Latest / The Alex Marlow Show / The Battle for America: How Christians Can Win w/ Pastor Rob McCoy & GCU President Tim Barton

Transcript

The Battle for America: How Christians Can Win w/ Pastor Rob McCoy & GCU President Tim Barton · The Alex Marlow Show

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Today we continue my series with Christian luminaries, and I've
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: got two of the best in this episode. First, Pastor
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Rob McCoy, Charlie Kirk's pastor, just a wonderful human being.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: He gave one of the most riveting and important speeches
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: at Charlie's memorial, and they are so close in many ways,
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  Speaker 1: but he also has a lot of insight and wisdom
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to add beyond his connection to Charlie, and just an
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  Speaker 1: all-around great guy, one of my favorites. And then we
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: also have a gentleman that you should get to know
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: named Brian Mueller, who is the president of Grand Canyon University.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: which is working to mainstream and normalize Christian education at
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  Speaker 1: a wide scale. And trust me, this is going to
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: be something you're going to want to hear about if
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  Speaker 1: you have kids of college age or could one day
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: enter college, or you just want to keep an eye
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: on people who are actually putting their minds to work
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: and putting their efforts in to try to make our
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  Speaker 1: education system salvageable, which it isn't right now. Higher ed
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  Speaker 1: has become a disgrace. This is a major exception, and
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  Speaker 1: they're doing it in the name of Jesus Christ, our
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  Speaker 1: Lord and Savior, which is just fantastic. This is a
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  Speaker 1: super impressive person. That's the intro. It's going to be
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: two great interviews.
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  Speaker 2: Check it out.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor McCoy, first of all, is there anything I can,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: what do you work on?
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  Speaker 3: Call me Rob.
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  Speaker 2: Rob.
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  Speaker 4: I like Rob.
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  Speaker 1: You've become more familiar to people for good reason, your
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: connection to Charlie Kirk. I want to explore that with you.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: But first of all, can you share what you're working
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: on or what you're.
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  Speaker 2: Doing these days that people should know about?
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  Speaker 5: American Pastors Guild, APG. And it's not like TPUSA Faith.
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  Speaker 5: What it is is it's membership only, and it's a
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  Speaker 5: guild of pastors who are pastors over a congregation. And
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  Speaker 5: the mission statement is equipping America's pastors to contend with
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  Speaker 5: the greatest enemies of the church and of the nation.
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  Speaker 3: So Islam, secular progressivism, that stuff.
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  Speaker 1: You built up a huge congregation in my neck of
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  Speaker 1: the woods, in Thousand Oaks, California. I grew up in
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  Speaker 1: the San Fernando Valley area, and I live just north
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  Speaker 1: of there.
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  Speaker 2: Now, what was that like? Because that's a good part
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: of the L.A.
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  Speaker 3: Area, it is.
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  Speaker 2: But it's still the L.A. area.
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  Speaker 3: It's South Ventura County, right on the border of North L.A.
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  Speaker 6: County.
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  Speaker 2: Right, right. So give me a little insight in the process.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I was candidating.
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  Speaker 5: I was asked to come and candidate for the church.
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  Speaker 5: That was in 2001, and there was like 50 people
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  Speaker 5: in the church.
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  Speaker 3: It looked like a mortuary. And I took it over.
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  Speaker 5: First church I pastored as a senior pastor. And watched
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: it go from 50 to about 1,500, 2,000. Stayed open
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  Speaker 5: during COVID. I was mayor of the city. I ran
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  Speaker 5: for office.
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  Speaker 3: Got elected.
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  Speaker 5: So that's what connected me with Charlie. I remember when
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: I ran into him at a conservative.
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  Speaker 3: Radio conference in Ontario.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: He goes, I didn't know a guy like you existed.
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  Speaker 3: And I go, what do you mean? He goes, a
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  Speaker 3: pastor in politics.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I go, I didn't know a guy like you existed.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: And he goes, what do you mean? I go, young conservative.
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  Speaker 3: And we both laughed. So we became friends.
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  Speaker 1: It did feel like a love at first sight thing
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: because it was like you guys were, when I would
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  Speaker 1: speak to him about you and it just seemed like
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that he was almost like he was the long lost
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  Speaker 1: son of yours.
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  Speaker 3: He was precious. Yeah. You know, I won't cover this,
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  Speaker 3: but I, Unless we're interviewed, I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: This is it. Okay.
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  Speaker 2: This is the thing. I can flip that if I
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  Speaker 2: need to.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, you know, I would find myself like 3
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  Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning crying after he was murdered.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And it wasn't because I was sad.
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  Speaker 5: It was because I was so grateful to have had
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  Speaker 5: the privilege to meet a man like that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: And what he did for my family, I could live
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  Speaker 5: 10,000 lifetimes and never repay him.
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  Speaker 3: And he called me his pastor.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I called him my friend, but, you know.
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  Speaker 5: why he would call me as pastor sometimes was beyond
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  Speaker 5: me because he, first of all, he wasn't a good congregant.
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  Speaker 3: He was in church three times and they were all
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  Speaker 3: to speak. Now, now he did tithe.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: Um, but, but he ran with guys like Alan Jackson and,
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: and Jensen Franklin. And, and so I, he called me
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  Speaker 5: as pastor for one reason. I was the first church
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  Speaker 5: to invite him to come and speak.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 5: And I'll never forget when I invited him, we had,
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  Speaker 5: I think 11 states in nine days during Trump's second campaign.
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  Speaker 5: And I wanted to get to know him because my
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: son Mikey was a big fan of his.
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  Speaker 3: And I heard he was a Christian.
