In a time of growing polarization within the PCA, questions about our identity have taken on new urgency. In this conversation with Derek Radney, historian and pastor Sean Michael Lucas revisits the denomination’s founding vision and considers how a clearer grasp of our past can shape an even more faithful future.

Conversations about the PCA’s future often hinge on competing stories about its past. Was the denomination founded as a narrowly defined confessional project that later loosened over time—or as a broad, evangelical, Reformed body that has largely remained true to its original impulse?

In the video below, Lucas walks through the historical record, unpacking how these narratives emerged, where they fall short, and what the PCA’s early debates reveal about who we have been since the beginning. As Radney guides the conversation, they consider how a more honest engagement with the PCA’s history might reframe present debates and clarify the church’s path forward.