A Commentary on the OPC Book of Church Order by Alan Strange

7 Jan 2021 // 12:24

*I dedicate this post to my friend and ruling elder co-laborer, B. F., who learns from the past to serve in the present.*

The Book of Church Order of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church is a rich document and, like other church orders, the work of generations. But it doesn’t always say why such and such a conclusion was reached or why certain terminology is used.

Well, good news: in June 2020, Ordained Servant started publishing a commentary on the OPC’s Form of Government written by Alan Strange. (2022 Update: this work is being followed by commentary on the Book of Discipline.)

Dr. Strange is a minister in OPC and a church history professor at Mid-America Reformed Seminary. He specializes in American Presbyterian history and, having served on the OPC Appeals and Complaints Committee for many years, he has a rich and practiced understanding of presbyterian church government. As such, he’s one of the best people to be writing a commentary on the form of government.

A good commentary on the BCO provides several benefits. It enriches our understanding of the BCO, strengthens our trust in it, and helps us apply and improve our church order. And it can serve ecumenical purposes by helping us to know which differences between us and other denominations matter and which ones don’t.

Commentaries on church orders have been written before. For example, on the Dutch Reformed side, Martin Monsma and Idzerd Van Dellen published a commentary on the church order of the Christian Reformed Church, updated in 1967. And there are some great essays edited by J. De Jong in Bound Yet Free. A commentary similar to the Monsma, Van Dellen volume was written by W. W. J. Van Oene for the Canadian Reformed Churches, which is now available online. See also the commentaries by Biesterveld and Kuijper, and van Rongen.

You can also find several commentaries and commentary-like works on the Presbyterian side of the Reformed world. The PCA Historical Center has a good bibliography of some these works; of special note is the commentary on the PCA’s church order by Morton Smith. R. B. Kuiper’s The Glorious Body of Christ comes close to a commentary on the OPC form of government, but it doesn’t have the section by section commenting that Alan Strange is doing.

Strange has already clarified a few things for me and I’m excited to read more. This commentary will be a valuable to the church for many years. I pray for the Lord’s blessing on his work.

The commentary is being published serially in Ordained Servant. As a resource for myself and others, I am linking to the available chapters.