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  Speaker 5: And I started watching his videos because of my son's suggestion.
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  Speaker 5: And we got connected through Liberty when they wanted to
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  Speaker 5: do the Falkirk Institute. And it was just serendipitous how
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  Speaker 5: we connected. But traveling with him in those nine days.
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  Speaker 3: I realized three things bring a guy like that down. Gold, glory,
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  Speaker 3: and girls.
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  Speaker 5: And it wasn't about money to Charlie. I witnessed this
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  Speaker 5: time and time again. I go into detail about it.
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  Speaker 5: And then girls, his relationship with Erica was so above standard.
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  Speaker 3: It was incredible. And then Glory, he always deflected compliments.
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  Speaker 3: It wasn't about him.
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  Speaker 5: It was always about the person he was in front of.
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  Speaker 5: And so I just, I was moved by that. And
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  Speaker 5: so I didn't want to add to his schedule. I
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  Speaker 5: would travel with him at my own expense. just to
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  Speaker 5: schlep his bags and help him out. And in the
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  Speaker 5: course of that, I knew we had a Sunday open,
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  Speaker 5: and I invited.
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  Speaker 3: Him to come and speak. I said, but you don't
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  Speaker 3: have to, but you're welcome to. He goes, I don't
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  Speaker 3: speak in churches.
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  Speaker 4: I go, why?
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  Speaker 3: He goes, churches don't want me. I'm too political. I've
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  Speaker 3: never spoken in a church. And at the time, I
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  Speaker 3: was the mayor of the city. I go, Charlie, I'm
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  Speaker 3: the mayor of the city.
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  Speaker 5: I'm the pastor of the church. And I remember I
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  Speaker 5: said to him, I go, Charlie, if God didn't want
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  Speaker 5: us in politics, he wouldn't have invented marriage.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, wow.
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  Speaker 3: And he laughed. That's so funny.
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  Speaker 5: But I also, you know, because I'd been taking the
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  Speaker 5: Hillsdale online courses, and Charlie hadn't done that yet, and
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  Speaker 5: he didn't know where I was getting my stuff from,
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: and I wasn't going to tell him because the minute
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  Speaker 5: you tell Charlie what you know, not only does he
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  Speaker 5: take everything you have, he immediately becomes an expert in
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: it because he'll read books you would never even contemplate
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  Speaker 5: picking up, and he would do it in a night.
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  Speaker 5: And so this part I was holding from him, and
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  Speaker 5: I used a line I learned from Dr. Larry Arnn where,
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  Speaker 5: You know, politics is the highest form of community. It
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  Speaker 5: combines morality with sociability. And he was intrigued by that.
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  Speaker 5: I said, Charlie, this is exactly where you're supposed to be.
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  Speaker 5: And that Sunday, and I had been with him at
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  Speaker 5: that point probably 50 times while I was speaking, small groups,
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  Speaker 5: large groups. And that Sunday, we're in the wings waiting
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  Speaker 5: for the announcements to conclude.
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  Speaker 3: And then I'm going to introduce Charlie. He's going to
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  Speaker 3: come out. And he's shaking.
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  Speaker 6: He's shaking.
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  Speaker 5: And I'm thinking, are you all right? Do you need like,
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  Speaker 5: are you having a sugar low or what's going on, man?
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  Speaker 5: Because I've never seen like that.
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  Speaker 3: I was worried about him. And he goes, I'm nervous.
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  Speaker 3: I go, what are you nervous about? He goes, I've
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  Speaker 3: never been behind a pulpit. He had such a reverence
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  Speaker 3: for the things of God.
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  Speaker 5: You know, people say thank you for, you know, discipling
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  Speaker 5: Charlie or whatever compliment they give me. The reality of
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  Speaker 5: it is, if he called me his pastor, I could
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  Speaker 5: write a book about that would be the things.
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  Speaker 3: Charlie Kirk taught his pastor.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: The reverence he had.
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  Speaker 5: And when he stepped out that Sunday in his grasp
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  Speaker 5: of the Bible and application with illustration, he hit the
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  Speaker 5: ball so far out of the park, it's still going.
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  Speaker 5: And Jack Hibbs, who I adore, I call him the
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  Speaker 5: Pope of Protestantism, he called me on Monday after that Sunday,
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  Speaker 5: not knowing Charlie had spoke. And he invited me to
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  Speaker 5: come and speak at his church. Now, when you get
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  Speaker 5: invited to speak at Jack Hibbs' church, you've arrived.
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  Speaker 3: I'm like, wow.
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  Speaker 5: And it was a great blessing to me. But I
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  Speaker 5: knew I couldn't do that. I said, Jack, you don't
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  Speaker 5: want me. You want this guy that just spoke on Sunday,
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  Speaker 5: Charlie Kirk. He goes, I hear he's political. I go,
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  Speaker 5: listen to Sunday's message. And Jack's busier than a one-armed
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  Speaker 5: wallpaper hanger. And to his credit, he listened to the sermon.
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  Speaker 3: And he called me. He goes, let's have him. And
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  Speaker 3: Jack put him on a launching.
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  Speaker 5: Pad that sent him through the stratosphere to the point
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  Speaker 5: where at the end of Charlie's life, on his homecoming,
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  Speaker 5: he'd probably spoken in over a thousand churches, I'm assuming.
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  Speaker 5: And so he could have called Jack Hibbs his pastor.
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  Speaker 5: He could have called Jensen Franklin and Alan Jackson, all
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  Speaker 5: these guys, his pastor.
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  Speaker 3: But he called me because he was loyal. And to
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  Speaker 3: his credit, we did interact.
