PITTSBURGH, Pa. — If you were looking for young people distraught over last Thursday’s brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk here, you were looking in the wrong place.
They went to The Sanctuary church by the busloads. Even Pastor Jason Howard was taken aback by the size and scope of the number of young people who came out on Sunday for service.
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“I’ll be honest with you, I am in my forties, so I was caught off guard by the response from people who are in my church in their twenties. They were much more in tune with Charlie’s influence than I was,” he explained.
But his assistant pastor, Cole Yocca, was very much tuned in.
“He is 22 years old, and his immediate reaction was to spontaneously just put out on social media that we were going to gather to pray. And the day after Charlie was assassinated, he had a whole bunch of people just gather in his backyard to pray,” he explained.
“The response was, we are going to be bold and unashamed about the message of Jesus more than ever before,” he said of both the Thursday night vigil and the packed Sunday services.
The Sanctuary Church is a non-denominational Christian congregation that caught my eye several years ago. I first saw them holding spontaneous baptisms in the Allegheny River three years ago. And then I followed the mission work they do. They’ve had a massive growth in young people attending services in the past few years.
Howard says people are using this word: revival.
“I love that word. And when we talk about revival, we really mean dead things coming back to life. And this idea is that there is a generation of people who are desperate and who need God,” he said.
Howard noticed in the past few years that there had been an awakening among young people.
“We want to see our generation come to faith in Jesus. And the young people are more passionate than I’ve ever seen in my life and unashamed,” he said.
That is what Howard believes made young people connect with Kirk.
“He embraced his faith unashamedly, and I have to tell you, when our church started 13 years ago, Christianity was inherently countercultural. It would not be accepted in the general public discourse,” he said.
Howard said that when they started, the question was, “How can we make this message relevant to people? And how can we relate this to young people in a way they can grasp?”
“That is not the dynamic at all anymore. Today, the dynamic is bold, unashamed: there is salvation in Jesus, and the whole world needs to know, and we are not trying to ease you into it or slowly convince you towards it. It’s like this bold, passionate battle cry. There’s hope in Jesus. And the boldness and the fearlessness has come along with Gen Z.”
The church is operated in the heart of the city, which has a decidedly left-leaning culture. Young people of all ethnic backgrounds attend, with most coming from the University of Pittsburgh, Chatham College, Point Park University, and Duquesne University.
“These young people are rejecting an ideology that’s inherently against the idea of God. And so, somehow in interesting ways, that has crossed into what’s happening politically. But there in my church, there is very, very, very little conversation about politics. That’s not the conversation. The conversation is people need Jesus and a return to traditional ways of thinking about identity and relationships, and our place in the world, and what really matters in life,” Howard explained.
What drew them to Kirk wasn’t politics. Instead, it was upholding traditions such as marriage and not being afraid to thank God for their blessings, said Howard.
“These young people are not afraid to get married and have children. It’s sort of a return to what really matters in life. And I’m seeing that all across the board with younger people. And people want a sense of meaning. People want a sense of belonging,” he said, adding, “people want purpose.”
Last August, he saw a movement at the University of Pittsburgh when a Christian organization started a chapter with hundreds of students participating.
“Add to that you’ve got these Pitt football players who are bold about their faith in Jesus, who are planning this huge event this coming Thursday. And there is this resurgence of young people wanting Christianity. And I’m looking back in just honest amazement,” he said.
“The wave has been rising. And I think that the assassination of Charlie Kirk just reinforces some of these core values. And I think that it is going to be a catalyst in that direction for sure,” he said.
The Sanctuary wasn’t the only congregation to be filled to the rafters. My tiny little country Catholic church was packed in the aisles and at the door. People across X posted photos of their families going to church either for the first time in a long time, for the first time ever, or seeing their own pews filled with people seeking purpose and finding resolve.
Howard said this return to faith may not be just about Kirk, adding that not everyone at their services agreed with all of his politics.
“But the one thing that everyone is agreeing on is his boldness about his faith in Jesus,” he said.
Before Kirk’s death, there was this sense that if you talked about your faith, there would be guaranteed backlash, explained Howard.
“You see this politically. Well, it’s similar when it comes to faith, where it’s like, if I’m open and honest about what I really believe, I will be called a bigot. I will be called hateful. I will be called an enemy of love, and I will be sidelined, and I’ll be persecuted. And that has been the reality for the last 20 years,” he said.
“Well, now what you’re seeing is people who are saying, I don’t care. I’m going to be bold and unashamed,” Howard said.
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“These kids have a light that pierces through the darkness, and that can actually change what’s wrong in our world,” Howard said.
“And this is our moment.”