The Reformed Pastor grew out of Baxter's work at Kidderminster and his conviction that preaching alone was insufficient oversight. He argues from Acts 20 that elders must take heed first to themselves and then to the flock, and presses the case for systematic personal instruction of every family in the parish, with directions for catechising, for dealing with the unconverted and the troubled, and for the self-examination the work requires.

Baxter's title refers to a pastor reformed in his own practice rather than to the Reformed tradition, and the book has rebuked ministers of every stripe for three and a half centuries. It suits pastors, elders and ordination candidates, and remains unusually practical on the mechanics of knowing a congregation. Readers should note Baxter's own views on justification were not uniformly Reformed.