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  Speaker 5: And we were close. And then he asked me to
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  Speaker 5: officiate the wedding for he and Erica.
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  Speaker 3: He was an amazing man.
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  Speaker 1: I did a series last week where I interviewed a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of people closest to Charlie, including your son, Mikey,
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  Speaker 1: who is phenomenal.
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  Speaker 2: So I love doing that.
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  Speaker 1: And it's interesting to see the consistency in people's reflections
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  Speaker 1: on him and what he was about. And the loyalty
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  Speaker 1: factor came out a lot. The other thing that came
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  Speaker 1: out a lot is him seeing something in people that
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  Speaker 1: they didn't see in themselves. This is a huge, a rare,
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  Speaker 1: important leadership quality. I think President Trump has it. I
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: know Andrew Breitbart had it. When you can see in
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  Speaker 1: someone who is maybe, might look small on paper, that
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  Speaker 1: they are capable of great and glorious things, and you
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  Speaker 1: had already had all the success, but you still feel
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: like he saw that in you, which is so interesting.
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  Speaker 1: I know Mikey feels the same way. Tyler, his business partner,
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  Speaker 1: feels the same way.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I... There wasn't anything that maybe he saw in
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  Speaker 3: me that, you know, I'd already been there, done that,
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: got the t-shirt kind of thing. But where it really
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  Speaker 3: hit me, Alex, is with my son. You know, he's
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: my youngest of five. And I.
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  Speaker 5: Remember when I first had a conversation with Charlie at
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  Speaker 5: that radio conference, I wanted to get a video for
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  Speaker 5: my son because Mikey was such a big fan.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And it was prophetic. He goes, hey, Mikey, this is
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: Charlie Kirk. Hey, why don't you come work for me?
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: Take a gap year.
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: Well, Mikey ended up doing that later down the road.
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: I mean, it was probably sophomore, junior year, junior, senior year.
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: I can't remember that I got him that video. And then,
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: you know, he'd be working at shipping and receiving in
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: a windowless place.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah. you know, learning, learning from the bottom up. Sure.
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  Speaker 5: And then I remember the day that Charlie said, I
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: want Mikey to be my body man, which, you know,
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: which means.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: You're, you're arranging air flight, uh, flights and cars.
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  Speaker 2: And no, I did that.
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  Speaker 1: I was that role for Andrew, which is one of
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: the reasons why they are connected with Mikey so well
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: is because it's.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's exactly what I was doing.
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  Speaker 1: He was just five years younger because Charlie had the
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: eye for it.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: He did. Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: But, but when he told me that, cause I had
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: done that with Charlie for a season and, uh, There
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: was part of me like, Charlie, you're making a big mistake.
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  Speaker 5: Because a father sees in his son, he doesn't see
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  Speaker 5: a man soon enough. A son sees himself as a
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: man sooner than he is, but a father doesn't see
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  Speaker 5: it soon enough. And I said, Charlie, you're going to
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: get frustrated with Mikey, and you're going to be upset
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: with me. And he goes, I don't think so.
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  Speaker 3: I go, all right, man, do it.
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  Speaker 5: And, you know, of course there was going to be
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: an adjustment cycle, but he pulled out of my son.
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  Speaker 3: Things that were just amazing and abilities.
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  Speaker 5: And literally, Michelle and I would turn and look at
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  Speaker 5: Mikey and think, where did this man come from?
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: That was Charlie. And he always celebrated everyone's success. He
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: was never threatened by someone's success. We celebrated it.
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  Speaker 1: This is another one of those leadership qualities that's rare
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: and so beautiful is that the people who are the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: most successful really do root for the people around them.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Even President Trump, he's such an egomaniac. He loves when
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: other people around him succeed. And people miss this about him.
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  Speaker 1: He wants to succeed the most, but he doesn't want
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to take all of your credit. He wants all of
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  Speaker 1: you to do great.
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  Speaker 2: And this is a very wonderful, it's a hopeful message
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  Speaker 2: because we want a rising tide to lift all boats.
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  Speaker 3: Servant leader.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: A servant leader. We want that. And is that something
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: you're born with? Can you learn that? Can people in
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: the audience say that I want to be that person?
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Can you teach yourself that?
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: Well, you know, the scripture says if you want to
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: be great in the kingdom of God, be a servant
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: of all. So it's an exhortation to a believer. And
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: is what the scripture says.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: And Charlie was teachable.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, this is a guy that his success far
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  Speaker 5: exceeded anything I've ever accomplished. And I would say something
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: to him in an observation. And in a sense, it
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: may have been corrective or, you know, but it wasn't condemning.
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: It was just like, Charlie, you know, like let's say
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: as an example, we're at a restaurant, and he has
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: been greeting everybody, and he is just cooked, and he's
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: got nothing left in the bandwidth, and he's hungry. And
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: he is, you know, physically, he's exhausted. Right. And the
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: waiter will come up and he'll order, matter of factly,
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: and not look at them. And I always greet somebody
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: and ask them their name. And then, you know, he's
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: not rude. He's just hungry. And I turned to Charlie
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: and said, you know, we're all tired. But the person
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: who's closest to the heart of the Lord in a
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: restaurant is the waiter because they're servants. And the only
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: time people want to look at him or talk to
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: him is when they want something or are upset.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: And they're people. And he would then greet them by name.
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  Speaker 3: I mean.
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: He's been pouring himself out all day, but it's not
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: lost on him that this is a person who's tired, too. Right.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: And Charlie, he never got used to being served.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: He wasn't a diva.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: No.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: No, it's a very interesting thing is that I'm very
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: reluctant to have people do anything. I find that sometimes,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: I know some of my staff, if they watch this,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: they'll joke that sometimes I request an assignment.
