History for a Pilgrim People

Camden Bucey and Danny Olinger continue their discussion of Fighting the Good Fight, D. G. Hart and John R. Muether's history of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, by turning to foreign missions and the life of Bruce F. Hunt. They explain how the modernist program described in Rethinking Missions made J. Gresham Machen's critique of liberalism concrete and why the proclamation of salvation from sin through Jesus Christ stood at the heart of the controversy that gave rise to the OPC.

The conversation traces Hunt's break with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., his service under the OPC's Committee on Foreign Missions, and his ministry among Korean Christians under Japanese occupation. Camden and Danny recount Hunt's refusal to accommodate emperor worship, his imprisonment and torture in 1941, and his return to Korea after the Second World War to teach, evangelize, and encourage a faithful indigenous church.

They conclude by considering Hunt's church-centered missionary theology, confidence in the preached Word, commitment to Korean leadership, and extraordinary personal courage. His ministry illustrates both the cost of Christian witness and the OPC's aim in foreign missions: to help establish mature churches that become missionary-sending churches themselves.

Camden Bucey and Danny Olinger continue their discussion of Fighting the Good Fight, D. G. Hart and John R. Muether's history of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, by examining the chapter on home missions. Beginning with the small and financially limited denomination of 1939, they trace the development of the Franklin Square congregation, the Committee of Nine's debates over evangelism, and the OPC's emphasis on preaching, catechesis, Sabbath observance, prayer, and the ordinary means of grace. The conversation then turns to Jack Miller and New Life Presbyterian Church in Jenkintown, whose rapid growth and innovative ministry practices raised important questions about worship, church government, evangelism, and denominational identity.

Camden and Danny discuss the proposed OPC-PCA reunion, debates over “every-member ministry” and Ephesians 4, controversies within the Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension, and the subsequent work of Ross Graham and Dick Gerber. Throughout the episode, they reflect on how Christians should evaluate church planting without reducing faithfulness to numerical success. The history reveals an OPC committed to missions while continuing to wrestle with how its confessional identity should govern the methods, expectations, and organization of that work.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:07 Fighting the Good Fight, Chapter 4
• 03:16 The OPC's Home-Missions Challenge in 1939
• 06:07 Franklin Square and New Life Jenkintown
• 10:03 The Committee of Nine and Evangelism
• 14:19 Slow and Steady Congregational Growth
• 18:02 Pastors and Daughter Churches at Franklin Square
• 21:03 Preserving the Results of Evangelism
• 24:23 The Ordinary Means of Grace and Evangelical Trends
• 27:04 Rethinking Success and Failure in Church Planting
• 31:55 Jack Miller and the Founding of New Life
• 34:41 New Approaches to Worship and Ministry
• 37:33 The New Life Network and Presbytery
• 39:58 The OPC-PCA Reunion Vote and Its Aftermath
• 44:28 Denominational Clarity and Ecumenicity
• 46:45 Ephesians 4 and “Every-Member Ministry”
• 53:08 Lewis Ruff and the Home Missions Controversies
• 58:42 Ross Graham and a Reformed Approach to Church Planting
• 61:08 OPC Growth by the Numbers
• 64:08 Reviews, Future Research, and Conclusion

History for a Pilgrim People is produced by the Committee for the Historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

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In episode 7 of History for a Pilgrim People, Camden Bucey and Danny Olinger trace the young Presbyterian Church of America through the difficult years following the division of 1937. They begin with Charles Woodbridge’s brief service as general secretary for home and foreign missions and the extraordinary poverty endured by ministers and missionary families—sometimes receiving only 31 cents on the dollar and living on potatoes, apples, or unmarked “mystery cans.”

The conversation then turns to constitutional turmoil in the presbyteries of Chicago, Iowa, California, and the Dakotas; the Fourth General Assembly; the founding of the Machen League for covenant youth; and the Christian Reformed Church’s important gesture of fraternal recognition. Finally, they recount the 1938 court ruling that barred the denomination from using the name Presbyterian Church of America and the remarkable Fifth General Assembly of February 1939, when commissioners debated eleven proposals and took six ballots before adopting the name Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Throughout the episode, Camden and Danny reflect on the humility, courage, and Christ-centered faithfulness of believers who accepted hardship without complaint and trusted the Lord to preserve and build his church.

