Dr. David Garner, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, talks about the relationship between seminary and church, focusing on how ruling elders and seminary professors can help the church thrive in godly knowledge and grace.

You can read Dr. Garner's article “Strings Attached: The Church, The Seminary, and Abraham Kuyper’s Animating Ecclesiology” in the most recent Westminster Theological Journal, WTJ 87 (2025): 123-48. A video of the Krahe Lecture from April 2025, is available to watch online here.

Dr. Garner’s recommended reading.

• The Wonderful Works of God by Herman Bavinck, Westminster Seminary Press, 2020.
• The Certainty of Faith by Herman Bavinck, Westminster Seminary Press, 2025.
• A Word Fitly Spoken, A Theology of Communication by Aaron Garriott, Ligonier, 2025.
• An Explication of the Shorter Catechism by John Thomson, Edited by S. A. Fix, Westminster Seminary Press, 2025.

In this episode of the Ruling Elder Podcast we review a new book by Christopher Ash, Not Old, Not Young, Not Done. Following Jesus in Your 50’s and 60’s. (The Good Book Company, 2025, 192 pages). Available in paperback and Ebook.

Also recommended:

• Derek Prime, A Good Old Age. An A to Z of Loving and Following the Lord Jesus in Later Years. (10Publishing, 2017)
• J. I. Packer, Finishing our Course with Joy. Guidance from God for Engaging with Our Aging. (Crossway, 2014)

In this episode of the ruling elder podcast John Fikkert draws attention to the excellent Pastoral Compensation Tool made available by the OPC Committee on Ministerial Care. 

The Pastoral Compensation Tool is available here.

John’s recommended reading

• Ordained Servant
• 2026 Tax Prep Guide for Churches and Clergy (Downloadable PDF) by Richard R. Hammar and Elaine Sommerville.  Expected release date is Jan 1st 2026. Available here.
• The Politics of Ministry: Navigating Power Dynamics and Negotiating Interests by Bob Burns, Tasha D. Chapman, Donald C. Guthrie,, IVP, 2019.
• The Clay Pot Conspiracy: God’s Plan to Use Weakness in Leaders, by Dave Harvey, New Growth Press,  2025.

Quotes on Experience in the Christian Ministry
From Alexander Whyte, Bunyan Characters 

• “…pastors who are indeed to be pastors after God's own heart have all to pass into their pastorate through the school of experience.”
• “Preaching after God's own heart, and pastoral work of the same divine pattern, cannot be taught in any other school than the school of experience.”
• “Whenever I hear a single unconventional, immediate, penetrating, overawing petition or confession in a minister's pulpit prayer or in his family worship, I do not need to be told out of what prayer-book he took that. I know without his telling me that my minister has been, all unknown to me till now, at that same school of prayer to which his Master was put in the days of His flesh…”
• “What a quantity and what a quality of experience is needed to take a raw, light-minded, ignorant, and self-satisfied youth and transform him into the pastor, the tried and trusted friend of the tempted, the sorrow-laden, and the shipwrecked hearts and lives in his congregation! What years and years of the selectest experiences are needed to teach the average divinity student to know himself, to track out and run to earth his own heart, and thus to lay open and read other men's hearts to their self-deceived owners in the light of his own.”
• “Let no minister, then, lose heart when he is sent back to the school of experience. He knows in theory that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, but it is not theory, but experience, that makes a minister after God's own heart.”

Craig Troxel talks about how ruling elders can help men consider a call to pastoral ministry.

A call to pastoral ministry has several parts, one is the internal sense of call, another is the recognition of the church, the actual call to a congregation or mission work. Ruling elders help shepherd men in both and in this podcast we discuss the early stages of recognizing a call, or even encouraging men to consider if they are called.

Discussion centers around Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry: With an Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency, (Banner of Truth Trust). See especially Chapter VI, The Qualifications of the Christian Ministry, pp. 24-31.

Craig quotes John Newton, "Beware, my friend, of mistaking the ready exercise of gifts for the exercise of grace." (Letter #5 - "On the Snares and Difficulties attending the Ministry of the Gospel") Works of John Newton, vol.1 (Banner of Truth Trust, 2015) p. 108. 

See also Newton's letter Marks of a Call to the Ministry.

We highly recommend Craig's own book,

A. Craig Troxel, With All Your Heart: Orienting Your Mind, Desires, and Will toward Christ, (Crossway, 2020).

Craig's Recommended Reading

• John Calvin, Institutes Of The Christian Religion, translated from the first French edition of 1541 by Robert White, Banner of Truth Trust. (Especially Chapter 17, The Christian Life)
• Campegius Vitringa, The Spiritual Life, trans. and ed. by Charles K. Tefler, Reformation Heritage Books. 
• John Flavel, The Fountain of Life: A Display of Christ in His Essential and Mediatorial Glory, Vol. 1 of the Works of John Flavel, Banner of Truth Trust.
• John Flavel, The Method of Grace In the Gospel Redemption, Vol 2 of the Works of John Flavel, Banner of Truth Trust.

Pastor Shane Lems talks about his recent Ordained Servant review of John Swinton’s book Finding Jesus in the Storm: the Spiritual Lives of Christians with Mental Health Challenges. (Eerdmans, 2020). Shane is pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Hammond, Wisconsin.