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: It's an assignment.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: They've got to do it.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: But I'm like, please, would you please do this for me?
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: You're going to do it, but I like to ask
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: you to do the thing that I do need you
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: to do and you have.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: To do it.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: It's just because it is uncomfortable just to boss people around.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: So I want to talk a little bit about the
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: aftermath of his death. You had an absolutely moving, maybe
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: my favorite speech of the memorial, which was the greatest
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: memorial in the history of memorials.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: Unbelievable.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I don't even understand it, how something so incredible could
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: come together like that.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: Of course I do.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: It was Turning Point, Charlie's organization, put it together.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: It was also the Lord blessing his servant.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: So this is what I want to talk to you about.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: What do you draw on in those moments? Because your
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: message was one of the most uplifting as well. This
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: was basically a.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Part of your family and who had gotten taken from us.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: It was not just someone who was a business associate
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: or someone who you admired from TikTok videos.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: It was someone who was a deep part of your
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: life in your son's life.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: And You managed to have the most uplifting message imaginable.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: It comes straight from the Lord, but I want you
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: to share some of what you're thinking.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: So Charlie, at the end of June, so he was
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: asking me to do Turning Point Israel, and I'd gone
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: over there in June to scout out the area. And
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: at the end of June, I was becoming pastor emeritus
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: at Godspeak, and my son-in-law was going to take over
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: the church so that I could do that.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: And Charlie, he spoke at my retirement. And I call
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: it retirement. I'm Pastor Emeritus.
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: And it's interesting to sit. And it was like, for me,
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: almost like an obituary. Like he's reading my obituary. And
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: he actually said that at the beginning of it. But
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: to sit and hear someone speak of your life from
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: their vantage point. And.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: I was just taken aback by it.
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: And on that day when he was murdered, it was
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: almost one of those things like he faced a death
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: threat continually.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: And everybody, you know, is cautious. But Charlie never operated
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: with fear. And he would go into the most insane places. Yeah.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: Because the old adage, a missionary goes where he's not
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: loved but needed and leaves when he's no longer needed
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: but loved. He would go because he was committed to
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: that generation. Call them the lost boys of the West,
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: 18 to 30 year olds. And he'd go and contend
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: with truth. And he built turning point on nothing more
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: than the spoken word. He loved the word logos. From
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: chaos to order. Reason, logic, debate. And they would say
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: that he He bartered and hate speech. It's just not true.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: They just hated his speech. So he's gone.
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: And I didn't think I'd be invited to speak. I
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: wasn't an employee of Turning Point. I know that he
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: called me his pastor, but he was always just my friend.
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: And I was surprised and a little overwhelmed when they
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: invited me to come and speak. And they wanted me
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: to present Christ at the opening. They wanted to make
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: that the main aspect of it. And Alex, I'm not
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: an evangelist. I mean, I'm a minister, but I'm not
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: like the guy that can fill stadiums and it's not
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: my wheelhouse.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: I can do the work of an evangelist. I know
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: the point of it.
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: And as the time's approaching and everyone's telling me the
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: immensity of it and what's going to occur. And it's funny,
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: all these people are calling me saying, I've got a
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: word from God that you're supposed to share. And I'm
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: thinking to myself with all these different people calling me that,
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: you know, was God bipolar?
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: What's wrong with God? He's chaotic. And after a while,
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: I just shut off the phone. And even my family
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: is like, you've got to write down what you're going
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: to say because I don't write stuff down.
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: And they were saying, you've got to write it down.
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: And I would sit and look at this notebook. And
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: the time is rapidly approaching. And my daughter, my oldest
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: daughter comes up to me and she gives me a
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: passage out of the Scripture which says, You'll be brought
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: into the court of kings and before Gentiles. And in
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: that moment, you won't know what to say, but God
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: will make intercession.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: And I had a piece. The only thing I wrote
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: down was Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby. And I got
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: that wrong. The rest of it was from my heart,
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: from my friend. And I.
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: I never thought that I would be speaking at his funeral.
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: I never thought I'd witness that in my lifetime because
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: he was such a presence in our culture that you
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: never think he's going to go away.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: And that's our goal is to make sure he doesn't
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: go away.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: That's what I realized that day. God doesn't make mistakes.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: I mean.
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: what, in 4% of all Trump's speeches, did he ever
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: use PowerPoint?
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: It was always indoor.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: It was always at the end of his two-hour speeches.
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: And Charlie could have had, you know, bulletproof glass that
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: he refused. But, you know, Trump turned for that slide
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: seven minutes into his speech and the bullet grazed.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: God can do anything. And I'm not like, oh, there's
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: no way to stop this.
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: You prepare and you do everything in your power.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: But there was a point where for Charlie it was surrender.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: I've got a job to do and I'm going to
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: do it. And he would say stuff like, I'm immortal
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: until God takes me home. And really, his mind was
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: always eternal.
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: And the proof of the fact that he was the
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: most misunderstood missionary in America is that early on when
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: I first met him, I think he was probably 24,
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: you'd go on campus with him and it'd be Charlie,
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: a handful of us, and a sea of detractors. And
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: the vitriol and the ad hominem attacks and they would
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: throw stuff.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: And it was scary. It was scary. And at the
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: end of his life, it was.
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: Charlie, a handful of folks, and a sea of red hats,
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: and they were chanting his name. And he's surrounded, and
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: it seemed at that moment he was about to just
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: conquer everything.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: And then he's gone. From the time he started Turning Point,
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: I saw the calculation at 18 to when he was
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: murdered at 31. take everything and every view on the
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: internet and, and one sum total number of views and
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: production of everything he was ever posted on the internet.
