Evaluating the “Kirk Effect”

Authors: John Stonestreet

During the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “Charlie started a political movement but unleashed a spiritual revival.” Many people have, in fact, used the word revival to describe what has happened, especially among young people, since the September 10th assassination of the Turning Point USA founder. According to a FOXNews article published a few weeks after his death, pastors and religious leaders across the U.S., including Arizona where Kirk was based, reported a 15% to 30% increase in church attendance, and many of the new attendees referred to Kirk’s death as a wake-up call about mortality and faith.   

JP De Gance, the founder and president of Communio, a ministry that helps churches strengthen marriages, told the Christian Post,  

[There has been] a lot of anecdotal feedback from churches in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Douglas County, Colorado, reporting that they’ve seen an increase [in attendance] over the last two Sundays.  

There’s one church in Michigan that said a number of young adults who were raised in the church [but] who hadn’t been there, and people hadn’t seen them for years, showed back up. 

Also, Bible sales in the month of September were 36% higher than last year, according to Nielsen BookScan. Mark Schoenwald, president and chief executive of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, was one of several book publishing experts who attributed the surge of Bible sales to Kirk’s death. As he told Decision magazine, Kirk’s shooting “awakened a lot of people.” 

Of course, every aspect of the Turning Point organization has seen an incredible surge of interest in the wake of Kirk’s death, and that includes TPUSA Faith, a group that helps churches put their faith into action. Its church network has essentially doubled to 8,000 churches, and an additional 200,000 Christians are now involved with the organization. 

The most substantial evidence of whether we are in a time of Christian revival remains to be seen. Specifically, it remains to be seen if what many are calling “The Kirk Effect” will prove to be only short-term, like the wave of patriotism that followed 9/11. Last month, statistician Ryan Burge told the Daily Signal, “There’s no evidence of a massive return to religion,” though he also stated that it was too early to know all the relevant data.   

If there is a significant work of the Lord brewing in our country, there are two surefire ways to miss it. The first way is to presume that God could never work in the way He is working. Many have presumed as much about Christians who are deemed to be too political, especially someone with the public profile that Charlie Kirk had in life and, even more, in death. 

Mixing politics and evangelism, as Charlie Kirk did, is risky. He did not always do it well. However, it seems that as he matured and sought out mentors, Charlie became more Christian and more politically measured, even as he remained bold. To those who think Christianity must never be mixed with political activism, there are the words of evangelist D. L. Moody, who once told a critic of how he evangelized, “I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it!”

The second way to miss God’s working in this moment is to spend all of our time and energy saying some version of “I told you so,” rather than wait on the Lord with thankfulness and praise. Revivals are fed by growing awareness, first of the glory of God and second of the seriousness of sin. Attempts to seize a platform, claim credit, or manufacture internal change will never achieve eternal ends. 

We can rejoice that there seems to be a growing awareness of spiritual things, a growing rejection of some of the terrible ideas that have poisoned our culture, and a growing groundswell of courage among God’s people. Our choice is to join this work, faithful to what is true and good.

The Colson Center is committed to helping Christians live with faithfulness and courage in this cultural moment. Daily Breakpoint commentaries provide clarity amid confusion and confidence in the truth. The Colson Fellows program equips Christians to serve their churches, families, and Christian schools. And Truth Rising is challenging Christians to engage this civilizational moment.  

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