In this conversation, Derek Radney (Trinity Church PCA, Winston-Salem) sits down with Rev. Charles McGowan—AMR advisory board member, PCA pastor emeritus, former Moderator of the PCA General Assembly (1996), and founder of the McGowan Global Institute—to hear a firsthand account of the forces that shaped the PCA’s founding and the hopes that animated its early leaders. McGowan traces God’s providence in his own story, from his parents’ conversions in rural North Carolina to his path into ministry, offering a living window into the birth and early character of the denomination.
Along the way, he recounts the coalition meetings and convictions that led to 1973 and speaks candidly about the competing narratives many in the PCA feel today. McGowan argues that the PCA was formed as a broad evangelical and Reformed “big tent,” anchored in the authority of Scripture and energized by the Great Commission—evangelism, missions, and church planting—while resisting both doctrinal drift and a narrow, combative sectarianism. His reflections raise urgent questions about what truly animates the church, how we speak to one another, and what it would look like to pursue unity and mission with conviction, courage, and charity.
