In the Great Commission in Matthew 28, the church is given the tasks of making disciples of all nations, and baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Those who carry out this task are the ordained officers of the church. What is needed is for the church to be the church, faithful in the exercise of the mark of the church—reading and preaching the Word of God, administering the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and administering discipline.

Danny Olinger is the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He serves as editor of the monthly periodical New Horizons in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and is the author of A Geerhardus Vos Anthology and Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian.