John Larson is a Senior Software Engineer at Jack Henry and a student at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, where he is pursuing a Master of Divinity.
Raised in a churchgoing family, John came to faith as a child and grew up immersed in the life of the local church. Years of careful study drew him into the Reformed tradition, and he is today a communicant member of a Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) congregation. He holds to the Westminster Standards and works within covenant theology, classical theism, and a redemptive-historical reading of Scripture.
This paper takes its name from the old answer of the Shorter Catechism: the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates the benefits of redemption are His ordinances, especially the Word, sacraments, and prayer. The writings gathered here are offered in that conviction, that the ordinary is underrated precisely because it works.