We’ve recently begun a series on Elders ahead of an elder election in January, God-willing. There are many good resources on eldership out there - here are a few, divided up by format.
Audio
Although the talk is entitled ‘Obeying Elders’, it also gives a good overview of what the elder’s role is. Matt Kingswood is pastor of Russell RP Church in Canada.
(These talks are also available as articles - see below)
(Part of a tremendous series of 3 talks from Catalyst 2017)
Some of the sermons from our occasional series on ‘The Church’ are also relevant - particularly, How Jesus Runs the Church and The Keys of the Kingdom.
Articles
A Biblical View of Eldership: Four articles by Eric Alexander, one of the leading evangelicals of the Church of Scotland in the 20th Century (audio versions above).
5 Ugly Qualities of the anti-Elder: Tim Challies gives a run-down of what the Bible says elders shouldn’t be like.
Elders—The Church’s Lead Disciple-Makers: Helpful reminder of the goal of the elder’s various tasks
An Elder’s Checklist: Article by David Murray based on one of the books mentioned below. Aimed at elders, but also useful for showing others what an elder’s role looks like in practice
Books
Very helpful recent book on church government by Guy Waters.
An older book, The Elder and his Work, by David Dickson (a Free Church of Scotland elder - not the Covenanter) is available to read online here. David P. Murray has a helpful outline of it here.
See also: Top 10 books for elders (David Murray)