Read the review and read the book. The review can be found here.

The Ruling Elder Podcast on Prescription Medication with Jason Poquette (Season 2, Episode 6, June 2024) is available here.

Shane’s book recommendations
Lost Connections by Johann Hari (Bloomsbury USA, 2018)
The Wonderful Works of God by Herman Bavinck (Westminster Seminary Press, 2020)
Rediscovering the Holy Spirit: God’s Perfecting Presence in Creation, Redemption, and Everyday Life by Michael Horton (Zondervan, 2017)

Ruling Elder Mike Cloy talks about how ruling elders and churches can support and shepherd military families. Mike served in a career of 27 years that included combat commands at the battalion and brigade level, and having served and retired in the rank of full colonel.

Mike speaks of the dedication to service and the pressures it places upon those serving, and their families. He speaks of the deep bonds formed in combat and of the importance of elders and churches reaching out to those in military service with the good news of Jesus and the power of the gospel.

To read more about Mike (and a pair of night-vision goggles) see Christopher H. Wisdom’s article, “A Chaplain in the Lord’s Service” in New Horizons, (Feb, 2020).

Mike’s recommended reading…
A. Craig Troxel, With All Your Heart: Orienting Your Mind, Desires, and Will toward Christ, Crossway, 2020.
Nick Thompson, Growing Downward: The Path of Christ-exalting Humility, Reformation Heritage Books, 2022.
Nick Thompson, Restless Devotion: An Urgent Call to Godward Discontentment, Reformation Heritage Books, 2025

If you would like to contact Mike his email address is [email protected]

Ruling Elder Joe Jager talks to the Ruling Elder Podcast about Foreign Missions. He gives excellent suggestions on how to encourage missions and missionaries. Matthew 9:37-38
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Post Production Joe recommends the following books as impactful on his walk as a Ruling Elder:

• The Elder: Today’s Ministry Rooted in All of Scripture by Conelis Van Dam (a friend from the Canadian Reformed Churches) P&R Publishing 2009
  • Provides a biblical foundation for the office of elder.
• The Elder and His Work  by David Dickson, P&R Publishing, 2004
  • Good practical guide. Of course all such manuals must be carefully adapted and used in specific local situations. 
• The Elders Handbook: A practical Guide for Church Leaders by Gerard Berghoeg and Lester De Koster  Christian’s Library Press: Grand Rapids Michigan 1979   
  • This was my first introduction when I was ordained as an elder in a Canadian Reformed Church. It provides some very practical guidance for new elders. There is also a companion volume entitled The Deacons' Handbook: A Manual of Stewardship by the same authors. 

Rev. Andy Wilson and Rev. Russell Hamilton talk about Assurance and how The Marrow of Modern Divinity is helpful in untangling this perennial pastoral issue. They clarify of what, exactly, are we assured, what is the relationship between faith and assurance, and how are ruling elders to help people in the search for assurance?

As Donald MacLeod says, "A believer can doubt his faith without doubting the Saviour.”  (From the Marrow Men to the Moderates, Scottish Theology 1700-1800, p.99)

For more on the Marrow of Modern Divinity listen to the earlier podcast, Christ Freely Offered, (Season 2, Episode 12), Available here.

Recommended Reading

• Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers (Crossway 2020)
• Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed, (Banner of Truth Trust; 2nd ed. edition, 2021)
• Harrison Perkins, Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction (Lexham Academic, 2024)
• Jonathan Landry Cruse, The Christian's True Identity: What It Means to Be in Christ (Reformation Heritage Books, 2022)
• Sinclair Ferguson, The Christian Life: A Doctrinal Introduction (Banner of Truth Trust,  2013)

In this episode the Rev. Adrian Crum speaks about mental health and faith with the Rev. John Fikkert, a mental health counselor and Director of the OPC Committee on Ministerial Care, and his wife, Dr. Lindsay Fikkert, a psychologist at Pella Counseling.

This episode is the second part of a republication of the recent Reformed Deacon podcast, (with their kind permission). We have divided the original podcast into two parts. 

Mental health is a tender thing. An episode or a chronic mental health illness can be distressing for the person, their family, and congregations.  

The soul cries, as the Psalmist did, Psalm 88:1–2
 [1] O LORD, God of my salvation,
 I cry out day and night before you.
 [2] Let my prayer come before you;
 incline your ear to my cry! (ESV)

In this episode the Rev. Adrian Crum speaks about mental health and faith with the Rev. John Fikkert, a mental health counselor and Director of the OPC Committee on Ministerial Care, and his wife, Dr. Lindsay Fikkert, a psychologist at Pella Counseling.

This episode is a republication of the recent Reformed Deacon podcast, (with their kind permission). We have divided the original podcast into two parts. Part 2 will be published next month. (D.V.)

Mental health is a tender thing. An episode or a chronic mental health illness can be distressing for the person, their family, and congregations.  

The soul cries, as the Psalmist did, Psalm 88:1–2
[1] O LORD, God of my salvation,
I cry out day and night before you.
[2] Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry! (ESV)