4/9/2022 - A Conversation with Jeff Hyde of Buffalo Christian

TNG Radio, where today's culture and timeless truths come together. It's reasoned, relevant content apologetics, worldview, and answers to the questions that you need to know. From Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries. Welcome to Truth For A New Generation Radio. And now the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland.

In Proverbs 22 verse 6, the Word of God says, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Hi, Alex McFarland here, and folks, we have an exciting, exciting program on this edition of Truth For A New Generation. You know, people see the news, they lament what's going on in the world. People are very concerned about our nation. And obviously, as Christians, we think about the spiritual condition of our nation. We think about the moral condition of our nation. If you are a fan of American history, you think about the Constitution and how our liberties have not been granted by the Constitution, but guarded by the Constitution. And you look around the world, and perhaps like myself, you often say, What can be done?

What can be done to influence the lives of young people and ultimately contribute to the restoration of our country? Well, this is a show you don't want to miss, because there is a church in North Carolina that I want to feature on this program that has started a school called Buffalo Academy. It's in Greensboro, North Carolina. And if you've listened to me much, you have numerous times heard me reference Buffalo Presbyterian Church, because that was the church I grew up in. It's the church where my family has been involved for, oh, a couple of centuries.

But even though I'm always on the road traveling somewhere in the world, I think about Buffalo, pray about Buffalo. Well, they have started a school. And if you happen to be in the central North Carolina area, especially Guilford County, Greensboro High Point, I want you to pray for this school, and I want you to become familiar with it. But first of all, and we'll get into the details about the school, let's talk with one of the leaders, Jeff Hyde.

And Jeff, what is your title? Is it headmaster or principal, perhaps? Well, I'm one of the leaders of the school project and on the school board, and I'm the secretary of the school board. But I'm not the headmaster. We don't have a headmaster yet. We just have a team of members of our church that are interested in getting the school going.

We've hired an outside consultant to help us. So my role is just as a member of Buffalo Church, caring about our community and wanting to be salt and light in that community. Well, folks, if you've never been to Buffalo Presbyterian Church, I mean, this place is steeped in history.

It predates the Revolutionary War. And Jeff, I remember when I used to go here and I had the privilege of being interim pastor some years ago, I used to pray that one day the church would start a school. And let me just say, if you go online and Google Buffalo Presbyterian Church, I mean, I couldn't think of a more ideal location in the entire country. I mean, incredible facilities, perfect, beautiful.

It looks very collegiate. But there's a lot of history here. So I know what my reasons might have been.

But what was the motive? What prompted you and the current leadership to want to undertake the Herculean task of starting a Christian school? Well, Buffalo Presbyterian Church, like you said, Alex, does have a very strong tradition of being a community leader in Guilford County. 1756, the church was organized. The sanctuary that we still worship in was built, it was the third sanctuary, but it was built in 1827.

And that we still worship in that beautiful, sincere sanctuary and in the backyard or the graveyard behind the church. David and Rachel Caldwell, who are formational patriarch matriarchs of Guilford County. David Caldwell was the first minister and was minister for 40 years at Buffalo Presbyterian Church. And he, while he was here, he was, you know, he was also a physician, he was a lawyer and he was a, you know, in colonial days, he did everything and he was very good at all of it. And he started a law college. And in that college, which was really a theological and classical school, he would educate 50, 60 young men every year. And of those folks, seven of them went on to become governors in North Carolina, congressmen. They were the doctors, the lawyers, the business leaders in Guilford County and later Greensboro. And it's that tradition of his classical school where he taught theology, where he taught the classics, Greek and Latin, curious, you know, mathematics.

You know, that's the mold that we want to be in. And we see that as a legacy for, you know, our church. Also buried in the cemetery is Colonel Daniel Gillespie. And he donated land and started a school, a free school for folks in the county, which later became donated to the city, became Gillespie School, which is still, they're still Gillespie Middle School in Greensboro. Certainly it's a different building, but it's on the same land that his family gave to start that Gillespie School. So there, you know, it's not just David Caldwell, it's not just Colonel Gillespie, but there's a rich tradition of being not only education leaders in Guilford County, but leaders in every community aspect.

Well, yeah. And, you know, throughout church history, as I'm sure you know, not only throughout church history, but certainly in American history, in the colonial period up through really the modern day, the church, the body of believers, have led out in literacy, in bettering the lives of people, and education. You mentioned Dr. David Caldwell, the founder of the church, who is well-known throughout the nation.

You know, as I traveled, Jeff, I was in Connecticut, and one of the leaders of colonial America in Connecticut was a man named the Earl of Guilford, for whom Guilford County is named, this county, one of the largest counties in North Carolina. I was in Mississippi in a town called Kosciuszko, Mississippi. And so I was reading one of the plaques about General Kosciuszko, who fought at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.