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: And that's some number from the time of his murder
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: to today, which is a little over a year.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: All the views here multiply this previous number by 10
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: and over a billion people have seen his memorial service
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: more than a seventh of the earth. And, and, As
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: I travel, and I despise social media. I've got over
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: 70,000 followers on Instagram, and I don't post. I'll repost
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: somebody's thing.
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: And Charlie used to say, you need to be more present.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: I go, Charlie, I don't want to do that. I
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: have no interest.
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: And any followers I have is because somebody else posted
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: for me. So, you know, I just travel, and I'm
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: in front of people. And as I travel this country,
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: the number of folks that come up, And say, I'm
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: a Christian today because of Charlie Kirk. Or young folks saying,
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: I never knew who he was when I started watching
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: his stuff and it's.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: Changed my life. And it's countless. Countless. Innumerable. And the
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: hardest part for me was it.
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: Was probably the largest altar call in world history. And
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: I'm not the guy, but he saw fit to have
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: me do whatever I did. But the part that gets
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: me is the Sunday after his murder, Charlie went on
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: campus and he gave all these young people a Christian
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: worldview on Islam, transgenderism, immigration, you name it. He gave
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: them a Christian worldview. And they weren't all followers, but
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: they understood the position. And he articulated it with reason, logic.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: He's murdered.
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: These kids flock to his teachings, embrace his Savior, show
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: up at church that Sunday. And the lion's share of
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: the pastors in America not only wouldn't address the topics
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: Charlie did every day, they wouldn't even invoke his name.
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: And they would join in on the lies that he's
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: a racist. I'm saddened for the church in America. There's
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: been 10 revivals in American history. A revival is where
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: there's a large number of people coming to Christ. Not
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: all have ended in an awakening. An awakening changes the culture.
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: So the first great awakening, Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Mayhew, Ducey,
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: George Whitefield.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: They were.
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: all educated with a Christian worldview. Not just evangelism, but
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: a Christian worldview. And they created the freest form of
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: government ever formed. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: were all preached from the pulpits on the eastern seaboard
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: before they were ever written.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: You can study all this. It's all available.
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: University of Houston, 36% of the quotes of the founding
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: fathers was the Bible, number one source.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: Number one book of the Bible they quoted, Deuteronomy, because
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: they looked for a constitutional republic and the children in
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: the wilderness.
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: My point is this, every great revival ended in an
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: awakening in America until 1870. In 1870, it switched from
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: discipleship where you're taking a news aggregate like Breitbart and
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: you're dealing with every issue your neighbor's dealing with because
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: you love your neighbor more than.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: Yourself, Matthew 22.
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: And Matthew 28, teaching them to obey all that I've
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: commanded you, making disciples of all nations. So this news aggregate,
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: it's as though the ministers would teach what the Bible
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: had to say on every issue. that the neighbors in
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: their community are dealing with and give them a Christian worldview.
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: That's what they did until 1870. In 1870, it was
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: a disconnect and it became about evangelism.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: That's not the Great Commission. They say go into all
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: the world and make converts, make disciples. And so it's
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: a lot easier.
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: I avoid politics because I want people to raise their
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: hand to receive Christ. So it's like a spiritual gigolo.
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: You go into town, birth all these babies and you
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: don't raise them, right?
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: Charlie raised these kids. He discipled them.
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: And when they came to the church with this desire
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: to grow in their faith, the one responsible for them
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: being in that building, and the largest segment in the
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: Christian church in America today as a result of Charlie,
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: 18 to 30 year old males.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: And these pastors still don't get it. We don't do politics.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: We just preach the gospel. That's Gnosticism. Charlie saw politics
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: as the highest form of community. He was amazing. Nobody
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: liked him in my lifetime.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I find that my politics strengthen my faith. I
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: don't know why they have to be separate. And I
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: did walk out of a church the week after Charlie died.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: It wasn't my main church. I'm a Catholic, and it
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: was an evangelical church. And they were kind of mealy-mouthed
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: about Charlie, and some people thought he stood for hate. No,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: that was on the moment for you to stand up.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: So he did not stand for those things.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: So I've got two questions left for you for the
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: time being, but I would love to catch up with
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: you more often. But the first one, I've been asking
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: all the ministers who I've spoken to today, and I'll
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: do so for the rest of the conference. The church
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: feels we need a strong church. And I don't think
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: every church gets that message that now is the time
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: for strength. There's pandering that goes on to some of
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the worst elements of society. I assume you echo that,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: but I want to hear your thoughts. cake on how
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: do you have a strong church and i know that's
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: what charlie saw when you invited him that was an
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: act of strength even though you felt very secure in
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: your beliefs that was an act of strength to say
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: come speak at my church why is that lacking in
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: america right now from.
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: The churches because pastors think that peace is the absence
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: of conflict peace isn't the absence of conflict even jesus
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: said i didn't come to bring peace but a sword.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: The sword of truth.
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: So so they they They've idolized evangelism, meaning I don't
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: want to take on tough topics because it may hinder
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: somebody receiving Christ. So it's like a used car salesman.
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: I don't want to tell you all the bad stuff.
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: Let's just get to the sign the contract. And it's
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: supposed to be reverse. You know, Jesus put the tough
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: stuff in front. And so pastors, they're not shepherds, they're hirelings.
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: And they want to be liked. And they don't want conflict.
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: And they.
