On February 21, 1961, John Mitchell became the first son of an Orthodox Presbyterian pastor to be ordained into OPC ministry. Mr. Mitchell’s father, the Rev. Thomas Mitchell, who died in 1954, was a charter minister of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1936.
John Mitchell would serve as a writer and editor for Great Commission Publications from 1960 to 1970 when he accepted the position of editor of the Presbyterian Guardian. That same year he was elected moderator of the Thirty-Seventh General Assembly meeting in Portland, Oregon. In 1977, he became the first General Secretary of the Committee on Stewardship, a position that he would hold until 1984 when the committee was dissolved and a new Committee on Coordination was erected.