Practical Steps for Biblical Civic Leadership from Charlie Kirk's Legacy
Note: this is the transcript from a recent episode of my podcast. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/pL8dOANZMkk
Introduction and Purpose
Okay, now we're gonna talk about practical steps, and things that we can do in order to carry on the legacy of Charlie Kirk, but really ultimately to pursue the great commission of our Lord Jesus Christ, in memory of Charlie Kirk.
“In memory of Charlie Kirk?”
I still can't believe I'm saying that. I still, it's really still very shocking to me. I'm gonna share some practical steps that I think that we can take in each of these spheres.
Engaging in the Civil Sphere
So let's start, I wanna start with the civil sphere because I think that's actually least important. Alright? Now, you might disagree with me, but I think that the civil sphere is least important. And that is this. I want to encourage you to do three things.
The first is, make your views known. Stop letting the enemies of God cow you into submission so that you don't share your political views. Have you ever noticed that Christians are supposed to be “silent” about our political views, but everybody else gets to say 'em as much as they want and we just have to worry about not offending other people.
We need to put that to bed. That is the fear of man. And I'm not saying be sinful in how you share your views, but we need to stop being afraid of what other people are going to think of us. Because once you understand that the civil sphere is under God's authority, it's under the authority of Jesus Christ already, and talking about politics is really just talking about how do we live out and play out the authority of Jesus Christ in this particular area?
We have nothing to fear, and we must not be silent. The time for being inoffensive and politically correct is done. That's over. That ended in the two thousands. It ended in the nineties. We're just now, many of us are just waking up to it today. So speak your views biblically, boldly, lovingly, but speak them.
Don't be afraid. That's number one. Number two is find a way if you feel called to it, and not everybody is, but find a way to be involved politically. Join your local library board. I know it's cringey. Those people might not see eye to eye with you. They might really abominate your views. Okay. I happened to earn myself some enemies at one of my local libraries because every June I would go in and I would take all the LGBT books from their kids section and I would check 'em out for several weeks.
Okay. And they knew me and they knew who I was. And I say that to say that oftentimes the people who work in local libraries don't share our views, just like public school systems, just like local government. So if you can't beat 'em externally, join them and then beat 'em internally. What I mean by that is join a local board of some kind, whether it's a school board, library board, what have you.
Downtown advocacy board, Main Street Group Business Bureau. And work for biblical change. Unashamedly, unabashedly. Don't disguise what you're doing. Be wise as serpents, innocent as doves. You don't have to tell everyone everything you believe at all times. First interaction with them. But be shrewd.
Be loving, be good and be involved if the Lord has called you to that. And then the third thing I wanna say about the civil sphere is this. Gather a group of men around you and meet in public somewhere. Meet at a cigar lounge. Talk about your faith publicly in a cigar lounge while you're smoking pipes and cigars and drinking bourbon or a cafe.
Go into the woke cafe in town and. Or better yet, if you have a conservative cafe in town, go there and talk publicly about biblical ideas and biblical truth with like-minded brothers. Pray together, study the Bible together in public, in an external sphere. This isn't political, but this is public.
And see the impact that it has. I've been doing this actually for like 12 years. I've been getting together with men, whether in cafes, public buildings, cigar lounges, pubs, and we've been having these conversations, CS Lewis Jr. RR Tolkien style. And it's been really amazing to see even the people who will come up and wanna have a conversation with us, because nobody's doing this.
Very few people are actually doing this in the public sphere. And as men, we need to be out there leading, not afraid, not ashamed, but exhibiting godly. Brotherhood boldly in the public sphere in a biblically sound way.
Serving in the Ecclesial Sphere
Alright, now let's talk about ecclesiological, the ecclesial sphere. What can you do ecclesially?
Number one thing that I would say is get to know what your spiritual gifts are and start serving in your local church. So for me, I know what my gifts are. I'm not gifted in every way, but I have a couple of them. Teaching is one. I have been gifted by the Holy Spirit to teach. I love to teach. And when I teach, the Holy Spirit uses it.