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: Breitbart used to say, politics is downstream from culture. The
• 28:05
  Speaker 5: church should be driving culture.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: Instead, they're adapting to it. They put their finger in
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: the air and see where the wind's blowing. And that's
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: why they didn't like Charlie. Because you couldn't even find
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: a parachurch ministry on a campus that was more effective
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: than Charlie's.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: We'd go there and they weren't anywhere to be found.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: They would just sit in a Barca lounger and complain.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: And I love the adage, Only a carpenter can build
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: a door, a barn door. But any donkey can knock
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: it down.
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: Charlie built the largest conservative youth movement in the world
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: and the largest parachurch ministry probably in America. And he
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: did it on the spoken word. And he did it
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: by truth. And all these folks that have come after him,
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: all they do is deconstruct and unravel loose threads. And
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: the only thing they build is their bank account. And
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: they do it at the expense of the man who
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: built all this. They're just donkeys knocking stuff down.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: So how do we keep his coalition? How do we
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: keep them with both the church community and the conservative movement?
• 29:06
  Speaker 5: The beautiful thing about it is the more I travel
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: this country, the more I see these kids realizing, and
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: they've seen a modern-day martyr. And it's going to take,
• 29:12
  Speaker 5: so they've got the zeal, they've got the passion, they're
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: gaining the knowledge, but now they're going to need experience.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: Charlie grinded on these campuses.
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: They're going to have to get bested on a campus
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: where they don't have the answers They have to figure
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: out what you do when someone beats you at your
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: own game. They're out there right now. These young people
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: are out there right now grinding it. And they're learning.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: And they're out there. But Charlie has just been exponential.
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: Reproduced. Right now they're just getting what I call their
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: BSD degree. Their backside of the desert.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: Because you've got to put in the time. And these
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: young people are doing it. And I'm meeting them everywhere.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: And they're fearless. They're fearless.
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: They have witnessed a modern day martyr who believed in
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: his faith so much that before the eyes of all
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: of America, his life was taken and he died with
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: a smile on his face. And these young kids are like,
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: I'm in. I'm in. I have great hope for this
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: country because of that man and because of this next generation.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Pastor Rob McCoy, it's such a pleasure.
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: Alex, for me too, man, you rock it. Honestly, and
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: God's my witness, I read Breitbart. Every single day.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: You'll love to see it.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: All right, Brian Mueller, president of Grand Canyon University. Thank
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: you for stopping by, having a conversation with me. We're
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: at the Culture and Christianity Conference, and you're going to
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: be talking about, I think, how faith, education, how they're intertwined.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: But your school really feels like it's been on the
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: map in a really unique and new way over the
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: past couple of years. Have you seen a big growth
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: in applicants? What's drawing people to Grand Canyon University?
• 30:55
  Speaker 6: Well, in 2008, the university was almost closed. It was
• 30:58
  Speaker 6: less than 1,000 students. It was $ 20 million worth of debt.
• 31:01
  Speaker 6: And the buildings had been built shortly after World War II.
• 31:04
  Speaker 6: We came in with a whole new strategy. We wanted
• 31:06
  Speaker 6: to make higher education, Christian higher education, affordable to all
• 31:10
  Speaker 6: socioeconomic classes of Americans. And that involved going to the
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: public markets. So we went to the public.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: Markets to get access to capital.
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: And the idea was that we were going to build
• 31:20
  Speaker 6: out this large online program, this large ground program, and
• 31:23
  Speaker 6: leverage a common infrastructure, flip the economics of higher education,
• 31:27
  Speaker 6: make it affordable for everybody. Make it less expensive than
• 31:29
  Speaker 6: a state university. And very honestly, it worked out way
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: better than we thought.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: So has anyone tried to replicate that model?
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Because it feels like this is the first I'm hearing
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: of anyone try that.
• 31:40
  Speaker 6: Not in exactly the way we did it. Liberty has
• 31:42
  Speaker 6: some similarities with what Liberty does a little bit. Yeah,
• 31:45
  Speaker 6: but not with the exact way we've done it. But
• 31:48
  Speaker 6: it's been very honestly more successful than we could have anticipated.
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: People ask me, did you see all this coming? We
• 31:53
  Speaker 6: have now 25,000 students on our campus.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: We have 120.
• 31:56
  Speaker 6: 10,000 students studying online. We have 50 locations throughout the country.
• 32:00
  Speaker 6: And honestly, we had a plan, but I could have
• 32:02
  Speaker 6: never predicted this.
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: Amazing.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: What was your background before teaching?
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I was a high school teacher and basketball coach
• 32:10
  Speaker 6: for seven years. And I was a small college basketball
• 32:13
  Speaker 6: coach and professor for seven years. And then I ended
• 32:16
  Speaker 6: up at the University of Phoenix, and I ended up
• 32:18
  Speaker 6: running the place. We built it to 400,000 students using
• 32:21
  Speaker 6: the Internet.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
• 32:22
  Speaker 6: And then Grand Canyon called in 2008, and I thought, well,
• 32:26
  Speaker 6: maybe we've learned some things that we can use to
• 32:28
  Speaker 6: build a Christian university that can be extremely impactful.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you said the magic word, which is Christian.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: And so you guys have different values in terms of
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: what you're trying to share with your students, which I
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: think is another huge advantage, aside from the business angle
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: of it, is just.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: The brand itself.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: It is a comfort to, I think, a lot of
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: families who are afraid that they're going to send their
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Christian children off to college and they're going to learn
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: how to not be Christian, which would kind of defeat
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: the whole purpose of sending them to college.
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: Oh, you hit the nail right on the head.
