Parent Compass Radio

Lucas Miles: although there's a lot of pain, God has been doing some tremendous things. Uh, TPUSA Faith is stronger than ever before. Uh, not in spite of Charlie, but because of Charlie, uh, we've had to lean in together. We've had to, you know, hug each other, cry together, laugh together, just really draw close so that we can keep forward, you know, motion what's happening here. We know what time it is, we know what season we're in, we know what needs to be done, and we are doing our best to keep that moving forward with with the just tremendous resolve.

Real Christian Families: Today we have the senior director of one of Charlie Kirk's organizations, Turning Point USA Faith. Pastor Lucas Miles is a trusted voice in the American church who has addressed some of the most challenging topics in theology, politics, and culture. Lucas is a senior pastor of Influence Church and founder with his wife, Chrissy, of Miles Media Inc. He is the host of Lucas Miles Show and the Church Boys Podcast. Known for his bold leadership and biblical teachings, Lucas is dedicated to helping people live with purpose and impact their communities with the gospel. So glad you're here.

Thank you for being with us.

Lucas Miles: I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Real Christian Families: I know this is been such a really wild time. Help us make sense of the world and the times we're living in. Um, there's so many people out there in pain. And I know you have answers for us. How did you manage what happened to Charlie?

Lucas Miles: Well, I mean, I think we're still managing. You know, it's it's not something that goes away. It's not something that gets fixed, you know, overnight in any capacity. And so, um, you know, I knew Charlie since 2020. I actually met him here at the National Religious Broadcasters. Um, and got to know him, you know, kind of a slow build in our relationship over the next couple of years. And but it ended up becoming, you know, dear friends. And uh, he had reached out to me at the start of the summer in 2024 about joining the team at TPUSA Faith.

I was already pastor of a church for uh, a long time in South Bend, Indiana, just outside of their Influence Church. And he said, "Hey, what do you think about quitting everything, moving to Phoenix, and leading the faith department for Turning Point and overseeing kind of all the faith operations?" And I knew as soon as he uttered the words that it was a God assignment, but I didn't know how it was going to happen. And you know, and I I came back to him about a week later after praying about it with my wife and talking to a lot of our team and and I said, "Look, I'm in, but I don't think you want me to quit my church." I said, "I think that if I'm going to call on the nation's pastors, I'm going to be much more effective as a pastor still myself and with a pulpit myself.

And so I said, it's going to be more work for me, but I'll go back and forth and if you're okay with it, we'll make it work." And so so that's what I do. Um, when, you know, I guess before we get to Charlie's assassination, I had about 15 months with him and it was incredible time period. Um, I often get flashes of dinners that we had, conversations that we had, you know, phone calls, texts. Um, Charlie was he was one of a kind human being. He was a great leader, a good friend, a good husband, a good father.

I got to see him in a lot of different capacities. Uh, there's a tremendous um, void in the world now in his passing. And I think that honestly, um, people didn't understand what all Charlie was doing until he's gone and you see, I think in many ways, I don't think this is an exaggeration. He was a whole he was holding a lot of things together. And I don't mean that to ascribe some sort of divinity to Charlie, but relationally he was so interconnected. And if somebody got out of line, he would he'd shoot him a message and he'd say, "Hey, you know what?

Stay with the program. Like we're we're we got to be on mission here. We got to work together." And he would he would call people back to unity. And so in his absence, you've seen a lot of disunity happen. And I think that it shows you how much unity he was keeping together during his lifetime. Um, we are uh, we're navigating the pain. I often describe it as it's like life has a um, this cataract of grief that you look at the world through. Uh, but I'll tell you what, on the other side of this, although there's a lot of pain, God has been doing some tremendous things.

Uh, TPUSA Faith is stronger than ever before. Uh, not in spite of Charlie, but because of Charlie, uh, we've had to lean in together. We've had to, you know, you know, hug each other, cry together, laugh together, just really draw close so that we can keep forward, you know, motion what 's happening here. We know what time it is, we know what season we're in, we know what needs to be done, and we are doing our best to keep that moving forward with all with the just tremendous resolve.

Real Christian Families: So help me with how TPUSA Faith started, why, and how that incorporates with TPUSA. Cuz I know they also have action, etc.