History for a Pilgrim People is a podcast of the Committee for the Historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

In the sixth episode of History for a Pilgrim People, Camden Bucey and Danny Olinger continue their discussion of the earliest years of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, returning to the events surrounding the division of 1937.

The conversation begins with a brief return to the previous episode’s discussion of the tensions already present in the young Presbyterian Church of America. Camden and Danny then consider the death of J. Gresham Machen on January 1, 1937, and the profound sense of loss felt by the church. With Machen gone, long-developing disputes over dispensationalism, premillennialism, total abstinence, the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, and the meaning of Reformed Presbyterian identity came into sharper focus.

They also discuss the roles of figures such as Carl McIntire, J. Oliver Buswell, R. B. Kuiper, Ned B. Stonehouse, Cornelius Van Til, and others in the controversy. The episode traces how the Third General Assembly responded to these questions, why the separation became unavoidable, and how the Bible Presbyterian Synod emerged from the conflict.

Along the way, Camden and Danny reflect on the broader patterns of American Presbyterian history, the recurring echoes of old school and new school tensions, and the significance of Christian liberty, confessional integrity, and visible unity in the life of the church.

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• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:01 Picking up the division of 1937
• 3:06 Ordinations, covenant children, and Richard Gaffin’s 90th birthday
• 6:16 R. B. Kuiper’s report and the Scofield Bible controversy
• 10:02 Dutch influence, Stonehouse, Murray, and the Guardian
• 11:42 Premillennialism, dispensationalism, and Carl McIntire’s response
• 14:34 Power struggles and the Independent Board
• 17:26 Machen’s final trip and death in North Dakota
• 20:38 Stonehouse’s eulogy: “We have become orphans”
• 23:47 Three issues before the Third General Assembly
• 24:08 Property, the 1903 revisions, and the Westminster Standards
• 29:19 Total abstinence and Christian liberty
• 34:10 Dispensationalism and the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions
• 38:22 The Third General Assembly of 1937
• 42:08 The split and the formation of the Bible Presbyterian Synod
• 43:48 Old School and New School echoes in Presbyterian history
• 48:56 Stonehouse, McIntire, and later ecumenical efforts
• 51:24 Looking ahead to 1938 and the naming of the OPC
• 53:03 Closing remarks

History for a Pilgrim People is a podcast of the Committee for the Historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

In this special episode recorded live at First OPC in South Holland, Illinois, Camden Bucey and Danny Olinger tackle Chapter 3 of Fighting the Good Fight by Darryl Hart and John Muether: the division of 1937. What looked like a denomination born “in lively hope” on June 11, 1936, was fracturing within twelve months.

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Camden Bucey and Danny Olinger discuss chapter two of D. G. Hart and John Muether’s book, Fighting the Good Fight. They trace the road from the missions controversy of the early 1930s to Machen’s trial, and the founding of the OPC in 1936. They reflect on why the OPC was founded not merely against modernism, but for faithful Presbyterianism—grounded in Scripture, committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and governed by Christ alone through his Word.

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In this episode Camden Bucey and Danny Olinger continue their walk through Fighting the Good Fight: A Brief History of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church by D. G. Hart and John Muether. They turn to pp. 11–26 of the book and discuss the origins of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church through the lens of J. Gresham Machen and the crisis of Presbyterian identity.

In this episode, we begin our journey through Fighting the Good Fight, reflecting on the preface and introduction of the book. Danny Olinger and Camden Bucey explore the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s origins, its identity as a pilgrim people, and the importance of remembering and telling our story.

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In this inaugural episode of History for a Pilgrim People, OPC historian Camden Bucey and Danny Olinger introduce the vision of the series and explain why the Orthodox Presbyterian Church treats history as a living inheritance rather than a merely academic exercise.