In all probability, was here. He was a Polish war hero. But my point is, folks, and I hope to stir some passion in the hearts of people all around the country who hear this, not just local to North Carolina, there is such a rich history. And we are not an exceptionally old nation. I know 240-plus years. However, in the scheme of world history, we're a young nation.

However, we are a nation that needs a course correction, and Christian education is a part of that. Now, when we come back, we're going to delve down in the conversation with Jeff Hyde, one of the founders of Buffalo Academy. Stay tuned. We're going to be right back after this break.

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Welcome back to Truth for a New Generation. We're talking about Christian education and a brand new school. Folks, if you happen to be in central North Carolina, the Greensboro area, I would strongly urge you to pray about checking out Buffalo Academy and people that want to learn more about the school or maybe consider enrollment for fall of 22.

What's the website? It's buffaloacademy.net, N-E-T, so buffaloacademy.net. Jeff, I want to ask you, what are the grades that you'll be offering in this inaugural year, fall of 22? Kindergarten through fifth grade, and then we plan to add a sixth grade, seventh grade, etc., up to twelfth grade, just one grade each year to accommodate our students, and eventually be K through 12. And I know we don't need to get into too many numbers here, but schools, the tuition, you have scholarships, don't you? And you're working with the state to get scholarship money that will not change the curriculum. This is a thoroughly Christian curriculum, but there are tuition offerings for families too.

That's right. Our tuition is set this year for $7,800, and that's an all-inclusive tuition. It includes all field trips, it includes all fees, and the only additional money parents would come up with would be for their child's school uniform and their child's lunch.

So supplies, everything is taken care of out of that $7,800. And then in addition to that, for families that qualify, North Carolina offers opportunity scholarships for families that are currently enrolled in public school or a public charter school, or they are foster kids, or they're active military, or they're kindergarten, first grade, or second grade in a private school or home school. They qualify for these opportunity scholarships. It's 175 percent of the free and reduced lunch ratio for the state of North Carolina, and that 175, an example of that would be for like a family of five. They would have three children. All three of those children would qualify for a scholarship, and the qualifying income is around $105,000 a year for their family.

So 70-plus percent of all North Carolina households qualify for these scholarships. Let's talk about what you hope to accomplish. Why a school, and a decade from now, assuming the Lord hasn't returned yet, if we're still here, 10, 15, 20 years down the road, what do you hope Buffalo Academy will accomplish? Well, in the last two years, we have seen a great anxiety from parents in our community about education, and there's a whole lot of reason for people to be worried about public education, about just offerings that are out there, and there's been a call for more parental choices for education, and our General Assembly, you know, saw that, you know, hey, this is – our citizens will want this, and they've expanded that Opportunity Scholarship Program. The anxiety about the future and about what kids were learning in school, and I don't need to – I'm sure you can go into detail about what those anxiety-causing things might be, but we saw ourselves as a refuge or a sanctuary away from what kids were being taught in public or secular schools, and we thought that there was a need.

There certainly was an expanded market because of these Opportunity Scholarships and the way they've increased, and we thought that we have a building that is vacant Monday through Friday, that's a beautiful – as you said before, it's a beautiful campus, it's a great facility, and why not use that as a place for parents who wanted to bring their kids, to educate them in a way that's classical, traditional, centered on God, and in the same way that David Caldwell, you know, taught. Darrell Bock When you say classical education, what does that mean, Jeff? Jeff In our school, we're beginning kindergarten through fifth grade, so all is part of grammar.

And that's true. But grammar really just means foundations. Kids that are five, six, seven, eight years old can memorize anything. They are very inquisitive. They always want to know what something is. They can memorize dates and names.

And we know this. This is their natural disposition to learn this. And that's not how we teach in public schools. We teach kind of a contrary theory to that. But in classical education, we take the natural development of a child's mind and work with that to teach them, beginning with foundations, math facts, natural science, and lay these foundations out and then move those into a dialectic program, which where it's centered on why is that. Kids that are sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth grade, they ask a lot of why. They want to know why these things happen. And so we build on that foundation of memorization that they had in the grammar stages and then figure out the why. Why does a rock fall when you drop it? Why does it fall?

How does that gravity work? So and then we move into the rhetoric stage where people learn to, or our students would learn to argue and debate about those whys. What you end up with is thinkers without being taught what to think. We've got to take a brief break. We're going to come back with more of the Buffalo Academy story on this edition of TNG Radio.

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Welcome back to TNG Radio. Alex McFarland here along with Jeff Hyde of Buffalo Academy, and we're going to resume our conversation with Jeff Hyde in just a moment. But I do want to remind everybody, speaking of young people, we've got a very exciting summer camp, July 17th through 22nd, our biblical worldview camp that we always do. We've done it for 24 years, and we're going to be just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina at a wonderful camp.