Lucas Miles: Yeah. Yeah. So underneath kind of the ecosystem that that Charlie really designed and developed, um, are a couple different entities. And so, uh, you have Turning Point Action, which is a 501c4, so that's the political arm, so that's a whole separate organization. It's really built to be able to chase the vote and to be able to um, you know, support campaigns and and uh, uh, and really, you know, you look at the 2024 victory for Trump. Uh, Turning Point Action was was really at the helm of a lot of the success of that. Um, and so, you know, that's that's run by Tyler Boyer and and uh, he and Charlie just were they worked tirelessly in that space together.

Uh, Tyler's doing a great job continuing that work. Um, we also have what's known as Turning Point USA and that's kind of the broader arm. You think of it sort of the big tent aspect of Turning Point. Um, it's really uh, it's 501c3. It's geared towards just big tent conservatism. It's the wide mouth of the funnel. We want as many people to come in and think conservatively, to vote conservatively. Although it's not a it's not a you know, a vote uh, um, driven or a political driven arm, the the sort of belief is that, look, if we can get people to understand and embrace cultural uh, conservative cultural ideas, that's going to trickle down eventually into the ballot box.

And so it's it's an indirect way of, you know, really affecting culture in many ways. Uh, and TPUSA Faith is the faith division of that arm. And so we are an exclusively Christian division. We focus where a lot of times people think of Turning Point, they think of young people. My team's average person we reach out to is a 57-year-old pastor in in America. And so that 's our main outreach. And so I have a team of about 40 staff members across the country that are calling on pastors all over the country. We grew from about 3,200 pastors when I came into the organization to now we have almost 10,000 pastors that we work with.

And really working into deep in those relationships, strengthening the pastors, getting them to stand strong for the gospel, and um, to really teach their people how to think biblically in the in the boardroom, in the bedroom, as well as at the ballot box.

Real Christian Families: Mm, excellent, excellent. So what issues have you really dealt with at that have been at the forefront in the time you've been there?

Lucas Miles: Yeah. Yeah. So within my team, which I can kind of speak to, you know, um, um, with with more expertise just because it's what I 'm doing every single day, is that, you know, we are really trying to help people with understanding primary Christian doctrine. And so, you know, if we talk about this just at a high level, God is creator, the lordship of Jesus, the Trinity, heaven and hell, the depravity of man, the return of Christ. We might have secondary differences. You and I might disagree with about eschatology and when and how Jesus is going to return, but we would find agreement in the fact that we believe Jesus is going to return hopefully as Christians.

And so, you know, that is that's the point of unity. What we're seen is we'll see people say, "Well, I believe that God is creator, but I have a different view of marriage, sex, gender, you know, sanctity of life." We're trying to help people, you know, give them language for some of these things. So everything from immigration to sexuality to uh, the the the um, authority of God's word, you know, we're really focused on that space. We're trying to equip pastors to be able to navigate these things.

Real Christian Families: And what is your personal story? Uh, we're a Life and Family show actually too.

Lucas Miles: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I I grew up in a great Christian family. I'll start there and that love the Lord. Uh, my parents are actually here at this event. And and um, uh, older I'm a middle child, so uh, older brother, younger sister. Um, got very involved in youth group as a junior high and high school student. I was very thankful for that time. Um, grew up in a bit more of a traditional church and I I eventually found my wife and my salvation there and and a real love for the word. Um, I kind of navigated away from that, you know, in my early 20s uh, as I had gotten married.

Uh, but I 'm always grateful for that time that I had there. Um, ended up um, you know, really having an encounter with the Holy Spirit that that really forever changed my life. Uh, and you know, it kind of set me on a track. So my wife and I started a church um, now called Influence Church uh, about this our 21st year uh, actually pastoring that church in in October. So I've been at the same church that entire time. Planted it when I was 24 years old. Um, and so, you know, most of my career has been as a senior pastor.

Uh, I started writing and put out my first uh, official book in 2016 uh, with Worthy Publishing called Good God. Uh, released several books after that, you like The Christian Left, Woke Jesus. Most recently my book Pagan Threat uh, which had a forward by Charlie Kirk written just before he died. Um, and that was uh, that was very it's that holds a special place in my heart as a result. Um, the book has done super well. It was a number four on the New York Times bestseller list. Um, and really uh, has catapulted me, you know, in a lot of uh, a lot of new opportunities which I 'm grateful for.

