WATCH the Memorial Service for Charlie Kirk

The memorial service for Charlie Kirk will be held on Sunday in Glendale, Arizona, under the highest level of security. More than 100,000 attended, including President Trump and his cabinet, along with senators and congressmen.

BELOW: Watch the memorial on our CBN News YouTube channel Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern

Professionally, Charlie Kirk will be known for creating and growing the Turning Point USA movement. However, personally, he made the decision early on that his faith in Jesus Christ would be at the center of all. That decision for Christ came in 5th grade at Christian Heritage Academy. 

"I heard a hot gospel," Kirk said in a podcast in 2024. "And so I realized the stakes in 5th grade. I'm a sinner, I'm selfish, I'm broken and only thanks to Jesus's perfect sacrifice, coming and living a perfect life that I get something I do not earn but has been given to me, this free gift of eternal life." 

Another important decision around that time came when his parents left a liberal version of the Presbyterian Church, something he discussed with CBN News six years ago. 

"When I was 12 or 13 years old, my parents made the decision, as I and many others started to realize, it became much more about political doctrine and social relativism and theology second," Kirk explained. "My parents took me out of that church. It was a great decision."  

After high school, when Kirk began forming Turning Point USA, his faith hit a crucial turning point. 

"I started to experience real adversity," Kirk explained to CBN News. "I started to come in a much closer relationship with Jesus Christ and reading my Bible more and becoming more essentially unapologetic about my Christianity because I was given a choice. I could try to descend more into this kind of secular world or reaffirm my faith, and that's exactly what I did." 

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An even deeper connection would begin in 2018 when he first traveled to the Holy Land. He called it a life-changing moment, something Charlie Kirk's pastor reflected on with CBN News. "His faith was so strengthened there," says Pastor Rob McCoy. "He would say, you know, it didn't make the Bible come alive. It made me come alive to the Bible." 

Following that visit, Kirk became unapologetic for Christ and the Gospel message as he consistently consumed scripture.

"He would get up every morning faithfully and the first thing he'd be in was the Word of God every day," Pastor McCoy recalls. "And then he would start to study voraciously for two hours a day on any topic that was pertinent to what the country was going through." 

While this champion for Christ lived a short time on this Earth, God is already using his impact in mighty ways.  

JUST IN: Charlie Kirk's Pastor Rob McCoy gets emotional as he talks to me about delivering the Gospel message at Charlie Kirk's Memorial Service this Sunday in Arizona: "When they leave that building, they're not going to have Charlie Kirk's name on their lips. They're going to… pic.twitter.com/2BjDdJSIaP

— David Brody (@DBrodyReports) September 17, 2025