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

In this episode of Christ the Center, Camden Bucey welcomes Matthew Adams, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Dillon, South Carolina, to discuss his book Act Like a Man: Understanding the Biblical Call to Masculinity, published by Christian Focus. Adams argues for a vision of manhood grounded in Scripture and formed by the Holy Spirit rather than by cultural capitulation, reactionary posturing, or online personality-driven models of masculinity.

The conversation considers why the doctrine of Scripture and the work of the Spirit must come before any faithful account of biblical masculinity. Adams unfolds five marks of manhood—righteous living, sacrificial love, dependent leadership, courageous zeal, and humble servanthood—using David’s life as both a positive and negative example that ultimately points to Christ. The episode also addresses contemporary challenges in the church, the need for fathers and elders to disciple younger men, and the importance of presence, faithfulness, and generational responsibility in the home and covenant community.

• Camden Bucey
• Matthew Adams

• Act Like a Man: Understanding the Biblical Call to Masculinity by Matthew Adams
• Christian Focus Publications
• Reformed Forum Events
• Reformed Academy

We welcome Matthew Vogan to discuss The Nature of the Church by John Brown of Wamphray, a concise seventeenth-century work on Presbyterian ecclesiology republished by Grange Press. Brown, a Scottish Covenanter exiled to the Netherlands, wrote with deep conviction about Christ's headship over the church, the visible and invisible church, church government, discipline, unity, and the distinction between church and state.

This conversation explores why Brown's work remains timely for pastors, elders, seminarians, and church members today. Rather than treating church government as a secondary or merely practical matter, Brown presents the church as a visible spiritual society established by Christ, governed by his Word, and ordered for the edification of his people.

Watch on YouTube

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:15 The Nature of the Church by John Brown of Wamphray
• 4:30 John Brown's life, ministry, exile, and Covenanter context
• 8:40 Matthew Vogan's introduction to John Brown
• 9:36 Brown's 32 theses and the Westminster Confession
• 10:54 A majestic view of Christ's church
• 12:33 The scope of Brown's ecclesiology
• 15:12 The church as a visible spiritual society
• 21:43 Church and state under Christ's authority
• 27:08 Scripture and Presbyterian church government
• 30:53 Brown's polemics against Erastianism, prelacy, and independency
• 35:00 Ministerial authority and edification
• 39:17 The church's spiritual government
• 42:14 The spirituality of the church
• 44:59 Key insights from Brown's work
• 46:06 Communion within the visible catholic church
• 52:21 Further reading: Durham, Gillespie, Rutherford, and Bannerman
• 53:55 Final thoughts on The Nature of the Church
• 55:00 Scottish football and closing conversation
• 56:57 Reformed Forum resources and conclusion

• Camden Bucey
• Matthew Vogan

• Grange Press
• The Nature of the Church by John Brown of Wamphray
• Trinitarian Bible Society
• Christ the Center 682: David Dickson's Sermons on Lamentations

In this special on-location episode of Christ the Center, Camden Bucey visits Gießen, Germany, to explore a remarkable work of confessional Reformed renewal. Through conversations with Johann, Lukas Strauß, and Philip Paul, listeners are introduced to the Academy for Reformed Theology, a growing seminary that serves students across German-speaking Europe through a hybrid model of in-person intensives, online instruction, and close partnership with local churches. The episode also traces the recent formation of a new continental Reformed denomination in Germany, the challenges of church planting in a highly secular and heavily taxed society, and the need for pastors who can preach, plant, and patiently build confessional churches from the ground up by God's grace.

What emerges is a deeply encouraging portrait of ordinary, faithful labor. The conversation highlights the need for indigenous theological leadership, German-language Reformed resources, and strong ecclesial communities where believers are not left to grow in isolation. Lucas reflects on discovering Reformed theology and using podcasting and social media to introduce it to German listeners, while Philip describes the theological journey that led his family to move for the sake of a confessional church home. Taken together, these conversations offer a vivid glimpse into the opportunities and difficulties of gospel ministry in Germany today—and a compelling call to pray for theological training, church planting, and lasting Reformed witness.

• Academy for Reformed Theology (Akademie für Reformatorische Theologie)
• Bund Bekennender Evangelisch—Reformierter Gemeinden (or BBERG) — the Confederation of Confessing Evangelical Reformed Churches in German-speaking Europe
• Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

Watch on YouTube

• 0:00 — Introduction from Gießen, Germany
• 3:36 — The Academy for Reformed Theology—history and mission
• 7:23 — How the seminary serves students across Germany and Switzerland
• 13:14 — Why part-time theological training matters in Germany
• 16:53 — A new confessional Reformed denomination in Germany
• 21:43 — What church planting requires: men, people, and finances
• 25:59 — How the seminary is funded and how students manage study and work
• 28:51 — Why Germany needs indigenous Reformed pastors and literature
• 34:53 — Bullinger, suffering, and providence
• 38:56 — Lukas Strauß on becoming Reformed and serving through media
• 49:18 — Podcasting, social media, and explaining Reformed theology in German
• 58:17 — Why Reformed believers in Germany need real church connection
• 1:02:23 — Philip Paul on law, theology, and moving for church
• 1:18:09 — From Calvinism to covenant theology and paedobaptism
• 1:32:46 — Elder service, church commitment, and counsel for German Christians
• 1:39:13 — Reasons for gratitude and prayer for Reformed churches in Germany

In this episode, Camden Bucey welcomes David T. Irving, President of Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, for a rich conversation on Irving's dissertation, Mississippi's Greatest Minister: A Historical Study of Cornelius W. Grafton's 61-Year Pastorate, 1873–1934. Before turning to Grafton, they discuss Irving's recent transition into seminary leadership and the growing pastoral shortage across confessional Presbyterian churches, reflecting on the need for prayer, training, and laborers for Christ's harvest.

The heart of the episode explores the life and ministry of Cornelius W. Grafton, a remarkable Mississippi Presbyterian pastor whose decades of quiet faithfulness, denominational leadership, educational labor, and pastoral endurance left a deep mark on church life in the American South. Camden and David consider why Grafton has been largely overlooked, what his ministry reveals about ordinary pastoral faithfulness, and how his life still instructs ministers and churches today.

Watch on YouTube

• 00:08 Introduction and guest welcome
• 01:09 Mississippi's Greatest Minister and today's topic
• 02:03 RTS Jackson update and the pastoral shortage
• 08:20 David Irving's connection to Mississippi and Cornelius W. Grafton
• 14:06 Why Grafton has been overlooked in church history
• 18:14 Grafton's early religious life and spiritual maturation
• 23:58 Education, pastoral formation, and early ministry
• 29:33 Union Church, rural ministry, and a sixty-one-year pastorate
• 36:46 Grafton's preaching, pastoral rhythms, and churchmanship
• 43:18 Denominational leadership, education, and public influence
• 49:19 Grafton as historian and the unpublished history of Mississippi Presbyterianism
• 54:03 Lessons from Grafton's life and ministry today
• 59:09 Closing remarks and upcoming Reformed Forum events

• David T. Irving, Mississippi's Greatest Minister: A Historical Study of Cornelius W. Grafton's 61-Year Pastorate, 1873–1934
• Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson
• Reformed Academy
• Reformed Forum events

Participants: Camden Bucey, David T. Irving