The church where I pastor has been called “a means of grace church.” Or to elaborate, we want to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ for our life together with God. We believe this is the primary ministry of the church. And we think that the primary means by which we do this ministry of gospel proclamation are “the ordinary means” of grace that God has given us: “the Word,  sacraments, and prayer” (Westminster Larger Catechism 154 and Shorter Catechism 88).  

By these means of grace, Jesus shares with us his own relationship with God the Father, the benefits of his mediation and redemption. Not only do we receive Christ’s ministry to us by these means, but it is also our great privilege to participate in Christ’s ministry by these same means.  Grace upon grace!  

Many churches embrace this way of ministry. But many churches need to rediscover these ordinary means of grace as vital to ministry. Everyone would benefit from thinking deeply about what the means of grace are as God’s gifts to us, what they mean for our relationship with God in Christ, and why they are so essential to the life of the church.  

So I am glad that Harrison Perkins has written “Meeting God in His Means of Grace: How Word,  Sacrament, and Prayer Help Us Encounter Christ” (Baker, 2026). This book is written with a pastoral heart to help the reader answer some very important questions: How do we connect with God? How can we come to know God personally? How do we encounter Jesus in ways that make us confident of God’s gracious love for us, change our lives, and renew us in his image?  

Perkins helps us to understand how God has actually answered these questions! God has already given us specific ways of connecting with him in Christ. “This book… focuses on the means of grace — Word, sacrament, and prayer — as gifts that God has given his church to connect us to him so that we can experience our relationship with him” (13). These are the ways of connecting with God that God himself has revealed, fully authorized, endorsed, and promised to use for our good.  

In Part One of his book, Perkins discusses generally the benefits of these means of grace: “They connect us to God to help us have assurance of God’s love and presence with us, as well as equip us in our pursuit of godliness” (19). He locates their practice primarily in the communal context of “the church gathered for Lord’s Day worship” (48), as the main features of our life together with God. Then he moves on to give extended considerations of each of the means of grace. 

In Part Two, Perkins focuses on the Word — the Christ-centered reading and preaching of the  Scriptures — as God’s reliable revelation for our relationship with him. We can trust that God truly makes himself known to us by his Word. “God’s Word as a means of grace has a priority over the other means of grace” (62). The sacraments and prayer are the only ways for connecting with God because God says they are: because he assigns them their meaning and promises their real effectiveness by his Word.  

In Part Three, we find careful biblical and theological reflections on the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. “They are a visible representation of the Word’s offer of cleansing by and communion with Christ” (91). The elements of water, bread, and wine do not connect us to Jesus merely by being what they are in themselves but as Jesus declares them to signify our union and fellowship with him, and as the Holy Spirit works in us through faith. As means of grace, the sacraments are more about what God is saying to us than about what we are saying to God, which is good for helping us in our faith!  

In Part Four, Perkins shows how prayer is not just about getting something from Christ, “prayer is about getting Christ himself” (151). There is a wonderful exposition of Philippians 4:4-7,  explaining how through prayer we can know the nearness of the Lord in every circumstance,  freeing us from worry, freeing us to rejoice in the Lord and to love others. Prayer, as Christ has given it to us, is an important means by which we experience God’s presence and are kept in  God’s love. And our prayers together (including songs in worship) are ways to minister the truth of the gospel to each other.  

Perkins concludes by showing from the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) how the  “method of means of grace ministry” (176) is received from Jesus Christ himself. “The ordinary means of grace are about seeing Christ’s presence with us throughout this age. They are also about taking Christ throughout the world so that more people might see him as Savior” (179).  

There will, inevitably, be readers who find some of their personal convictions challenged and critiqued by this book, who find some reason to disagree here or there. That’s okay. Perkins, a seminary professor and pastor in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, has done well to hold forth the major contours and excellencies of the means of grace, and he has done so graciously for the good of the church. It’s good to consider such things in conversation with each other in the broader church, and this book is a great contribution to the conversation.  

We see God’s loving and gracious intention toward us in the very fact that he has provided the  Word, sacraments, and prayer as ways of connecting with him. His interest in the matter of our meeting precedes and eclipses our own. As sinners, we are prone to doubt that we can truly know God personally. But God has made himself known in Christ! And he has given us the means of grace so that we can rest and rejoice in the knowledge of him. Let’s avail ourselves of them and participate in them together as God’s people. 

Eric Costa serves as pastor of Ascension Presbyterian Church in Hillsboro, Oregon.