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: During Welcome Week every single year, you'll see on our campuses,
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: license plates from every state in the country. They come
• 33:02
  Speaker 6: from every state in the country. And I get stopped
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: by parents after orientation. They're so grateful that they raised
• 33:09
  Speaker 6: their son or daughter in the church for 18 years.
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: And they don't have to worry that.
• 33:13
  Speaker 6: That's all going to get stomped on and pushed aside
• 33:16
  Speaker 6: and ridiculed when they go to college. And then they
• 33:18
  Speaker 6: come back in four years, their parents don't even know
• 33:19
  Speaker 6: who they are. And that is a big driver of
• 33:23
  Speaker 6: what's driving the growth. Our goal is to grow the
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: campus out to 50,000 students. And The way things are
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: going right now, that's absolutely going to happen.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Do you think that the campus can sustain that growth,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: or do you feel like you could do satellites perhaps?
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: It sounds like you're already doing that to some degree.
• 33:37
  Speaker 6: Yeah, the campus in Phoenix is for 18-, 19-year-old students,
• 33:40
  Speaker 6: leave high school, go to college, spend three or four
• 33:42
  Speaker 6: years on a college campus. And that will grow to
• 33:45
  Speaker 6: 50,000 students. And then we've got 110,000 students studying online.
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: And then we're building hybrid campuses throughout the country for
• 33:53
  Speaker 6: students who can't go back as an 18-year-old, but what
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: they need to learn can't be learned totally online. And
• 33:58
  Speaker 6: so some can be learned online, but the rest has
• 34:00
  Speaker 6: to be learned in a physical brick-and-mortar laboratory. So nursing,
• 34:04
  Speaker 6: occupational therapy, health-related areas is what we're doing in those
• 34:08
  Speaker 6: hybrid campuses. And we'll have 80 of those in the
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: next three or four years, and each have about 600 students.
• 34:13
  Speaker 6: And so what's happened is... The traditional campus for traditional
• 34:18
  Speaker 6: age students is growing. The online campus is growing. The
• 34:21
  Speaker 6: hybrid campuses are growing. But we're leveraging a common infrastructure.
• 34:25
  Speaker 6: One president, one provost, one set of deans, et cetera.
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: So that flips the economics of higher education. The scale
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: makes it possible for us not to have raised tuition
• 34:33
  Speaker 6: on our campus in 18 years. Our students are paying
• 34:36
  Speaker 6: less in tuition than the average state university student. And
• 34:39
  Speaker 6: we put $ 2 billion into the campus. And so now
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: it's the 20th ranked campus in the country. So when
• 34:44
  Speaker 6: parents come out and say... boy, my son or daughter
• 34:47
  Speaker 6: can experience this, and for not going in a lot
• 34:50
  Speaker 6: of debt, it becomes a.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: So what differentiates the education, once you're in the classroom,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: from what you're doing versus another top-tier, just sort of
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: liberal arts university?
• 35:00
  Speaker 6: Well, the Christian worldview perspective is integrated through every single
• 35:03
  Speaker 6: one of our colleges, all of our programs, and over 50%
• 35:06
  Speaker 6: of our courses. There are two things that we integrate
• 35:09
  Speaker 6: across the curriculum, the Christian worldview and free market economy
• 35:14
  Speaker 6: and free market thinking. Those are the two ideas that
• 35:17
  Speaker 6: produce more prosperity in the world than any two ideas
• 35:21
  Speaker 6: combined in the history of the world. And those two
• 35:23
  Speaker 6: things are not being taught in college classrooms, in 95%
• 35:26
  Speaker 6: of college classrooms. And we need to raise up now
• 35:30
  Speaker 6: a generation of young people who understand where all this
• 35:34
  Speaker 6: prosperity came from.
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: And it's those two ideas.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like that there's been a, what do
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: you think, is the growth more attributable to that you
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: work to make it affordable or to the fact that
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: our university system, as it continues to get more expensive,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: it just does feel so removed, not just from Judeo-Christian
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: values and American values, but also even excellence. It does
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: not feel like it's fostering an environment where a lot
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: of these major universities, where you get a degree from there,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: you get a piece of paper from those schools, it
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: doesn't equip you to do anything in the real world
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: unless you did one of the hard sciences. It doesn't
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: make a difference anymore.
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: You hit on it. It's the Christian worldview perspective.
• 36:15
  Speaker 6: It's free market thinking and the business plan that created
• 36:18
  Speaker 6: this thing so.
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: That it's affordable. But it's the.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: I lost my train of thought. It's the... I'm.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: Talking about excellence. Oh, yes.
• 36:33
  Speaker 6: We built all this basically in the last 15, 16 years.
• 36:37
  Speaker 6: So we're adding a minimum of 20 new academic programs
• 36:40
  Speaker 6: every single year. So when we started, we had three
• 36:43
  Speaker 6: colleges and 100 programs. Today we have 12 colleges, over
• 36:46
  Speaker 6: 400 programs. They're designed with 22 advisory boards and 800
• 36:51
  Speaker 6: companies on those advisory boards. We want to make sure
• 36:54
  Speaker 6: that our students are the best-equipped students in the country
• 36:58
  Speaker 6: to step in the workforce with modern skill set and
• 37:02
  Speaker 6: make an impact. We can't change the culture by crowding
• 37:06
  Speaker 6: into our churches. We need to crowd into our churches
• 37:08
  Speaker 6: on Sunday morning. But the only way to change the culture,
• 37:11
  Speaker 6: I believe, is to change the culture of the workplace.
• 37:14
  Speaker 6: And so we want every one of our graduates to
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: feel like they're being called into a sacred vocation. Whether
• 37:19
  Speaker 6: they're an engineer, a computer scientist, they go into the arts.
