Evangelists Greg Laurie, Will Graham Advance the Good News in ‘Middle of Charlie Kirk Effect’
Will Graham and BGEA’s Sunshine State Good News (4-city) Tour ended November 1, while Greg Laurie and Harvest’s Hope for America is scheduled for Sunday (November 16). Below are both stories regarding these evangelistic events and the “Charlie Kirk Effect.”
The Good News Movement: ‘Hope for America’ Event Comes to Utah
The day after Charlie Kirk’s murder more than two months ago at Utah Valley University, I did what I often do in the early morning. I walked into the local gas station convenience store, got a cup of coffee, and said hello to my overnight clerk friend. Our ongoing friendship includes my desire that he would come to know Jesus.
BY ALEX MURASHKO
Think Eternity and Media on Mission
IMAGE: HARVEST
The first words out of my friend’s mouth that day as I walked into the store were: “Do you know Charlie Kirk?”
Prior to Kirk’s assassination and the immediate aftermath—strong reactions coming from opposite sides of the cultural and political chasm—my friend did not know Kirk. At that moment I realized that the impact of Kirk’s death included an immeasurable move of God.
That movement goes beyond the Christian apologist, cultural and political fireball, and martyred Charlie Kirk.
“I don’t understand how people can act that way,” my friend at the gas station said. He was referring to the fact that some from the Left and the lost were in essence echoing a “good riddance”-to-Charlie sentiment immediately upon his death.
That sentiment still exists.
My reaction?
They hated Jesus, didn’t they?
No matter how shocking some of the reaction has been it shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Jesus said:
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ (John 15:18-25)
Despite the hatred. Despite current events in the world, there is a part of God’s church (followers of Jesus) who are moving confidently in faith. They are delivering the Good News to a troubled world. One example: Hope for America.
On Sunday (Nov. 16), evangelist Greg Laurie will lead Hope for America, a Harvest Crusade event at Utah Valley University.
“Charlie wasn’t just a political commentator—he was a passionate follower of Jesus Christ,” Laurie stated recently.
In an interview Laurie had with apologist Frank Turek, Turek said, “Charlie knew politics and he knew its place. But his main focus was the gospel.”
Kirk recognized that, though politics is important, it is not the most important thing, Laurie said. “I believe we’re living in the middle of a ‘Charlie Kirk Effect.’ In fact, his memorial service may have been one of the greatest days for the gospel in American history—millions of people heard it that day.”
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In His ‘Granddady’s’ Footsteps, Will Graham Delivers the Good News in Florida
Fresh off the Sunshine State Good News Tour, Will Graham said he was given an ongoing sense of pride for his grandfather and continued hope for America during the outreach events held at the four cities in Florida.
BY ALEX MURASHKO
Think Eternity and Media on Mission
PHOTO: BGEA
Throughout the tour (Oct. 26 – Nov. 1), led by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Graham said he was able to share with the BGEA team the cherished history of his grandfather’s early life and ministry which happened in Florida. During the tour, he also witnessed the hope of an ongoing revival in America.
Billy Graham was not only ordained in Florida, but it is where he received his formal education, was baptized, where he first spoke on the radio, and where he preached his first official sermon. Source: The Good News (Florida).
During time off from the tour, Graham took the BGEA team to the former site of Trinity College. “We actually went by his old campus in Temple Terrace where he was going to school, and where he fell in love with God’s word. I was able to see a lot of my granddaddy from a historical perspective. And for me, as his grandson, that was special.”
In this same interview with Think Eternity News, Graham addressed the current spiritual climate in the U.S. and the death of Charlie Kirk. He believes that the revival he sees happening now began nearly three years ago at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky.
“God has used the death of Charlie Kirk but that was not the start of the revival,” Graham said. “The revival has been going on since Asbury, and it’s been showing up in all these different pockets. However, it went full flame since Kirk’s death. What God started a number of years ago in Asbury is still going. It’s still moving. It’s still burning in people’s hearts. Also, God still uses tragedy to further the kingdom of God. I’m not surprised.”
More than 10,000 people attended the Sunshine State Good News Tour in the cities of Tallahassee, Gainesville, Sarasota, and Pompano Beach. Nearly 500 people made decisions for Christ.
Graham said that he opened and closed his evangelistic messages by talking about John 3:16. “My first message and my last message (on tour) was just one verse, John 3:16, because this verse is the essence of the good news: that we’re sinners, that Christ died in our place, and that He gives us forgiveness if we believe in Him. I gave that simple message really quick. In a sense, it doesn’t take long to preach John 3:16 and we saw a number of people come to know Christ.”
“There is good news, but it doesn’t come from the government. Good news doesn’t come from other people. Good news comes from God,” Graham said. “And that’s the ultimate good news: that God loves sinners, that Jesus died in the sinners’ place, and for whoever believes in that, puts their faith in Jesus Christ, He’s willing to forgive them of their sin and give a new start, a fresh beginning, and where they can spend eternity in heaven.”
He adds, “And so that’s the best deal yet, because He’s given the costliest gift in the world, that which we can’t afford. But yet, God paid it all for us. All we have to do is receive it as a free gift by faith, and that’s how we get it. And it’s free for anybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re educated, what color your skin is, what you know, or what economic status you’re in. It doesn’t matter. God gives you this gift freely, He gives His only begotten Son, but yet he gives it to us freely, if we just accept it. So, it’s a wonderful deal. It’s the best news that anybody can hear.”
Read more about the Sunshine State Good News tour on the BGEA website.
Alex Murashko is a Christ follower, husband, journalist and writing team leader for Think Eternity, a site for powerful faith content to help you live the fulfilled life in Jesus. Murashko is also founder of Media on Mission.
Connect on X: @AlexMurashko.
