will bear lasting fruit.

13. Pray for Foreign Missions general secretary Mark Bube as he reports to the Executive Committee meeting tomorrow. / Jeremiah and Elizabeth Montgomery, State College, Pa. Pray for new contacts and visitors at Resurrection OPC. / Geoff (and Heather) Downey, yearlong intern at Trinity OPC in Hatboro, Pa.

14. Jim and Tricia Stevenson, Tulsa, Okla. Pray that visitors to Providence OPC will desire to join in communicant fellowship. / Pray for Foreign Missions associate general secretary Douglas Clawson as he continues to press for the advancement of OP foreign missions.

15. Mr. and Mrs. F., Asia. Pray that people whose lives they touch will see Christ through their words and deeds. / Vern and Olena Picknally, Fremont, Mich. Pray that the congregation of Fremont OPC will invite visitors. / Barry Traver, OPC website technical associate.

16. Roberto and Marieta Laranjo, Lowell, Mass. Pray for unity and growth within the congregation of Igreja Presbiteriana Brasileira. / Mr. and Mrs. M., Asia. Pray for Mr. M.’s ministry to the future generation of church leaders. / Pray for the work of the Psalter-Hymnal Composition Subcommittee.

17. Missionary associates E. C., T. D., and E. H., Asia. Pray for an effective witness to their students. / Tom and Martha Albaugh, Pittsburgh, Pa. Pray for new visitors at Redeemer OPC Mission. / David (and Jenna) DeRienzo, yearlong intern at Second Parish OPC in Portland, Maine.

18. William and Deddeh Joe, Philadelphia, Pa. (Liberian). Pray for the continued spiritual growth and development of Grace OPC. / Missionary associates Mr. and Mrs. C. and T. L. L., Asia. Pray for the spiritual growth of new believers. / Doug Watson, staff accountant.

19. Ben and Melanie Westerveld, Quebec, Canada. Pray for Ben and the session as they seek to shepherd St-Marc’s growing congregation faithfully. / Bill and Sessie Welzien, Key West, Fla. Pray that God’s elect will be brought in to Keys Presbyterian Church. / Sarah Pederson, New Horizons proofreader.

20. Matthew and Jessica Figura, Cookeville, Tenn. Pray for new visitors at Faith Presbyterian Church and for opportunities to reach the lost. / Missionary associate Debra Blair, Quebec, Canada, asks prayer for continued development in her French-language speaking skills. / Pat Clawson, Christian Education office secretary and MTIOPC coordinator.

21. Pray for missionary associates Leah Hopp and Jesse Van Gorkom, Nakaale, Uganda, as they assist the missionaries in many tasks. / Home Missions administrative assistant Sean Gregg. / Pray that OPC officers, licentiates, and men under care will register for a Spring 2013 course through the Ministerial Training Institute of the OPC.

22. Brian and Sara Chang, Cottonwood, Ariz. Pray that the Lord would bless Verde Valley Reformed Chapel with new growth. / Affiliated missionaries Jerry and Marilyn Farnik, Czech Republic. Pray for outreach activities during the holiday season. / Jan Gregson, office manager and assistant to the director of finance.

23. Bob and Martha Wright, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for wisdom as the Mission makes decisions regarding diaconal assistance. / Robert and Christy Arendale, Houston, Tex. Pray for God’s Spirit to direct and empower Cornerstone OPC’s gospel witness. / Pray for George Cottenden, stated clerk of the General Assembly, as he completes work on the 2013 Directory.

24. Pray for David Crum, regional home missionary for the Presbytery of Southern California, as he visits mission works and churches throughout the regional church. / Pray for the labors of missionary associate teachers Erika Bulthuis and Emily Pihl. / Navy chaplain Tim (and Janine) Power.

25. Pray that retired missionaries Betty Andrews, Greet Rietkerk, Young and Mary Lou Son, and Fumi Uomoto will be an encouragement to believers at home and on foreign fields. / Gabe and Callie Fluhrer, Cary, N.C. Praise God for his continued blessing on Shiloh Presbyterian Church. / Army chaplain Graham (and Carla) Harbman.