Another one is prophecy. Don't get all worked up over that. I don't mean like in the Jeremiah sense. But rather speaking the truth, boldly without fear, that is something that the Lord enables me to do.
I don't claim credit for it. It's just something the Lord has given me the ability to do and I enjoy it, but I've got teaching gifts. Another one would be evangelism. The Lord has given me these gifts and he has enabled me. Knowledge is one for me. Really teaching and knowledge are probably the big ones for me.
So I am actively trying to seek to use those gifts at our church. And so I'm teaching courses at our church in the biblical worldview. Apologetics. I'm doing stuff for the youth. I'm doing men's breakout sessions at retreats teaching family camps. Why? Because the Lord has gifted me to do this and I'm obligated to use those gifts.
What are your gifts? Maybe it's helps. Maybe it's administration. Maybe it is leadership. Maybe it is giving and generosity. And you've been gifted with this wonderful desire to give and to support the work of God. Maybe you are musical, maybe you are great with children. You've got a passion for seeing the younger generation grow up in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Whatever your gifts are, figure it out and use them. Talk to your pastor. How can I get involved? This is what I've got a passion for. And then guess what? Try it for a year. Try it for three months, and if it works out, keep going. If it doesn't, try something else. But use your gifts in the church and some of you men who are leading your family as well, who are solid biblical men of God need to step up and become elders in your church.
You, the time has come and you need to step up into that role. Only do it if your household's in order; only do it if you're not a new believer. Follow the biblical requirements, okay? If you're above reproach, looked on by outsiders, but some of you need to become elders. Some of you need to become deacons because you've got a heart to serve and minister to the widows and orphans of society and of the church, and to administrate ministry.
To the vulnerable to children, even to run the men's ministry, you need to step up in whatever deaconship, diaconate looks like in your church. You need to step up into that role, but we need to be serving in church, and that is the number one thing I can recommend to you in the civil sphere.
Jeremiah Campana says, you need to step up and run for city council and school board.
Yeah. Christian men need to do that. Absolutely. Step up, run for city council, run for school boards, get involved in your church.
Strengthening the Family
Now let's talk family. And I have the most to say about family. I'm not for the sake of time, I've got about four minutes, so I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna pontificate for a long time on family.
But here's what I will say. I will say, if you're not married, I'm gonna sound like cross politic here for a minute. Alright? So I'm gonna channel my inner chocolate Knox or Gabe Wrench or Toby Sumter. If you're not married, get married. If you're married, have babies. If you're babies I'm not gonna say baptize them, that's what they always say over there.
But rather, I'm gonna say this, bring them up in the fear and instruction of the Lord, the teaching and instruction of the Lord. Fear. Why Fear? Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You want kids who fear the Lord and no one else. And we need to be, by the way, praying for Charlie Kirk's kids, that they would grow up to fear the Lord and not to fear man.
Charlie did not fear man. And you and I need to follow suit. We need to pray that our children would do likewise, not fear man. The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man can do to me. That's what scripture says. Pastors, are you doing something right now to equip the congregants in your church, to defend the faith boldly and to articulate the Christian worldview?
Are you doing that? And if you're not, may I humbly offer my services to you? May I help you with this? Call me. We do this work for churches where we come into churches and teach Christian worldview weekends, defend the faith weekends, we do stuff especially for men's ministries.
We do stuff for youth ministries. Get a bunch of young men in your church together. Let me come in and you and I pastor, we will talk to them about the biblical worldview and how to be incredibly based by God's grace. Our kids need to see us defending the faith.
We need to be catechizing our young children. We need to be bringing our sons through rites of passage that teach them what it means to be a godly, biblical man. This is why I wrote catechism, by the way, my catechism for. Children preschool through third grade CaTECH Kids is the catechism rooted in new covenant theology, rooted in Calvinism, rooted in reformation theology that will help you disciple your children.
