On Monday, Ashtyn Weight went looking for a church.
“I am looking for recommendations on church to attend!” she posted on a Gillette, Wyoming, “rants and raves" Facebook page. As of Friday, dozens of commenters had ventured recommendations.
Weight told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday text message that she’s always been a “believer” and a follower of God, but she drifted away from attending church as she grew older, letting “excuses get in the way.”
She enjoyed watching late conservative icon Charlie Kirk because he often shared his faith, she said.
“After learning about his passing, I, like many others, experienced a spiritual awakening,” wrote Weight. “While I had never stopped believing, I had become a lukewarm Christian. I want to do better, not only for myself, but also so my relationship with God can be an example for my children as they grow in their own faith.”
She’s trying out churches starting this Sunday.
The Increase
Many churches across Wyoming saw an increase in attendance after Kirk was shot and killed Sept. 10, while speaking to students at Utah Valley University.
Among nearly all of the church leaders who spoke Friday with Cowboy State Daily, even those who don’t attribute their attendance swells to Kirk’s death, or didn’t note an influx at all, said the vibe at their services changed last weekend.
Preston Ackerman, one of the pastors at Rock Springs Evangelical Free Church, said he saw new faces when he preached Sunday evening – and noted a higher-than-usual Sunday traffic spike on the website that day.
Ackerman attributes that not only to Kirk and his outspokenness about his faith, but to the mass broadcast of Kirk’s death.
“Because of the gruesome nature of it, and because so many witnessed it just from their phones, I think it was shocking,” said Ackerman in a Friday interview. “And any time death is brought before somebody, they start to ask deeper questions.”
This was the United States’ first high-profile assassination displayed fully in a video on social media platforms, he noted.
The Associated Press also found that worth discussing, in a Sept. 11 story contemplating legacy media outlets’ “fading grip” on information in the social media age. Traditional media outlets were careful not to show the video in full, the story noted, but “it mattered little” in the end.
To Ackerman, the new Charlie Kirk effect is that non-Christian conservatives are now asking “what compelled Charlie” to be so bold, in the face of disagreement and vitriol.
And that may be driving them to church.
The mood was grief-stricken on Sunday but not defeated, Ackerman added.
“It was somber but not a hopeless somber,” he said.
He linked his sermon to Kirk briefly toward the end, as he preached from a Psalm 119 passage characterizing God’s word as a “counselor” to which broken-hearted people can run.
Up In Jackson
Matt Mumma, associate pastor at the non-denominational, “Bible-preaching” Cornerstone Church of Jackson, Wyoming, said he saw an attendance influx – of tourists.
Attendance was down to around 100 or 120 adult congregants and less than half as many kids the week before Kirk’s death. And it bumped to around 140 adults, plus a matching ratio of kids the weekend after, said Mumma.
“Being in a touristy area, (there were) more just out-of-town visitors than normal,” he said. “It seemed like people in town during that week who were not sure what to do or what to think showed up.”
This is a phase of the year where tourist visits to the church would normally be waning, Mumma added.
The church’s lead pastor discussed Kirk’s death, said Mumma.
The sermon was a “picture from heaven,” from Revelation 15, on what it’s like to be martyred for one’s faith, he added.
‘Revival’
Scott Muller, minister at Christian Church of Riverton, said attendance didn’t surge Sunday, but he knows of people still traveling or out sick.
“I have a feeling a bunch of people will be there this weekend,” he said. “I definitely think (the shooting) sparked a revival across the nation.”
Muller pointed to a Facebook post by state Rep. Joel Guggenmos, R-Riverton, who urged against hating those who’ve celebrated Kirk’s death.
Guggenmos referenced the killing of the first Christian martyr on record, Stephen, and how the man who’d become the Apostle Paul then watched in approval.
The vibe Sunday was “a little bit” different, said Muller. Some people seemed bolder about their faith. Some seemed angry, he added.
The Shakeup
Marty Crump, pastor at Family Life Church in Gillette, said he noticed some angst in his community from congregants who complained that their churches didn’t address Kirk’s death Sunday.
“That’s not a reason to leave a church,” said Crump. “That’s something you should sit and talk to your pastor about before you just get up and leave.”
The issue has made people passionate, and Gillette people are often passionate in the first place, Crump noted.
Crump addressed Kirk’s death briefly Sunday, he said, adding that the man’s death was personal to his church because Kirk spoke there around the year 2019.
Sunday was “really full,” but Crump can’t attribute that to Kirk’s death, necessarily, since it was the church’s 40th anniversary service and celebration, he said.
Crump encouraged attendees to pray for those “on both sides” of this issue, he added.
A Busload of Catholics
Similarly to Crump’s church, the Cathedral of Saint Mary in Cheyenne had a Sunday influx but doesn’t attribute it to the Sept.10 incident.
Pam Watkins, administrative assistant, told Cowboy State Daily the total number of the weekend’s Mass services was up by about 66 from the one-weekend count from the prior month.
A “whole busload” of tourists who happened to be Catholic rolled through town last weekend, and that increased the tally, said Watkins.
Father Steven Titus at Saint Matthew’s in Gillette didn’t notice an influx either, but he did encounter grief at Mass last weekend, he said.
Titus didn’t go into graphic detail when he preached, but he referenced a “violent death” and the recent Catholic school shooting in Minnesota.
And he stressed “the need for prayer and faith,” he said.
Lutherans In The Southwest
Jonathan Lange, Missouri-Synod Lutheran pastor in Evanston, said he didn’t see an attendance uptick Sunday, but “people were highly interested in the church addressing the matter.”
“They wanted to talk,” he added.
Many congregants view the Kirk event as generationally significant – comparable to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Lange said.
No Change Here
At the Christ Episcopal Church in Cody, Kirk’s death didn’t prompt a noticeable change, church secretary Virginia Schmidt told Cowboy State Daily.
The church is “concerned with all deaths” but not as prone to be thrown into revolution by Kirk’s, she said, adding “the Episcopal church is very social-justice aware and oriented in general.”
Kirk was critical of what he called the transgender movement. He was also openly critical of race-based and race-influenced hiring, as well as racial and social justice movements.
“Of course (his death is) a tragedy,” said Schmidt. She added: “I hope if more people are going to church, that will bring more peace into our communities and our country.”
Over The Years, Though
Erica Jensen, public affairs specialist at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Cheyenne, Wyoming, East stake, said there was no significant change Sunday.
“Just a regular church Sunday for us,” said Jensen. Over recent years, however, more young people have been “turning to Jesus Christ,” she said.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
