There are thousands of churches in America, and sadly most of them are just "trembling" churches: Afraid to preach the authentic gospels and the truths it proclaims. In his speech to the Faith Forward pastors summit, Charlie lays out what pastors must do to be true pastors leading true churches. He lays out how promoting controversial and challenging truths is exactly what will draw in young people and new believers, while saccharine lies will only keep people away while they follow the secular road to damnation.Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What are the different types of churches in America?
to be better prepared to be able to speak about liberty, speak about God's truth, both in your church and in your community. And if we look at the American church right now, there are three types of churches. You're going to hear from Lucas Miles here in a second. There are true churches. You're sitting in a true church right now. Free Chapel Church is a true church.
I hope most of you are running true churches right now. Here's the test of whether or not you're a true church. Did you, after the repeal of Roe versus Wade, host a celebration prayer service afterwards? Or did you kind of just say, yeah, a thing happened in the news this last week?
Anyway, in other events, a true church is one that says, thank you, God, for your providence for helping save this country and give us a reprieve. But most importantly, a true church outside of those are ones that say, I know I might lose some people and they might have some blessed subtraction during the sermon. But I first and foremost honor the Lord when I deliver my sermon.
Chapter 2: How can pastors lead a true church instead of a trembling church?
And I don't care if I might lose five or 10% of tithes or offerings. A true church is one that looks at the word of God and says, I am going to deliver it courageously and unapologetically, regardless of the cost. And I know almost all of you are true churches. The second category are the trembling churches.
They know what is true, but they shake like a leaf whenever they have to say anything too controversial. Now, maybe some people here might fall in that category, and that is okay. Our hope is that actually through hearing these speakers and hearing the trainings, you'll be motivated to go from a trembling posture to a true posture and speaking out and saying,
that you're going to speak out on the top cultural and major societal issues of the day. The issue for the trembling pastor, and let's be honest, the vast majority of American churches are in the trembling category. They know what is biblical. They privately will tell you what is biblical, but publicly it goes through a filter.
Publicly it goes through a lens that isn't always as pure and as clear as the scriptures, right? For example, they know that the scriptures say very clearly that life begins at conception, that abortion is wrong. But when they get on stage, it's not always as clear. It's a little bit wishy-washy. Or it's, well, we don't do politics around here, folks, and we just do the gospel.
The answer always should be, well, hold on. It's not political. It's biblical what we are asking you to talk about. That is always the most important thing. And the final category, which I can't imagine we have somebody in that category here, but I'm sure you all know somebody like it, is the traitorous churches. We're not going to spend that much time on them.
Those are the ones that fly the gay pride flag outside of their church. They're the ones that march in the BLM parades. we'll just kind of leave that aside. The, the, the emphasis and the focus are for those that know what is true, but are not saying what is true in a position of authority. Now I visit college campuses.
So you guys don't have to, and we've done some, and honestly, let me say this again. It's not that we at turning point USA have done anything that amazing. It's God that is doing amazing things on these college campuses and he deserves all the credit and the glory. And what we are seeing and experiencing is monumental. If you're not aware of it, you guys should be as pastors.
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Chapter 3: What role does TPUSA play in supporting churches and youth on college campuses?
In fact, I think you have a biblical obligation to see what is happening with the youth of this country. They are desiring and hungering and thirsting for leadership spiritually. They are rejecting so many of the lies of modernity and looking to get down to fundamental truths, to anchor themselves in things that last, and to shed...
the trappings of the one-liner narratives that their entire world has been built around. However, one of the reasons why we started TPUSA Faith and my pastor, Rob McCoy, who you'll hear later from in this conference, is we saw a great failure of the American church during COVID.
We saw the American church remain rather sheepish, kind of fall to biblically illiterate arguments saying that the church must be submissive to the government. Let's be very clear, everybody. You should never be submissive to tyranny. That is not biblical. It is nowhere in the scriptures. And so it was born out of that.
And as I think we've made a lot of progress at TPUSA Faith to try to convict churches to speak out more boldly, to try to get more pastors more equipped and understanding biblical citizenship and understanding the foundational roots of our country that are rooted in Christianity, which far too often we forget that we were founded as Christians in a Christian context and a free society will fail to continue to survive if Christianity does not survive.
is that I look at what's happening on these college campuses and there is a revival waiting to happen in your communities, but the church is not ready to receive it. And let me tell you that these two things are currently incongruent. Now, if you guys are already doing the right thing, then this message will just be affirmation for what you're already doing.
It will be me telling you good job and encouraging you. But if you right now do not have dozens of young men showing up to your church every Sunday, then you're doing something wrong. Because they're there looking. And I say young men for a reason.