Um, and you know, I've been with Turning Point now for about 18 months. Um, and you know, being able to uh, I I knew Erica a little bit before um, Charlie was killed, but really being able to spend some significant time with her since then. Uh, she's an incredible human being. There's a real grace on her life. Um, you know, people always ask what they can do for us and just, you know, pray for her and the family and the kids and um, you know, but there's such a grace on her life for it's like a now moment.

And I think she understands really what she needs to do. Uh, she's doing a great job leading the organization. And so my wife and I we we don't have kids of our own. We've lost a few along the way. Uh, you know, battled infertility and and I know a lot of couples, you know, probably out there can relate to that. Uh, as a result our nieces and nephews get, you know, really greatly spoiled. And so we're we're happy to spend a lot of time with them. Um, and and it really gives us time to um, uh, or I should say it this way, we utilize the extra time that we have without having children for things that we believe that matters.

And that uh, the state of the church in America, um, the state of the people in our church uh, pouring into our own leaders and our staff members, you know, that's really how we we focus our attention. And those are the if if we have hobbies, that's what they are. Um, Charlie Kirk's once uh, said that he said, "I had fun once and I hated it." Uh, he was always on mission. And uh, I don't know if I'd go that far, but you know what? Um, we fun for us right now is is getting stuff done and staying true to our calling.

We realize, I think especially after Charlie's death, that the days are evil, uh, life is short, and there's a lot of work to do. And so we're we're very dedicated to that.

Real Christian Families: So where do you see as far as the future since

Lucas Miles: Yeah.

Real Christian Families: this has happened?

Lucas Miles: You know, I I think for Turning Point um, we are in great hands with Erica. Um, we're we're in a really strong places an organization. We're grateful for our supporters, our donors, our our sponsors, people that have really stood with us through um, this this uh, time of really turmoil. You know, it's it's been uh, it's going on 6 months now since uh, since Charlie was killed. And which doesn't even seem real to say that it's been that long. Um, but the organization has has I think really um, you know, if there was any I mean, of course there was rockiness in the beginning, uh, but it it stabilized.

And you know, we're in a good place, our team is solidified, we're growing. Uh, I 'm hiring probably eight new positions right now at TPUSA Faith um, just to uh, really handle the the increased need. You know, our we've our faith department is doubled, almost tripled in size. And so there's a lot more pastors that need called on. We used to do one pastor summit a year. We're doing three pastor summits this year. We're doing 32 tour stops with what we call our Make Heaven Crowded uh, tour. And so that was a phrase that Charlie and Erica used to share with each other a lot.

And you can go to makeheavencrowdedtour.com to find out more about that. But we have 30 states uh, 30 30 uh, unique sites that we're going to uh, Alaska, Hawaii, um, Maine, um, you know, Washington State, uh, Texas, you know, Florida. We're all over the place. Indiana, uh, we're really trying to hit as much of the US as we can. And these will probably kick into 2027 as well. I have a feeling we'll be doing this for a while. Um, but uh, Turning Point right now every about every 4 days we're doing an event with over 1,000 people.

And so, you know, you think about the scope of putting on I mean, for most organizations putting on one event that has 1,000 people would take them 6 months to plan. We're doing an event like that every 4 days. And so uh, the pace that that our teams are running at, it's remarkable. I 'm proud to be part of the team and uh, it's an honor to serve there.

Real Christian Families: Excellent. So now there's you know, so many people saying you know, be a Charlie Kirk, you know, I'm a Charlie Kirk. So what is it that makes you know, especially we're show for parents

Lucas Miles: Yeah.

Real Christian Families: which which is really everything that parents deal with.

Lucas Miles: Mhm.

Real Christian Families: And so what would you say you know, I I mean how how does a Charlie Kirk or

Lucas Miles: How do you become a Charlie Kirk?