You ought to check it out online. It's called The Refuge, NC Refuge. Our theme this year is Unashamed, Building Your Biblical Worldview. It's for middle school and high schoolers.

We do have scholarships available, so you can go to my own website, which is alexmcfarland.com, or ncrefuge.org. And let me just say this, our theme is always like, invest a week that counts for a lifetime. We're going to be doing all the fun camp stuff, hiking, fishing, swimming, doing all those things, but we're talking to these youth about God and country. And let me just say this, and we'll resume our conversation with Jeff Hyde, but for decades, really, we've talked to young people about the Gospel, and obviously that is the most important thing in life is to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. But more and more, we're talking to kids about America, because listen, we're in a battle of worldviews, as I'm sure you know, and there's socialism, Marxism, there's critical race theory, there's all manner of worldviews competing for the souls of young people, worldviews that don't allow for God and truth and scripture. And so whether it's camp with us, and we see always, it doesn't matter if we have 75 kids or 125 kids, 100 percent will make a commitment to Christ.

They will. For some, it's a first-time commitment to pray and accept Christ, and others that are believers, but they commit to live for the Lord, it will change their life. And so July 17-22, our annual Truth for a New Generation camp is coming. But as we resume and we've only got a few more minutes with Jeff Hyde, but Jeff I want you to give your website again, and folks listen, I've spoken in 200 universities, I couldn't tell you how many public schools, and I know there are a lot of Christian people that are trying, valiantly trying to shine the light of truth in public schools, but we're talking about the future of your kids, not only the adults they become, the citizens they become, but their soul.

Will they believe in the Word of God, or will they be evolutionists, secularists, relativists? So if you live in the Greensboro area and you have young people in your life, or you're a parent or a grandparent, put them under the teaching by godly people at Buffalo Academy. Jeff, give this website again, if you would.

Sure, it's BuffaloAcademy.net, BuffaloAcademy.net, N-E-T. I want to throw a quote out here, and then I want to commend you for what you're doing. 60 years ago Antonia Gramsci was a Communist, and the Communists had an idea to bring America towards Marxism.

And for years, people said, oh, it's unthinkable. But here we are, and you look at leaders like Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez, AOC, that wants this to be a socialized nation. And folks, the very future of our country hangs in jeopardy because we've abandoned a Judeo-Christian moral code, and part of the solution, Jeff, it's education. Because Antonia Gramsci, 60 years ago, challenged his fellow Communist to, quote, make the long walk through the institutions, end of quote.

Now by that, he meant, if they were going to change the Western world to Marxism, they would have to go into the classroom, they would have to go into the public square in the elected office, they would even have to go into, obviously, media, culture, but the church. And you've got to give them credit, they did it. But we can help restore America by restoring truth. Now, all of that, I want to give you ample time for any final thoughts. This is not easy.

It's probably going to be the most strenuous undertaking of your life, my dear brother. But what led you to, for God and country, make the long walk through the institution? Well, Buffalo is a great place of tradition and legacy, and our membership here just has a vision that is based on the past, but it's all for the future. And the future is that we need to become the salt and light of our community that Buffalo Church used to be 200 years ago, 150 years ago, 100 years ago, but we're currently not. And one of those ways could be that we start a school that teaches not only the truth about the Bible, but Western civilization and the classics and is very, very rich in cultural literature that, you know, 50 years ago was commonplace in the United States, and certainly are the founders of the country.

This is the same curriculum that they would have learned. And so we wanted to do that and make it available at a price where most families could afford, and we've been helped out. I mean, it's just a godsend that the General Assembly has decided to, you know, raise the funding of these opportunities, scholarships, raise the threshold of income to allow more and more families to take advantage of that. And the beauty of that is that it's not part of the Department of Public Instruction or the school system.

It's outside of that. It's a non-public education, and very, very minimal strings are attached, and no ideological strings. So it allows a church, and this is what I would encourage anybody that's involved in a church that has a building that has three or four or 20 classrooms that sit idle, you know, Monday through Friday, to look into starting a school, save your kids and the generation, and allow people an alternative from what they think is the only place their kids can go to learn, which is the public schools or the district schools.

They think that's all that they're allowed to do. But the opportunity scholarships allow everybody to participate in a private school education. And if you're a church, you teach values on Sunday. You should be teaching them Monday through Friday, too, and not give up that teaching to someone else.

Dr. Darrell Bock Well, Jeff Hyde of Buffalo Academy, I thank you so much. We'll have to visit again really soon. Folks, we have options.

We still have liberty and freedom. Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child, and then years after the fact, they'll live it. They'll know it. If they drift, they'll return to those seeds of truth that were planted. So I commend Buffalo Academy for what they're doing. I urge people to pray.

And throughout America, stand for truth, pray for this country, and represent Christ to a world that needs Him so. TNG Radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. That's P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. Call us at 877-YES-GOD-1.

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