26. Todd and Cheryl Bordow, Rio Rancho, N.Mex. Pray that God would bless the Sunday school and Bible studies at the OPC of Rio Rancho. / Eric and Dianna Tuininga, Mbale, Uganda. Pray for Eric as he encourages men in the Mbale Presbytery of the OPC in Uganda. / Kathy Bube, Loan Fund administrator.

27. David and Sunshine Okken, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray that the preaching of God’s Word will bear much fruit in Karamoja. / Larry and Holly Wilson, Airdrie, Alberta. Pray for Redeemer OPC’s discipleship and ministry. / Pray for Danny Olinger, Christian Education’s general secretary, as he serves as editor of New Horizons.

28. Christopher and Della Chelpka, Tucson, Ariz. Pray for the elder and deacon candidates at Covenant OPC. / James and Jenny Knox, M.D. and R.N., Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for wisdom for Jim as he provides guidance and instruction to the Clinic staff. / Mark (and Karissa) Soud, yearlong intern at Calvin Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Ariz.

29. Missionary associates Christopher and Chloe Verdick, Nakaale, Uganda. Pray for Chloe as she assists with the Mission’s books. / Jay and Andrea Bennett, Neon, Ky. Pray for the finances and manpower to finish renovating Neon Reformed Presbyterian Church’s manse.

30. Philip and Jenny Dharmawirya, Philadelphia, Pa. (Indonesian). Pray for the leaders being trained at Emmanuel Chapel, that they will continue to grow and stand united. / Pray for Mark and Jeni Richline, Uruguay, as they continue to work on their Spanish-language acquisition.

31. Heero and Anya Hacquebord, L’viv, Ukraine. Pray that their young church will grow in faith, maturity, and new believers. / Chad and Katie Mullinix, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Pray for further growth and wisdom in ministering the gospel at Holy Trinity Presbyterian Church. / Jim Scott, managing editor for New Horizons.

Ecumenicity

That They May All Be One

Jack W. Sawyer

At this season of the denominational Thank Offering, when you prayerfully consider the work of Worldwide Outreach in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, you rightly think of Home Missions, Foreign Missions, and Christian Education. But another vital, ancillary element of OPC ministry involves the work of the Committee on Ecumenicity and Interchurch Relations (CEIR). The committee is elected in three classes, and consists of nine members, ministers or ruling elders. George W. Knight III is the current president, and yours truly is the part-time administrator. I was elected to the committee in 2005 and made its administrator in 2009.

The CEIR has the following tasks: (1) Make recommendations to the General Assembly on all matters relevant to the relationship of the OPC to other churches and to ecumenical bodies, both in the United States and abroad, including the establishment of official relationships, in accordance with the Assembly’s policy on Churches in Ecclesiastical Fellowship. (2) Maintain and nurture the relationships established by the Assembly. (3) Endeavor to put into practice the Assembly’s Biblical Principles of the Unity of the Church. (4) Appoint fraternal delegates to the major assemblies of churches with which the Orthodox Presbyterian Church has an official relationship. (5) Appoint representatives to the annual meeting of the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC). (6) Report annually to the General Assembly on its work and on the churches with which the Orthodox Presbyterian Church has an official relationship.

Under this mandate, the CEIR has long been active in developing and coordinating bilateral and multilateral ecclesiastical relationships with Presbyterian and Reformed Churches worldwide. The goal is not simply the multiplication of contacts, as if the OPC were accumulating friends on a Facebook page, but rather the establishment of meaningful contacts that lead to mutual confidence, shared ministry (both personnel and resources), and perhaps even organic union with other denominations or federations.

Jack Sawyer explaining OPC history to ministers from five countries in East Australia

From its earliest Assembly, which sent Cornelius Van Til as a fraternal delegate to the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church, the OPC has come to have full ecclesiastical fellowship with fifteen churches in North America and around the world, and corresponding relations with eleven additional denominations. (Corresponding relations is the OPC’s second tier of relationships—a “getting to know you” stage that will hopefully lead to full ecclesiastical fellowship.) A third level of ecclesiastical contact is maintained with other distant churches through the agency of the International Conference of Reformed Churches (ICRC). The ICRC is one of two wider ecumenical bodies to which the OPC belongs, the other being NAPARC.