Young men especially are gravitating towards the church, towards religion, towards conservatism in record numbers that is shocking people that study this stuff for a living. One of the reasons why, and we don't have to overcomplicate or overthink it, young men are starting to go away from a political movement and a worldview that hates them. Not that hard.
They're starting to go towards a political view and a worldview that says it's okay to be a man and that there is such a thing as a man. Not difficult, right? But hear me out. The number one thing I hear from young men on campus is my local church is way, way, way too soft for me. They're not telling it like it is.
Now, I say this, and I hope you guys understand, with as much humility as I possibly can express. Because, again, it's not Charlie Kirk that is drawing these crowds at University of Tennessee or 5,000 people at UGA. We got a single volunteer fan here. Great. It's always good to hear from them. but it is the Lord moving.
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Chapter 4: Why are young men increasingly attracted to the church and conservatism?
It's not the only thing we do, but it's one of the things that we do because everything we do is rooted in biblical truth. Whether it's that God created man and God created women, borders are biblical, that markets are good and private property must be protected. America is the greatest country ever to exist, that we must defend Israel and recognize its existence, that life begins in conception.
All of it is rooted in scripture. All of it is rooted in scripture. But it's not the only thing that we don't only talk about Jesus, but everything points to Jesus. But the thing that draws the attention, and this is where the church is so off base right now. There's only one thing you remember what I say is that. The young kids, they don't want you to kind of sanitize all this stuff for them.
They will come in flocks for you to say the blunt truth that you think is going to offend them. What you think is going to offend them will actually draw 10,000 more to your local church. What you think is going to repel them will actually say you're the only one that has the spine or use some other anatomy. Willing to say the thing that no one else is willing to say.
Because everybody else is just walking around on politically correct eggshells. Including the church. The battle between good and evil seems to be escalating. It is easy to blame politicians, government or poor leadership. But behind all of that is a spiritual battle.
Pastor Alan Jackson's new book, Angels, Demons and You, talk about the reality of this battle and the spiritual realm that exists around us. It has a real impact on us every day. As you read, you will discover that angels and demons are not imaginary. They actually exist. You can find them playing a variety of roles throughout the Bible and they're still influencing the world today.
We don't need to be afraid, but we do need to be aware and prepared. Angels, Demons, and You provides valuable insight, practical tools, and biblical truth to help you recognize the spiritual battle around us and become a difference maker in our generation. Get your copy today at alanjackson.com slash angels.
Hear from people whose faith directly impacts our culture on Pastor Alan's Culture and Christianity podcast. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. And so if you go to church and it ends up being a TED Talk mixed with a rock concert, with above average coffee and good organized parking, why should a 19-year-old go wake up at 8.30 on a Sunday morning to go to that? The food is better on campus.
You can go hear a motivational speaker for free. It's all paid for. Instead, you're going to draw them into your churches. And this is the greatest revival. And the church seems uninterested right now to seize it. Say, you know what? Yes, you need Jesus. But do you know why? You see, the reason why it's not yet being translated into revival is that they say, of course, Jesus is your savior.
But we're not connecting the dots. How do you know you need a savior if you don't know what you're saved from? And you only know what you're saved from if you talk about sin. So we focus everything on the fact that someone's going to save you from drowning. Yet we don't tell a generation that they're drowning. And they're so obviously drowning. It's the most suicidal generation in history.
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Chapter 5: What challenges does the American church face in sparking a revival?
Praise God we're not going the way of a lot of the secular West, but it's not reason for over-celebration. God is giving us a little bit of grace and mercy. If you look at, and I study these numbers every year when they come out, the New York Times tracks this stuff and the New York Times like begrudgingly had to publish
America's still kind of religious, and like 80% of people still believe in God. Like, okay, 65% of people go to church. You read this article, they're like begrudgingly going through the data. They still believe in this mystical celestial being. And, but...
Chapter 6: How should churches address sin and the need for a savior to engage young people?
But despite all of that, and you go deeper into the data, what young people especially are screaming at is they say, give me a structure that I can live my life by. Give me a rubric that I can follow. Don't just affirm every bad decision I've ever made. In fact, it's okay if you tell me I've messed up because you'll be the first person to tell me I've messed up in my life.
Because my parents won't tell me that anymore. My professors tell me I'm the greatest person ever. In fact, the modern church has been led to believe this secular lie that what this church needs, what the generation needs is a better pump up. You know, yeah, you're enough and you can do it. Because we think since they're depressed, they need to be pumped up more.
It's, you know, it's kind of obvious, right? When in reality, they have everybody telling them the most narcissistic thing ever. You're the greatest. You're the most awesome. Take more pictures of yourself, more selfies, more Snapchats, more TikToks, more, more me, me, me, me, me. And all they do is they think about themselves all day long. Right.