• 37:23
  Speaker 6: I think we've told students too many years that if
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: you really want to serve Jesus, you've got to go
• 37:27
  Speaker 6: be a pastor.
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: We need pastors.
• 37:28
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 37:29
  Speaker 6: But we need to impact every sphere of our culture,
• 37:32
  Speaker 6: every sphere of our society. We graduated 35,000 students last
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: year and put them out into the workforce, believing that
• 37:39
  Speaker 6: they need to go to take the gospel into the workforce,
• 37:42
  Speaker 6: change the workplace, change the culture of where people spend.
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: Most of their time.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: See, this is so profound because I come from a
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: worldview living out in Hollywood and starting a media website
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: with Andrew Breitbart almost 20 years ago. The whole point
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: is we've got a lot of people on talk radio.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: Of course, I'm on talk radio now.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: But it's really that we don't have anyone in the media.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: We don't have anyone in the culture. No one's making
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: conservative art, Christian art. And then now it feels like
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: we're starting to get some momentum in that regard. Education
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: is another example where we just sort of opted out
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: for a while, and you're saying you can't opt out.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: You've got to grab it with both hands and say, no,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: we're going to wrestle this thing. And so what are
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: the type of people who want to come work for you,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: who want to come teach at the school?
• 38:22
  Speaker 6: When we started this explosive growth, people thought, how are
• 38:25
  Speaker 6: you going to find faculty, enough faculty to support this growth?
• 38:29
  Speaker 6: There are thousands of faculty members that are brilliant in
• 38:33
  Speaker 6: their fields that are working in secular institutions. They cannot
• 38:37
  Speaker 6: share their faith, and they want to do that. Think
• 38:40
  Speaker 6: back 300 years with the starting of universities in this country.
• 38:43
  Speaker 6: The Bible was the core textbook. You went to learn
• 38:47
  Speaker 6: about the world in the context of the truth about
• 38:49
  Speaker 6: the world, which is a narrative that exists in scriptures.
• 38:52
  Speaker 6: And there are thousands of people who know that that's
• 38:55
  Speaker 6: true and know that really to produce educated people, you
• 38:59
  Speaker 6: can't do it apart from the real truth about the world,
• 39:02
  Speaker 6: which is in Scripture. And so faculty has been not
• 39:05
  Speaker 6: a problem at all.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: So what do you feel like at this particular moment
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: in time? Is there any resistance you're getting? Is anyone
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: not like what you're doing? Or is it pretty much
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: everyone's excited to see this experiment?
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: Oh, no, the Biden administration came after us real hard.
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: They came after.
• 39:20
  Speaker 6: Us real hard because if we were a sleepy little
• 39:24
  Speaker 6: university with 2,000 students, they wouldn't care. But the explosive
• 39:27
  Speaker 6: growth and the impact that we're having societally, we've got
• 39:31
  Speaker 6: about 10 churches in central Phoenix where Grand Canyon University's
• 39:34
  Speaker 6: campus is that are filled with Grand Canyon University students
• 39:38
  Speaker 6: every Sunday morning. And I go to church in different
• 39:42
  Speaker 6: places because I know our students aren't going to be there.
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: And the pastors can see.
• 39:46
  Speaker 6: That if this continues, 80% of our kids, when they
• 39:49
  Speaker 6: leave come from a different state, they stay when they graduate.
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: And they're getting married and they're having children and they're
• 39:55
  Speaker 6: building careers. Our goal is to rebuild Central Phoenix and
• 39:59
  Speaker 6: make it an example of what big cities can be
• 40:04
  Speaker 6: if they're populated with God-fearing people who are taking important
• 40:08
  Speaker 6: positions in industry and in the government and in the
• 40:12
  Speaker 6: church and and understand the real truth about the world.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: This is a very helpful message.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: You're about to go talk right now at the Culture
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: and Christianity Conference here in Nashville.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: What's the message for this audience?
• 40:23
  Speaker 6: That we can't leave our young people to the playground
• 40:27
  Speaker 6: of these secular humanists who want to tell them that
• 40:32
  Speaker 6: what they learned in the first 18 years of their
• 40:34
  Speaker 6: life is not the truth. We've got to be able
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: to scale K-12 schools and scale schools.
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: Christian universities, and.
• 40:42
  Speaker 6: We've got to retake the minds and the hearts and
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: the souls of our young people if we want to
• 40:47
  Speaker 6: change the culture. And it's going to be very difficult
• 40:50
  Speaker 6: to do that without universities like ours.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: It's so right. So where do people start if they
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: want to get involved?
• 40:56
  Speaker 6: Just go to our website, gcu.edu, and there's all kinds
• 41:01
  Speaker 6: of information out there. And, you know, we have students
• 41:04
  Speaker 6: coming from all 50 states. We have the fastest growing
• 41:06
  Speaker 6: honors college in America. We're building a new building. And
• 41:10
  Speaker 6: then we have a thing called Discover GCU. If you're
• 41:13
  Speaker 6: a high school junior or senior and you want a
• 41:15
  Speaker 6: free trip to Phoenix, if you meet the admissions requirements,
• 41:18
  Speaker 6: which are rigorous, then we will give you a free
• 41:20
  Speaker 6: trip to Phoenix, and you can spend time on our
• 41:23
  Speaker 6: campus and get to know what the university is.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: Sounds like you've got a thought of everything.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: Grand Canyon University, Brian Mueller, the president, really nice to
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: speak with you. Congrats on all the growth, and keep
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: me posted on how it's going.
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: Thank you very much.
• 41:37
  Speaker 6: Thank you.