Real Christian Families: Or you know, and and you know, that's probably, you know, giving too much glory when he would point to Jesus Christ. How do you become

Lucas Miles: Yeah. Well, look, I I think that Charlie should be emulated in the same way that Paul says follow me as I follow Christ. I think that there was something about Charlie 's life that was unique. Um, you know, the number of people he reached, the amount of I mean, he did more in 31 years than most people do in three lifetimes, you know, or could do in three lifetimes. Um, the it's really it's remarkable. And so um, he deserves um, uh, you know, recognition and and really uh, dignity of acknowledgement of of what God did in him.

Of course he would be the first to say stay humble, it was God. You know, I can just hear him say those words anytime somebody complimented him, he would just say, hey, you know, we're going to stay humble. Yeah. And and certainly and and so, you know, nobody's looking to deify him or anything like that. Um, but but I do think that there's a model there to look at. Now, being a Charlie Kirk does not mean that you're going to have, you know, 11 million followers and a daily TV show and all those things. Of course, you know, somebody could have that and it's good to it's good to, you know, have desire to do big things.

But I think being a Charlie Kirk is is is bigger than that actually. And it's it's more important than just the externals of the impact that he made. I think that at a core level Charlie, you know, if if this were a show called Becoming Charlie Kirk, I think that he became Charlie Kirk first and foremost by really strong character formation. Um, Charlie had a tremendous education despite the fact that he didn't go to college. Um, he was well read. He he had great mentors and he sought them out vigorously. Um, and he you know, people like Bill Montgomery or or Foster Frees and others um, you know, later his relationship with Donald Trump.

I mean, I think he learned so much about leadership by by watching the president. Um, and Charlie was a sponge for information. He was constantly learning, constantly asking questions. And I think that, you know, um, I would also probably, you know, want to spend a little time with parents and say how do you become the opposite of Charlie Kirk? Because I think in order to know how to become a Charlie Kirk, you need to be know what to look for that could take you the other direction that we would worry about. And that is that this generation has experienced more trauma and isolation than I think really any generation, at least in recent history before it.

Um, you look at things from the Twin Towers to increase in school shootings and Columbine. Um, you have, you know, uh, gender indoctrination and ideology that crept in. You have Marxism that's creeping in. You have, you know, riots. You have division between um, you know, uh, races over things like, you know, BLM and George Floyd and others. You have uh, you know, cities being burnt down. There's a lot of negative things that are happening and that's affecting young people greatly. And so I think for any parent out there or grandparent or youth pastor or whatever it is, um, it's really important to recognize that this is a generation that's that has a tendency towards trauma and a tendency towards isolation.

And so we have to start working on you know, really breaking those cycles. And I think having strong communication, taking time to ask questions, being a little bit more patient um, you know, let's take an issue like um, radical environmentalism. It's very easy as a conservative to see somebody that is kind of going full, you know, on the environment to say, hey, you know what? You're getting into you getting into some crazy ground. And I think that there's a better response. And so I think the response in those instances is saying, hey, you know, first off, I love your passion.

I love your I love your passion for uh, for nature and the environment. And do you do you know in fact that God's word says a lot of amazing things about the environment? And actually one of the things that talks and teaches about is that we're to be stewards of this earth. We're to have dominion, we're to oversee it that the the world was not you know, uh, man was not made for the world, the world was made for man, but it's our job to steward this. And that there's something about that responsibility of caring for the thing that we have, but that we remember that the world is not our God, that the world points to our God, that all of creation declares the goodness of God and points to these eternal attributes of God, which it teaches us in Romans.

And so, you know, it's redirecting that passion to say, hey, I think you're on to something here, but let me help you polish that a little bit and take you back to a biblical framework. I think that is a And again that that might not happen in one conversation. That might take time to build. But the goal is to help redirect these um, these empathies and these feelings and these responses to trauma back to a biblical ideology rather than um, you know, allow that then push it away and you know, just flat out rebuke it and these things.

I think that we're going to get further with that. And Charlie you would see that in his dialogue with students as he would say, pick up the microphone. Hey, all the dissenters come to the front. I want to hear from you first. And he would say, why do you think that way? What's an example of that? Why do you feel that way? Have you ever thought about this? And when the whole crowd started booing the person because they were a blue-haired liberal, Charlie would go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This person was made in God's image and they have dignity.

We, you know, I've listened to all you guys. I'm going to take time to listen each person. Let's hear what they have to say. And he would give dignity to that person and he would treat them like a human being. He would love them, he would respect them. And Charlie won so many people over that way. And I think that there's a lesson in there of how we can operate to really win this generation.