And if you have anything wrong with you, you have to go claim mental health issues and go talk to a counselor, some of which are legitimate, some of which are obviously just concocted by the environmental factors around them. And they get in this endless spiral loop when in reality, we have to do less affirmation. And especially with young men, more challenging of them, more saying, you know what?
Honestly, I'm not going to talk down to you. Stop being a boy and become a man. You want to learn what that means? Come to church and I'll tell you what it means to become a man because we have the greatest story ever told. And what it means to be a biblical man. We can tell you exactly what that means.
And we're not going to sugarcoat it or sanitize it because properly understood, the Bible is not a playtime book. The Bible is one, as of course, all of you guys know, is one that teaches us at every moment of our life in the chapter that we are in with the struggle that we are currently encountering.
And yet the predominant zeitgeist, if you go to most seminaries that can't draw a hundred kids on campus, if you go to most, some of these Christian conferences, all of these supposed experts are like, well, you know, Gen Z tends to be very pro LGBT. Can we just stop with this nonsense? Pro homosexual agenda. Okay. Can we stop both? They're very pro LGBT.
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Chapter 7: What does recent data suggest about religion and church attendance in America?
Again, stop using the acronyms of the left. Okay. Like, oh, they're very pro-environment. Okay, whatever. So they say, therefore, we must then water down our approach to go meet this generation that is in favor of these things. Or we could say, no, we're never going to compromise on truth, and we're going to win them over from the false deception that they're living. Like, hello?
As evidenced by what we have seen over the last couple of months, what we've seen the last couple of months. Again, this is just a political example, but I do want to say it's an amazing move of God. The impossible was done where President Donald Trump did 13 points better with younger voters in a way that no one ever thought was possible. Kamala Harris did worse with baby boomers.
Now, I understand, you know. It might not be some of you guys don't want to applaud for that. It's fine. I get it. But it is a phenomenal movement when you see young people go in that direction in a way that you could never have expected. And so the modern myth is this, or the modern context, is that the worst thing ever is that someone will send you a nasty email saying that you offended them.
Chapter 8: What do young people want from church leadership and spiritual guidance?
We live under... or we used to live under, in fact, you only live under this, by the way, by choice. We largely live under the soft tyranny of the offended peoples. And every one of us are victim of this. The soft tyranny of the offended peoples. are a hyper-minoritarian, loud vanguard that control our sermons. I'm not a pastor, but you know what I mean.
That control our messages and control our outward displays. Where that's that little voice in your head where you are crafting a sermon and you say, oh boy, Karen's going to be really mad about this one. Or whomever, Suzanne, whatever. Sorry, it's almost never Mark. It's just never. See, people didn't like that. It's almost, you know, I'm talking about the complaints and that's fine.
And it's that angry word email. Oh my goodness. I thought that this was this kind of church and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then your answer should be simple. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. If you want to meet with me, I will lovingly tell you why I believe what I believe in the scriptures say. I want you to keep on attending my church.
But if you are offended by something, the Bible says is true. Then I'm not going to dilute or weaken that stance that I will not do. However. You are more than welcome to keep on showing up and receiving the word and listening to the worship music, all of that. And that's the difficulty is that the American church has largely been a victim of its own success.
If you want to make sense of the change and the chaos happening around us, you're going to need God's help. That's why Alan Jackson Ministries, a friend of mine, created the Culture and Christianity Podcast, the Culture and Christianity Conference, and their weeknight news show, Alan Jackson Now.
Millions of people also listen to Pastor Alan Jackson's powerful sermons each week, I do, on radio, television, satellite, and online. In today's world, there's desperate need for truth. and Alan Jackson Ministries feels a sense of urgency to deliver God's truth and a biblical perspective to anyone who will listen. We can't afford to be complacent.
Their mission is to help people become more fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, which is the most important thing, giving your life to the Lord, including here on The Charlie Kirk Show. Go to alanjackson.com slash charlie. That is alanjackson.com slash charlie to find recent podcasts, shows, and sermons. Be informed. Find encouragement. Hear the truth delivered in a way that just makes sense.
You'll also find books, studies, prayers, and other tools to help you grow in your faith. Again, that's alanjackson.com slash charlie. alanjackson.com slash charlie. This is our time to make a difference. Check it out right now. I can say this as an outsider insider, right? Because I do politics professionally. I do youth outreach. I do a podcast.
And I do the church outreach as a professional thing, but it's not the only thing I do. So I'm able to look at the church from an outside perspective, but also be on the inside. And the analysis is this. As the church grew so popular and Christianity was the predominant and still is, thankfully, but it's slipping as we know.
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