OPC Ruling Elder Podcast

Dr. Stephen Fix talks about John Thomson’s An Explication of the  Shorter Catechism. Thomson was an early American presbyterian who played an important part in American Presbyterian history. Dr. Fix is his seven-times great grandson.

This work is important for two reasons, first, it is representative of Old Side  Presbyterianism during the first Great Awakening, and second, it is an excellent catechism on the catechism itself. Ruling elders will find the history just as helpful as the approach to explaining the catechism.

John Thomson, An Explication of the Shorter Catechism, edited by Dr. S. A. Fix, with an introduction to John Thomson and his work. (Westminster Seminary Press 2025).
For more information on Robert Letham on the Covenant of Redemption see his book The Westminster Assembly: Reading Its Theology in Historical Context, pp. 235-6, (and fn. 34.), P&R, 2009

Dr. Fix’s book recommendations.
The Bible. (Especially recommended is the Crossway ESV with Creeds and Confessions)
Zach Keele and Michael Brown, Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored (2nd Ed), Reformed Fellowship, Inc. 2019. (Available in Kindle)
Robert H. Thune, Gospel Eldership: Equipping a New Generation of Servant Leaders, New Growth Press, 2016

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.