Real Christian Families: You had an experience with the Holy Spirit.

Lucas Miles: Yeah. I knew you were going to mention that. Um,

Real Christian Families: You did.

Lucas Miles: Yeah. So you know, let me say a couple things first off as a as a caveat to this that um, I grew up first of all in a cessationist church and meaning that they didn't believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They didn't believe in really the activity of the Holy Spirit other than that he was uh, sort of a stamp of our salvation.

Real Christian Families: Okay. Okay.

Lucas Miles: And and so um, you know, I came from a uh, a pretty uh, uh, I I always joke that, you know, in my church growing up the the Holy Spirit was almost viewed like that weird uncle that you hope doesn't show up to the family reunion because you never know what he's going to do, you know. And and so um, he was really seen as a lesser person of of the Trinity in many ways. At least my perception was that at the time. Um, I There's a lot of pastors and let me back up. I'll see this as well.

At at TPUSA Faith my role is um, you know, helping to steward and foster these 10,000 churches that we have. We have churches across the whole spectrum. We have cessationists and we have swinging from the charismatics. We have Calvinists, we have Presbyterians, we have Baptists, we have Southern Baptists, we have church of chrysters, we have you know, non-denominational guys, Calvary Chapels, I mean everything you can imagine uh, in the Protestant world. And we have to find a way to have unity despite secondary differences. So I do believe that although the Trinity is a primary doctrine um, our view of gifts of the Holy Spirit, our view of um, things like speaking in tongues, all of this, those do become secondary positions.

And I think we have to find unity beyond our the our, you know, uh, the drilled down, you know, uh, micro doctrines that are within there. So all that to say that for me personally I am now a continuationist. Uh, you could, you know, I believe in charismatic theology in the sense that that God is good, he loves us, he's giving gifts to man. I think we see a lot of abuses in the charismatic world. And that's something I'm really trying hard to fight with or fight against uh, because we've seen especially here recently uh, with, you know, some of the work that people like Mike Winger and others have done, who's a who's a friend of mine, uh, they've done a great job of exposing I think some wolves in sheep clothing when it comes to uh, gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And so this can, you know, I think it's always important to recognize the dangers that are there and and and the the the um, uh, you know, some of where this can go if not in check. But I will say that, you know, while there's pastors that claim, especially in the charismatic world, they claim these great revelations. You know, God took me up into the third heaven and God did this in my life or an angel stood at the foot of my bed. I I don't have any of that. Here's what I have. God showed me how messed up I was.

The Holy Spirit showed me that that a property That was my experience with the Holy Spirit. I had a moment in my life where the Lord showed me what I deserved apart from him.

Real Christian Families: I love it. That's my experience with the Holy Spirit. Wow.

Lucas Miles: And and it transformed my life. And I saw at that moment the the the grace of God and the necessity for that and my need for it in a way that I'll never forget. And you know, and that's what allows me to be able to love people because it's it's easy to walk through life and you know, have judgment towards other people or feel like that you have some sort of moral superiority or or you know, that that they just don't meet your standards or something like that. And the Holy Spirit has really the way he's ministered to me has has shown me that apart from Christ, I'm no better than the worst enemy of the gospel.

I deserve hell apart from Christ as much as Adolf Hitler or Osama bin Laden or you know, Saddam Hussein or you know, Phil in Public Enemy number one there. And that that I have no righteousness of my own to stand on. That's the revelation that the Lord gave me through the Holy Spirit. And that changed my life. It it gave me a hunger for what I would call the gospel of God's grace. And and it it shows me that I need to rely on him every single day. And so that, you know, of course I I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, all of those things.

But it's rooted in the personhood of the Holy Spirit and the gentleness of the father and and really the love of that we see, you know, poured out through Christ that you know, in that Trinity of the fellowship of the Godhead that I see that what God has has brought us into as believers to be able to have fellowship with him for all eternity that we get to participate in the love that that the Trinity um, you know, contains within himself. And that is a very remarkable thing.

Real Christian Families: Tell me about the book Pagan Threat.

