Flag Family News’ Chris Larson’s interview with Victory Lutheran Brethren Senior Pastor Shawn Bowman
GLENDALE, AZ – A Jamestown pastor was one of 200 members of clergy to attend Charlie Kirk’s memorial service on Sunday in Glendale, Ariz.
The process
Shawn Bowman, who serves as Senior Pastor at Victory Lutheran Church in Jamestown said he was invited to the event as a part of Turning Point USA Faith, the arm of the organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk that ‘exists to serve the American church by resourcing Christians across the nation to boldly stand for truth, liberty, and The Kingdom.’
Bowman said that he initially thought the e-mail from the organization was a ‘big mass email to thousands of pastors all over America.’
“I was like, is this a joke? Are you sending this to lots of people,” Bowman told Flag Family Media. “Kayla Cross, the regional director, said ‘No, you’re one of very few. In fact, we’ve only invited 200 pastors to sit up front.”
After speaking to Cross, he informed his board at church of the opportunity.
“One of the gals on my board, the next day, called me and said, ‘Pastor Shawn, I couldn’t sleep all night long. You better call her and see,’” he said. “I said, ‘Well, they gave my position away hours ago. There’s thousands of people who’d love to jump in there.’”
Lo and behold, after contacting Cross, Bowman found himself buying plane tickets and heading to Arizona.
Overwhelming, moving service
He called attending the service ‘overwhelming.’
“(I was) greatly honored that I could have the opportunity, and the blessing, to come down as a representative of North Dakota, of our church,” Bowman said. “I’m here to thank God for a man that was used to literally change the course of many things that were going wrong. He was able to move the dial to cause things to go in a right way.”
He said Kirk’s life ‘was really honored in a wonderful way.’
“It was an all-day worship service,” Bowman said. “(I’ve) never been to a funeral that long before or big, but it was incredible.”
He said the spirit could be felt within the walls of the arena.
“There were times where I would be sitting there and I’d start sensing something and the spirit of God would drop down upon me and this entire crowd,” Bowman said. “And I’d look around, there’d be people crying.”
He described the atmosphere at the moment Charlie’s widow, Erika, said she forgave the shooter that assassinated her husband.
“I just heard people sobbing around me,” Bowman said.
He said the spirit was ‘palpable’ throughout the hours long service.
“It made you want to be a man of God if you’re a man. It made you want to be a woman of God if you’re a woman,” Bowman said. “It made you so grateful to be in this nation and to be part of the greatest nation that’s ever existed on planet Earth. And it gave us a desire to do what God’s called us all to do, to be true to our faith and to love our neighbor and to do the right thing.”
People of all religions, types and causes gathered to remember the man Kirk was.
“I hope that they were touched by the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the thing that drew them there was the fact that this man loved people. He loved his neighbor,” Bowman said.
An increase in attendance
Victory Lutheran Church has seen an increase in attendance in the days since Kirk’s passing.
On the Sunday after Kirk’s assassination, Bowman preached about it.
Why?
“It’s because people are thinking about it and they need hope. They need encouragement,” he said. “You can most definitely lose parishioners if you are not dealing with the problems of the time. And we have seen an increase, but that didn’t just start with Charlie Kirk.”
Those times were when people were being swatted, arrested and attacked – over the last four or five years.