Some significant highlights in OPC history have revolved around the work of the CEIR and its recommendations to the General Assembly. Most notable, perhaps, were the Joining and Receiving efforts with the PCA in the 1980s. Similarly, the 1970s were occupied with the proposed merger with the RPCES. Sometimes, rich fruit has been harvested from patient labor, in one case almost forty years worth, as in the delightful relationship the OPC now enjoys with the Canadian Reformed Churches. Today efforts are opening ecumenical vistas in South America and cooperation with the Presbyterian Church of Brazil. Closer to home, our ecclesiastical fellowship with the United Reformed Churches of North America has led to the calling of a URCNA minister, Eric Tuininga, now serving in our OPC Uganda Mission, plus our ongoing joint work in producing a new Psalter-hymnal.

Internationally, the OPC first tested the waters as an observer of the International Council of Christian Churches and later joined the Reformed Ecumenical Synod, though we were ultimately constrained to leave due to RES tolerance of false teaching regarding Scripture, the atonement, and homosexuality. In the early 1990s, the OPC found a new home in the International Conference of Reformed Churches, whose next meeting will be in Wales in 2013, hosted by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales.

The work of the CEIR has been led by some of the OPC’s most notable sons, including Cornelius Van Til, John Murray, Ned B. Stonehouse, John P. Galbraith, Edmund P. Clowney, Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., Norman Shepherd, Robert B. Strimple, Thomas E. Tyson, G. I. Williamson, and Jack J. Peterson, to name but a handful. That being said, the OPC has a long history of being no respecter of persons. This undoubtedly accounts for my election.

It was with gratitude, historical awareness, and trepidation that I began my time on the CEIR—and even more so when I replaced the venerable “Texas” Jack Peterson as administrator of the committee. Little could I have imagined, being a small-town, Southern boy, how the miles would fly by in service to our Lord’s prayer that his disciples be as one.

Excited to learn and serve, my first trip in 2005 was to the NAPARC meeting in Montreal. This trip was memorable for the food poisoning that nearly sent me to the hospital, and for the pastoral kindness of Jack Peterson, who graciously got me on an airplane home. The year 2006 saw the first of three trips to Bonclarken, the denominational conference center of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Here I found myself simply overwhelmed with hospitality and that most delightful of ARP distinctives, grits for breakfast. Far more importantly, I also found a reforming church, born in the crucible of ecclesiastical secessions in 1730s Scotland and with many parallels to the OPC’s own disruptions of the 1930s. Throughout its continuing reformation of the past forty years, the ARP has struggled with its agencies and institutions in a way that any student of OPC and PCUSA history could appreciate.

A highlight of 2010 was a trip as fraternal delegate, along with my young friend and colleague, Everett Henes, to the General Synod of the Canadian Reformed Churches held in Burlington, Ontario. What a blessing it was to enter into the work of so many OP fathers and brothers, and their patient doctrinal discussions with their CanRC counterparts over prolonged years, wrestling with confessional and church polity divergences between the Presbyterian and Reformed traditions.1 It was my privilege to address the Synod, insomuch as I have friends and family in the CanRC and owe a particular debt of gratitude to the late Jelle Faber, principal of the CanRC Theological College, a mentor of mine and a great friend of the OPC.

In the providence of God, the OPC has had no ecumenical partner more significant than the distant Reformed Churches of New Zealand. Since 1957, the OPC and the RCNZ have shared ministers, mission fields, and ecumenical endeavors in the ICCC, RES, and ICRC.2 Having been ordained in the RCNZ, it was my great joy to be delegated to attend their 26th (2008) and 27th (2011) General Synods. In 2011, I combined my time at the Synod with opportunities to fill numerous pulpits, while Mark Bube was there promoting the work of the OPC’s Committee on Foreign Missions.

Congregations from three continents, united in the Reformed faith

Additionally, 2011 took us to Australia and such diverse locations as Carrum Downs, Narre Warren, Wantirna, and Geelong, for contacts with the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia, consultations with fellow officers, pulpit supply, and multiple lectures on OPC history and missions. Journeying to Western Australia, we had a cordial visit with the deputies of the Free Reformed Churches of Australia. There I was invited to give a lecture to a large audience at the Free Reformed Church of Southern River on OPC church planting and to present the 75th anniversary DVD on the work of our Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension. On the far side of the world, reunions abounded as we encountered and encouraged numerous brethren with connections to the OPC, the RCNZ, the CanRC, and Westminster Seminary.

