On Friday, Sept. 12, two days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, Lucas Miles, lead pastor of Nfluence Church and senior director of TPUSA Faith, spoke with ChurchLeaders to reflect on his friend’s legacy.
Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA) at the age of 18 and led the organization until he was fatally shot on Wednesday, Sept. 10, while speaking during his The American Comeback Tour stop at Utah Valley University.
Tyler Robinson (22) is believed to be Kirk’s shooter and was taken into custody on Friday.
Kirk leaves behind his wife, Erika, and two children.
“Nothing about this is easy,” Miles expressed. “There’s no playbook.” TPUSA Faith’s senior director praised the leadership at TPUSA for guiding the organization through this unimaginable circumstance.
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Miles said, “At the risk of sounding cliché, this is a turning point in every single way.”
Miles described Kirk as an incredible brother, boss, and friend, saying:
Charlie Kirk is one of a kind. I’ve never known anybody like him. He’s 15 years younger than I am, and he was a mentor to me in a lot of areas of my life that I did not expect. I’ve never seen somebody command a room the way that he does, have such a drive for excellence and efficiency, but be motivated by love and the gospel. It wasn’t about numbers or metrics to him. It was about people and lives changed. As you mentioned, he loved pastors. I think some of his favorite people on the planet were pastors. He surrounded himself with pastors all the time. My last conversation with him was when he was coming back from Japan. He had just done a tour in Asia just a few days before his assassination. And I was texting with him, and he was so excited to tell me that he had been able to share the gospel with a massive group of Japanese leaders. You could tell he was so proud of that in a good way—in a Jesus sort of way. I mean, it was like, ‘I was able to go and I was able to accomplish the mission that the Lord had for me there.’ And I just think that’s the way that he handled everything in his life.
Miles shared that Kirk always encouraged him to “dream bigger” and said that Kirk is “a guy that in his 31 years accomplished every single thing the Lord gave him.”
“I don’t believe this is God’s will—I want to be clear,” Miles said. “This was the act of demonic, evil forces to have that kind of hatred to do this vile act…I pray that justice is done fully for this heinous act.”
