In this episode of Christ the Center, Camden Bucey welcomes Adam York and Randy Lee back to the Reformed Forum classroom for the second part of a conversation on global theological education and OPC foreign missions. Whereas the previous discussion focused especially on Uganda and faith-centered finance, this episode turns to York’s recent teaching trip to Ethiopia and the biblical-theological material he taught on the Gospels and Acts.

The conversation traces major themes from John 1:51 and Jacob’s ladder to Matthew’s genealogy, Jesus as true Israel, the Sermon on the Mount, the parables of the kingdom, Peter’s confession, Matthew 24–25, the Great Commission, and the book of Acts. Along the way, York shows how the hope of heaven opened in Christ, the end of exile, the gift of the Spirit, and the church’s missionary calling all belong together in the unfolding work of the risen and ascended Lord.

• Camden Bucey
• Adam York
• Randy Lee

• Hope Orthodox Presbyterian Church
• OPC Foreign Missions
• OPC Short-Term Missions
• Reformed Academy

In this episode of Christ the Center, Camden Bucey welcomes Randy Lee and Adam York from Hope Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Grayslake, Illinois, to discuss recent teaching trips connected with OPC foreign missions in Uganda and Ethiopia. Lee, a ruling elder, reflects on teaching personal finance at Knox School of Theology in Uganda, while York, pastor of Hope OPC, describes his work teaching and training pastors in Ethiopia.

The conversation explores the global need for theological education, Reformed Academy’s role in serving the church worldwide, and the biblical doctrine of stewardship. The discussion turns especially to faith-centered finance: why money must be brought under the lordship of Christ, how Scripture and the Reformed confessions shape our view of possessions, how prosperity theology distorts Christian hope, and why work, generosity, contentment, and vocation all belong to faithful stewardship before God.

• Camden Bucey
• Randy Lee
• Adam York

• Reformed Academy
• OPC Foreign Missions
• OPC Short-Term Missions
• Ron Blue Institute

We welcome Darryl G. Hart back to Christ the Center to discuss Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution, published by the University of Notre Dame Press. Hart traces the transatlantic story of Presbyterianism from the Reformation through the age of revolutions, asking why Presbyterian polity so often became a political irritant in Britain, Ireland, North America, and beyond.

The conversation ranges from Calvin’s Geneva and the French Reformed connection to the Scottish Covenanters, the English civil wars, John Witherspoon, the American founding, the 1788 revision of the Westminster Confession, and contemporary debates over Christian nationalism. Along the way, Hart helps us see how questions of church government, civil authority, establishment, liberty, and public memory are bound up with the church’s confession that Christ alone is head of his church.

• 0:00 Introduction and the road to episode 1,000
• 2:00 Protestants and Patriots and the Presbyterian question
• 3:10 The project’s origins and teaching the big picture
• 5:12 Calvin’s ecclesiastical ordinances and Presbyterian polity
• 7:26 Was the American Revolution a Presbyterian revolution?
• 10:12 Lumpers, splitters, and Presbyterian identity
• 11:09 Reformed and Presbyterian: why the names matter
• 15:01 Presbyterians, nationalism, and the godly society
• 16:12 Covenanters, national covenanting, and regicide
• 19:31 Geneva, exiles, and the French connection
• 22:26 The true Presbyterian revolutionary moment: the 1630s and 1640s
• 24:21 Why Scotland became a Presbyterian laboratory
• 28:29 Why England and Scotland became Reformed rather than Lutheran
• 30:52 What did Presbyterians want? Church independence and state support
• 34:43 The Glorious Revolution, moderation, and establishment compromises
• 39:15 Regium donum, Canada, Ireland, and voluntary giving
• 42:34 John Witherspoon and Presbyterian moderation in the American founding
• 48:16 Revising Westminster Confession chapter 23
• 55:30 American Heretics, Two Sons of Oil, and anti-liberal Presbyterianism
• 60:30 Further conversations and Protestants and Patriots
• 65:05 Independence Hall, historic preservation, and public memory
• 70:07 Conclusion

• Camden Bucey
• Darryl G. Hart

• Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution by D. G. Hart
• University of Notre Dame Press interview with D. G. Hart
• American Heretics by Jerome Copulsky
• Two Sons of Oil by Samuel B. Wylie
• Independence National Historical Park