Spanning the globe on behalf of the OPC, each member of the CEIR has his own story to tell. Mine is far from unique. I am sure I can speak for my colleagues, who, being equally active and vigilant in their own assignments, are always seeking open doors to advance the cause of Reformed catholicity, and to bring increasingly to realization the prayer of our Lord, the ecumenical imperative “that they may all be one” (John 17:11).

The author is pastor of Pineville Presbyterian Church in Pineville, La.

Footnotes

1 See Richard Pot’s historical summary at www.richardpot.net/papers/opc.html.

2 See my essay, “The Glorious New Zealand Experiment,” in Confident of Better Things (published by the Committee for the Historian of the OPC, 2011).

News

Better Late Than Never

James La Belle

At its fall meeting, the Presbytery of New York and New England celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding, a year late. We adopted a “better late than never” view, and rejoiced together in God’s goodness to us for 75 + 1 years.

Display at the Presbytery of New York and New England’s celebration

The Presbytery was founded at the first General Assembly in June 1936 and held its first meeting less than a month later. Initially only three congregations enrolled, and all three suffered for their commitment to the orthodox Christian faith. John Rankin, who had pastored a thriving PCUSA church in Worcester, New York, lost all but ten of his congregants. Second Parish in Portland, Maine (which also left the PCUSA), had to go to court to retain ownership of its building.

But amid these trials there were encouraging developments. Prof. John Murray was received into the Presbytery in 1937—being licensed and ordained all in one evening. Despite living in Philadelphia, he remained an active member, demonstrating great zeal for church planting.

Within ten years, the Presbytery tripled in size, adding many new ministers and congregations. One of these new churches, Grace OPC in Fall River, Massachusetts, called the Rev. G. I. Williamson as pastor in 1955.

Today the Presbytery has grown to include twenty-five churches and mission works. We are grateful for God’s faithful providence over the years and in many trials. Soli Deo gloria.

Machen Ladies’ Retreat

Twenty-nine ladies representing eight churches in three presbyteries attended the thirteenth annual Ladies’ Retreat at Machen Retreat and Conference Center in beautiful Highland County, Virginia, on October 12–13. Meredith Proctor spoke on “Hospitality: It’s Not Just for Dinner Anymore.” The next Ladies’ Retreat at MRCC is scheduled for October 11–12, 2013.

Women at the Ladies’ Retreat at MRCC

George Morton Retires

Jeffrey Morton

A few years ago, a church leader looked at my father’s congregation in Southwest Philadelphia and exclaimed that he didn’t need to travel abroad to be a missionary, because the mission work had come to him. In the twenty-four years that George Morton served at Southwest Philadelphia Reformed Fellowship, renamed Grace OPC in 1993, the neighborhood makeup changed. His initial call in 1988 was a teaching work among first-generation Christian families. Ten years later, as some of those families moved on and new families began moving in, a new chapter began when a young man heard praise singing while walking down 72nd street. This ministry developed into a blend of the old and the new as a group of West African immigrants came seeking gospel preaching (see New Horizons, November 2008). On Sunday, September 30, the body at Grace Church, past and present, along with family and many friends, said good-bye and thanks to Pastor George for fifty years of kingdom service.

George and Ruth Morton in 2009

I was thinking of another story on that retirement Sunday, one that reflected not only his teaching but also his life. My dad ministered with a heart of generosity that seemingly never ran out. After hearing one more story of how my parents had shared their life with others, I told him, “You guys are like that jar of oil Elijah gave to the widow and her son; your jar continues to remain full as you continually give its contents away.” He chuckled on the other end of the phone. My parent’s gift to their children was a perspective of loving deferment and grace-filled openhandedness. While my father loved pulpit teaching, most of all he seemed to love pastoring and filling the hearts of others, while emptying his own. Last Sunday he told the Grace congregation that he had never felt so loved, and he was truly thankful. I’m certain they would reply that it was because of his deep love for them.

George Morton began his pastoral ministry in 1962, working with two churches in western Pennsylvania that were eventually unified as Calvary OPC in Harrisville. In 1970, he accepted a call to Calvary RPCES in Warminster, Pennsylvania. In 1973, he became the pastor at Mechanicsville Chapel in Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania, where he served for twelve years. Prior to his work in Southwest Philadelphia, in 1985, with the support of Trinity OPC in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, and Emmanuel Chapel in Philadelphia, George began Kingdom Housing Ministry, a diaconal work ministering to unwed and single mothers. At the age of seventy-nine, he leaves a testimony of faithful service to our King.

