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For Pastor David Engelhardt, Charlie Kirk wasn’t just a national figure — he was a friend, disciple and man whose faith fueled his public mission and private life.
“Charlie was a man of incredible strength. His name, Charlie Kirk, means strong church, and I always told him, ‘Charlie, you strengthen churches all over the country…’” Engelhardt said while paying tribute to the slain conservative activist on Thursday.
“He wasn’t shy about his faith. He wasn’t avoidant, afraid that it would offend people. That’s why he’s a hero, because he was courageous, and he wasn’t demeaning to other people about their position, but he was a strong man of faith.”
OPINION: CHARLIE KIRK DIED AS HE LIVED: BOLD, UNASHAMED AND ANCHORED IN FAITH
Charlie Kirk speaks on stage ahead of a conversation with then-vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance during Turning Point Action’s Chase the Vote campaign event at Generation Church in Mesa, Arizona, on Sept. 4, 2024. (REBECCA NOBLE/AFP via Getty Images)
The two first met in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kirk challenged Engelhardt to reopen his church.
The pastor claimed his church became the first in New York to reopen its doors — a step that, he said, Kirk encouraged pastors nationwide to follow in defense of truth and freedom.
CHARLIE KIRK WAS PROUD CHAMPION OF CHRISTIANITY ON CAMPUSES NATIONWIDE: ‘I’M NOTHING WITHOUT JESUS’
A general view of a wreath laid by mourners outside the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria on Sept. 11, 2025 following the assassination of U.S. youth activist and influencer Charlie Kirk while speaking during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. (PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images)
Now, after the Turning Point USA co-founder’s shocking assassination on a Utah college campus on Wednesday, Engelhardt mourns with others in Kirk’s close circle – people who say he changed their lives and the lives of others for the better.
“Heroes are hard to come by. We don’t have many heroes these days and Charlie was a hero who was courageous. He was a sacrificer, he was a leader, and he stood for truth.”
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That courage, he added, bore lasting results: “That is what produced, I think in part, such a beautiful fruit of Turning Point USA and the hundreds of thousands of young people that have been so deeply impacted by it.”
Kirk’s death saddened, enraged and disturbed many, and has inspired a slew of tributes and messages of sympathy.
On Thursday afternoon, authorities released photos of a person of interest who remains on the loose.