Lucas Miles: Yeah. So my my newest book Pagan Threat um, is New York Times bestseller. Charlie did the forward for it. Um, and you go back and you read his forward and it was written just, you know, probably I don't know, maybe a month and a half before he was killed. And uh, in many ways it feels prophetic, you know, in the sense that um, uh, you know, Charlie he understood the danger out there better than anybody. I think he understood what I would call this Pagan Threat. I ultimately I believe it's the Pagan Threat that took his life.

And and what I mean by that is it's this indoctrination of the current this younger generation with a with a post-Christian worldview or a pagan or Marxist worldview that has corrupted their minds, um, diminished the uh, the love and dignity for society, for humanity. Uh, human life doesn't have value anymore. You know, in many of these individuals' lives uh, they've become detached through, you know, digital spaces and video games. Seen so I mean the average kid has seen so many murders on TV or live stream or even even literal murders, not just entertainment, you know, um, you know, uh, you know, TV shows or something like that or video games.

They've seen literal murders on on uh, platforms like X or YouTube or whatever. And it's desensitized this generation. And ultimately it was that desensitization and and I think just the the the deception and the indoctrination of the enemy that that brought this level of vitriol uh, to cause somebody to pull a trigger and take Charlie's life. And so um, you know, this book is really uh, although I wrote it before he was killed, I really dedicate the success of this book to Charlie's legacy. Um, and I have a roadmap in the back of the book for pastors and moms and uh, dads and grandfathers and grandfa grandmothers that is sort of a roadmap for where do we go from here to save this next generation.

It's a seven-step plan. And um, I hope people can get it and and benefit from that.

Real Christian Families: That's great. Can you give us a quick seven or or a few?

Lucas Miles: I can give you a few. Yeah. I'll see. I'll see how good my memory is. Um, is uh, you know, um, first off the the be I talked a little bit about this this generation is going through this level of trauma. They're also more disconnected than ever before growing up in in kind of the COVID eras. There's sort of this ingrained um, isolation, uh, personal relationships, you know, a lot of you know, when I was younger people went on dates and they met people and they did things. That's less common today actually. You know, a lot of it's digital relationships first for sometimes an extended time um, before they would have, you know, those types of uh, interactions.

And and look, I'm I'm a fan of courtship and not traditional dating. So in some ways that might be a good thing. But um, you know, I think in many cases it's it's because of anxieties that it's creating that or depression that it's creating that. And so um, the book uh, a couple of the steps. I'll skip a few of them, but I think that um, churches especially they have to um, have a really a renewed focus if not a first time focus if they've never done it before on digital evangelism. So we have to be in that digital space doing ministry.

So if there's a pastor out there and he's like, oh, I don't know how to use my smartphone, I don't I'm not very good on the computer, you have to find somebody in your church to do some sort of digital evangelism that whether that be through social media, live streams. I think I mean, what if a church had somebody on TikTok live every single night, you know, talking to people in the community about the gospel and was hashtagging all your cities and and everything else that's nearby in your geography, inviting people to church, answering questions about apologetics.

And if every single church in the country we have 350,000 churches in the country right now, if we had 350,000 Christian live streams every single night on TikTok, it would change the face of the planet. I mean, look, all it takes to win the whole world is if every Christian in the world were to lead two people to Jesus this year, the whole world would be saved. That's all it takes. A third of the population are Christian.

Real Christian Families: So that's our challenge. That's our challenge.

Lucas Miles: That's the challenge. You got to go out and lead two people to the Lord. And so you know, I think that that there's a lot of things in this as I unpack it. But but I'll say that um, for parents and grandparents uh, I think more than ever and youth pastors, you need to know what your kids are also getting input on from from media. You know, there's there's so much out there. It's so easy to get plugged in. I mean there's a lot of negative stuff very quickly at people's fingertips uh, with, you know, just uh, cell phones, etc.

And so you know, I think that we need to really be on top of that and make sure that we are giving, you know, this next generation the support that they need.

Real Christian Families: So the book is Pagan Threat Confronting America's Godless Uprising.

Lucas Miles: Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say if you want to find out more they can head to lucasmiles.org. They can also go to tpusafaith.com or if they want to find out more about our tour they can go to makeheavencrowdedtour.com in order to find out more there as well.

Real Christian Families: Thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it.

Lucas Miles: I appreciate having me on. Thanks.