Ohio Women’s Retreat

The Presbytery of Ohio’s Women’s Retreat, at Salt Fork State Park Lodge on September 21–22, drew ninety-six ladies. Pam Baker led a study on contentment, based on Hebrews 3 and 4. She drew attention to humility and faith in God’s sovereignty and goodness.

Ladies at the Presbytery of Ohio’s Women’s Retreat

Update

Churches

• Christ OPC in London, Ky., was dissolved effective October 20 by the Presbytery of the Southeast, at the congregation’s request.

• Community OPC in Newtown, Conn., held its final worship service on October 28.

Ministers

• Stephen M. Brown was ordained as a minister and installed as associate pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Vienna, Va., on October 5.

• Glenn D. Jerrell, formerly pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Walkerton, Ind., was installed as regional home missionary for the Presbytery of Michigan and Ontario on September 15.

• Jason C. Kirklin was ordained as a minister and installed as associate pastor of Grace OPC in Columbus, Ohio, on November 2.

• The pastoral relationship between D. Patrick Ramsay and Christ OPC in London, Ky., was dissolved as of July 31, by the Presbytery of the Southeast.

• Richard A. Miller was installed as pastor of Arco OPC in Arco, Idaho, on October 19; he had resigned as pastor there in 2010 to care for his dying father, and has been supplying the pulpit for more than a year.

• The pastoral relationship between retiring minister George F. Morton and Grace OPC in Philadelphia, Pa., was dissolved by the Presbytery of Philadelphia as of September 30.

• Paul A. Mourreale was ordained and installed as associate pastor of New Hope OPC in Green Bay, Wis., on October 19, by the Presbytery of the Midwest.

• On September 25, the Presbytery of the Dakotas dismissed Scott L. Seder to the PCA.

• Robert A. Starke was ordained as a minister and installed as associate pastor of Covenant OPC in San Jose, Calif., on October 27.

• The pastoral relationship of Terry F. Thole with the Presbytery of the Dakotas as an evangelist laboring at Grace OPC in Fargo, N.D. (a mission work), was dissolved on (and as of) September 25, 2012; the Presbytery designated him Pastor Emeritus.

• At its September 28 meeting, the Presbytery of the Northwest dissolved the pastoral relationship between J. Peter Vosteen and Lynnwood OPC in Lynnwood, Wash., at his request; he will continue to teach at Northwest Theological Seminary.

Letters

Remembering the Early Days

Editor:

When I read Jon Sanchez’s account of the “extreme makeover” of New Covenant OPC in South San Francisco, a flood of memories came to mind. The first services were held in a rented building in September 1954. A search to find suitable property began, and on September 28, 1958, ground was broken. God had answered our prayers! The work was headed up by Pastor Arthur Riffel and Sam Moncrieff, both able builders. Volunteers from the congregation and other friends pitched in—even children and seniors helped out.

The church was finally dedicated on August 7, 1960. A newspaper article dubbed us the “Do It Yourself Church.” Psalm 127:1 provided our guidance and inspiration: “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”

I congratulate Jon and Jan Sanchez in their leadership and devotion to the makeover project. May the Lord continue to bless those who come through the doors to hear Pastor Carl Erickson faithfully preach the Word.

I now reside in Oklahoma, near my family. I wish I could see the church now.

Christine Bachman

Owasso, Okla.

A Manse for the Pastor?

Editor:

Rethinking the wisdom of churches providing manses for its pastors is the third rail in ministerial compensation: touch it and you’re dead as a pastoral candidate. And yet pastors who have lived in manses during their ministries face a difficult problem when they retire. They have no place to live and no housing equity to even consider purchasing retirement housing.

This problem was brought into sharp focus when I read in the October issue the otherwise excellent article entitled “Planning for a Minister’s Retirement.” However, I was stunned that no mention was made of the mortgage payment that ministers face at retirement if they lived in manses during their ministries! This is a huge financial problem for such ministers.