If those terms don't mean anything to you, that's perfectly fine, but please check it out. In fact, I'll even put up a banner right now. Go to www.thethink.institute/ctech kids to learn more about that. I'd be happy to provide you with that resource. I also wanna let you know that I have written, if you've got sons between the ages of 11 and 15 or even 18, I have also written a rite of passage called Bar Yeshua. I got that name from Vern Poythress. I'm actually currently going through it now with my son. We go to the gym and while we're at the gym and we're lifting, we're also talking about, we're running through the modules of the bar, Yeshua Rite of passage. Okay I say all this to say, we as fathers need to be leading our families. Now, lemme give you one more practical thing that you can do, and that is lead your family in devotions.
Men, dads, please. Even if it's once a week, man, even if you've never done it, start with once a month. Taking your family to church is not enough. Taking your kids to youth group and Sunday school is not enough. You need to be leading your family. You need to be leading. I need to be leading my family in scripture, in prayer and in singing.
We need to be doing this. Don't outsource this to your pastor or the children's minister. Only you can be the father in your household. And part of that duty is to speak of these things that you read in scripture while you're laying down, while you get up, while you go on your way, while you're coming home.
We, this is what God's word says in Deuteronomy. We need to be teaching the biblical worldview to our kids all the time. Ephesians six, four Fathers raise up your children in the teaching and instruction of the Lord. The Greek word is PDay. And PDay was the word that the Romans would use to describe the full scope and sequence of training that would make a young man into a citizen of Rome.
Paul says, train them up in the PDay of the Lord, the PDay of God. Teach your children to be citizens of the new Jerusalem one day.
Call to Action and Legacy
And this should be a sobering thought to all of us one day. Each and every one of us is going to travel the same road that Charlie Kirk just traveled. We are going to die. We don't necessarily want that to happen today or tomorrow, but if there's one thing that I've been thinking about since our brother Charlie passed away, it's that dude did not waste time.
God bless him. He did not waste time. He got more done in 31 years of life than most men get done in multiple lifetimes or would get done in multiple lifetimes. Why he didn't waste time. And someday our clock is gonna be done too. The stand in our hourglass is going to run out and we are going to be face to face with the Lord Jesus.
There's not a doubt in my mind that when Charlie stood before Jesus Christ, Jesus said, well done. Good and faithful servant. Do you know where that line comes from? It comes from the parable of the talents in scripture, in that parable, the men, the servants who heard well done and good and faithful servants were the ones who made a return on the Master's investment.
May you and I live in such a way that today we will make it, we will work to make a return on Christ's investment in the civil sphere, in our workplace, in our entrepreneurship, in our families, in our churches, in our personal lives. May we live for a return on the on, on God's investment in us. Jesus Christ was kind enough to give you life.
He was kind enough to save you from your sins. You didn't deserve that. I didn't deserve that. But Jesus Christ died for our sins. He rose again, conquering the grave. And now he is guiding our lives by the Holy Spirit internally and by his divine decree externally. He's put Christians in our lives. He's given us opportunities.
He's given us children. He's given us churches, he's given us wives. If you don't have any of those things, he's given you people in your life that you can disciple and who by whom you can be discipled. Please do not waste—do not squander this opportunity. Men, now is our time. Charlie's organization was so aptly named Turning Point.
Let this be a turning point, not because Charlie Kirk is our savior. We're not saved by his death or his martyrdom. He is a Christian martyr. We may look to him, but when a brother in Christ gets martyred, it shouldn't make us focus on him. We don't worship him. We don't venerate Charlie. Instead, we look through Charlie through his martyrdom like a stained glass window.
To the Greater glory, the True Son behind the stained glass window, the Son of righteousness, Jesus Christ. It's his death that we look to. It's his life that qualified him to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. And it's his death that atone for our sins, and it's his resurrection that justifies us, that vindicates our faith in him and it's his rule and reign and intercession for us before the Father in heaven.
That gives us hope and peace every single day with God and with our neighbors, even with our enemies. Brothers, may we not squander this moment.