In the same issue, there was an encouraging report of a church plant taking root. Unfortunately, it provides a manse for its pastor. That probably is all the church can provide at this point, but one hopes that this is a practice that is short-lived there and abolished throughout the OPC.

Why should a church own a house and their retired pastors not? There are solutions to this injustice that the OPC should openly discuss.

Roger W. Schmurr

Georgetown, Tex.

Reviews

An Eye for Glory: The Civil War Chronicles of a Citizen Soldier, by Karl A. Bacon. Published by Zondervan, 2011. Paperback, 364 pages, list price $16.99. Reviewed by John W. Mallin.

Karl A. Bacon, ruling elder at Westminster OPC in Hamden, Connecticut, has produced a glorious first novel.

An Eye for Glory is the first-person account of Michael Palmer, written twenty years after his 1862 enlistment in the 14th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The story is an account of his life of faith during the American Civil War.

The reader follows Michael through the boredom of encampments and the terror of battles, including Antietam Creek, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor. The story covers his experience from his decision to enlist in August 1862 through his discharge in June 1864, with some background of his life before enlistment and two chapters about his life after the war. There are glimpses of the experience of his wife at home.

The novel is set forth in thirty-four chapters and an opening and a closing letter. In the opening letter, Michael presents the manuscript of his account to his children. In the closing letter, the typed manuscript is presented for publication by his daughter, almost one year after his death, on May 14, 1902, nearly twenty years after its writing. The chapters are titled and headed with Scripture quotations. The body of the account is interspersed with letters between Michael and his wife.

The title of the book points to a double meaning, with a view to the glory of man and the glory of God. So the novel works on at least two levels.

The style of the book reflects accurately the style in which a late nineteenth-century educated man would have written, based on journals and letters of the day. Historical details are accurate. The account contains detailed descriptions of people, surroundings, battles, camp life, and Michael’s thoughts. The dialogue and comments realistically portray the speech and thoughts of a Christian of the period and place, and accurately reflect the experiences of a soldier and the common responses to such experiences.

As Christian fiction, this book is neither saccharine nor didactic in style, but natural in dialogue and comment from the point of view of a Christian encountering the events portrayed. Bacon understands the heart of man. He explores the stresses on the faith of a man in battle—on the Civil War battlefield and in his own heart. It is edifying.

The work is remarkably free of errors missed by proofreaders. It is pleasant in appearance and well bound. Maps enhance the work.

I heartily recommend this book and eagerly await Bacon’s second novel.

Announcements

New Booklet

Your Sabbath Destination, a 15-page booklet by Roger W. Schmurr, is now available from the Committee on Christian Education. Roger is a retired OP minister, who once served as editor of this magazine.

This engaging booklet narrates the interaction between a pastor and a member of his congregation. It links the weekly Sabbath to our eternal rest, focusing on Hebrews 3:7–4:11.

To purchase this booklet, go to our new website publications page, store.opc.org (to order using PayPal), or e-mail Pat Clawson at CCEsec@opc.org (to be invoiced). The price is $1.00, or $0.75 per copy for 10 or more. For U.S. addresses, there is a flat $4.00 shipping charge for orders under $35.00, so order several items together for free shipping.

Positions Available

Principal/Head of School: Bethany Christian School (preschool–8th grade), a mission of Bethany Presbyterian Church in Oxford, Pa., has begun a search for a new principal/head of school for the 2013–2014 school year. Send a letter of interest to admsearch@gmail.com and receive an information packet. See us at bethanychristian.org.

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If you are not a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, you are requested to donate $20.00 annually (if you are able) to cover most of the cost of sending you New Horizons.

Subscriptions (paid in advance) for those living outside the U.S. are US $40.00 (US $30.00 for Canada). A free PDF version of New Horizons (in full color) is available by e-mail to anyone who requests it (at CCEsec@opc.org). Free PDF, ePub, and Mobi versions are also available for downloading at www.OPC.org.

Order subscriptions online at store.opc.org (making payments through PayPal). Or, send your request to CCEsec@opc.org; funds must then be sent to: New Horizons, 607 N. Easton Rd., Bldg. E, Willow Grove, PA 19090-2539 (United States).

Members of the OPC are automatic subscribers to New Horizons and pay for it indirectly through their church’s giving to Worldwide Outreach and the Thank Offering.