Show notes
In this episode, Nathan Spearing sits down with Uri Brito, Presiding Minister of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC)—the denomination that includes leaders like Doug Wilson and Pete Hegseth. Together they reflect on the recent martyrdom of Charlie Kirk and what it means for Christians today. The conversation covers how men, families, and churches should respond in times of national upheaval: from worship and discipleship to marriage, child-rearing, and public witness. Pastor Brito lays out practical steps for raising sons and daughters in the faith, building strong households, and engaging publicly with boldness. They also discuss why young men are drawn to Orthodoxy, the need for strong Protestant voices, and how social media can be used strategically for kingdom work. Follow Uri Brito on Twitter/X: https://x.com/uribrito The Perspectivalist by Uri Brito (The Perspectivalist for regular essays, culture commentary, and pastoral reflections:) CREC (Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches): https://crechurches.org Sing Your Part - Establish Your Church's Singing Culture - https://singyourpart.app Nathan’s website: www.Spearing.co Want to go deeper? Join the Tactical Household private group—a community for building resilient, capable families. Access at TacticalHousehold.com and use code LifeOnTarget for 10% off Timestamped Outline [00:00:00] Opening Intro: reformation, Protestant tradition, and the example of Charlie Kirk.Nathan welcomes Pastor Uri Brito. [00:02:00] Current Events & Sabbath Convictions Uri shares about being invited to Charlie Kirk’s funeral on a Sunday and why he declined.The importance of keeping the Lord’s Day holy even during public events. [00:03:00] Why Nathan Reached Out Nathan recalls hearing Uri on rites of passage and the importance for military dads and churches.Connecting Charlie Kirk’s ministry to the absence of true rites of passage in American culture. [00:08:00] Uri’s Background Pastor in Pensacola, doctorate from Reformed Theological Seminary.Commitment to training pastors, political theology, and household economy.Father of five, invested in homeschooling and Christian education. [00:10:00] Responding to Charlie Kirk’s Martyrdom Nathan asks: “What are we supposed to do now?”Uri stresses application: worship, discipleship, household faithfulness, and public action.Martyrdom always produces multiplication in church history. [00:14:00] Lessons from Charlie Kirk’s Life Charlie’s rhetorical gifts, boldness, and courage.Martyrdom as a call to examine apathy and complacency in men. [00:16:00] First Sphere: The Church Recommitment to worship, catechism, and modeling faith for children.Martyrdom as a call back to faithful participation in local congregations. [00:18:00] Second Sphere: Household Leadership Men: get married, take responsibility, provide for families.Fathers must disciple their children directly, not outsource to wives or schools.Masculine education: setting rituals, rhythms, and rites of passage. [00:20:00] Third Sphere: Public Witness Engaging the local community: trash cleanup, confronting drag events.Example of Uri’s congregation planning a Psalm sing against public sin in Pensacola. [00:22:00] Balancing Household and Public Duty Nathan asks about prioritizing wife/kids vs. public action.Uri explains the church-friendly family model: spheres are interconnected, not isolated.Distinguishing between practitioners and poets in the church. [00:28:00] Worship and Singing as Warfare The importance of masculine, bold singing in congregational life.Tools like the Sing Your Part app to train families.Psalms of lament as appropriate response to tragedy. [00:33:00] Denominations, Coalitions, and Online Engagement Why denominational fights shouldn’t distract from bigger cultural battles.Need for coalitions like Charlie Kirk built.How online debates differ from face-to-face fellowship. [00:39:00] Poets and Practitioners Uri’s framework: poets (philosophers) and practitioners (doers).Why the church needs both — and why each must learn from the other. [00:41:00] The Lure of Orthodoxy and Catholicism Why young men are attracted to ritual and structure.Uri calls Eastern Orthodoxy a “mirage of the ancient.”Protestantism’s true fruits: Reformation, Puritans, and Western cultural achievements. [00:55:00] Building Protestant Stability Protestant tradition offers truth, beauty, and goodness when lived faithfully.Need for more bold Protestant voices online and in media. [01:00:00] Using Social Media Wisely Why almost everyone should be online (with a few exceptions).Poets and practitioners working together.Practical playbook: start with Scripture, add quotes, then strategy.Do things well: good tools, quality production, accountability. [01:06:00] Closing Thoughts Social media as service to Christ and His church.Encouragement for men to act decisively under church authority.Uri departs for an adoption ceremony; Nathan closes with thanks and blessing. Transcript: Uri interview shotgun: [00:00:00] Click. Click. Uri Brito: There’s a beauty to the reformation and to the Protestant tradition that needs to be reinstilled in the hearts of people. And it’s true. We need more gifted YouTubers. We, uh, somebody who provides a greater vision of Protestant than Gavin Orland, you know, who does a fine job, but we Nathan: Amen. Uri Brito: a, a much richer Protestant tradition than what’s what he’s offering there from a tradition that doesn’t compromise in political matters. So that’s, that’s what I’m saying. And I think these, these, these are appearing, they’re taking place, they’re showing up. uh, this is the season I think the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk, I hope, will stir up 100 dormant voices to, to get out there and proclaim this, this vision that I’m proposing. Nathan: Pastor welcome Uri Brito: Hey Nathan, how are you? Nathan: Living the dream. Uri Brito: Hey, there you go. By Nathan or Nate. Nathan: Uh, either my mother called me Nathan, and I feel [00:01:00] like it’s slightly more biblical, but in the military they, they like to truncate to single syllables, Uri Brito: Oh, I imagine, I imagine Nathan: realized my office door was open and there is a sometimes joyful music being produced and sometimes not so joyful music being produced in the household. So Uri Brito: that’s a productive household. Looks like, sounds like, Nathan: always endeavoring to be. Uri Brito: Man. I am. Um, you know, I just got back from Brazil and um. these decisions I have to make. I just got a call from T-P-U-S-A, they gave me sort of VIP seats to go to the, the Kirk funeral. Nathan: Oh, wow. Uri Brito: um, but it’s on Sunday morning. It’s just, uh, I I don’t understand that at all. So I, Nathan: I saw that, um, announcement and, um, the, the CREC has work to do still when I see stuff like that. Uri Brito: I know. Yeah, me too. I feel the same way. Uh, so anyhow, so I’ll be here and I’m, so God knows what he’s [00:02:00] doing. ’cause I came back from Brazil with a little bit of a cold and uh, in fact I still have a little bit of a cold now. But, uh, other opportunities will arise. Nathan: Amen. Pastors face the, the struggle to honor the Sabbath just like the rest of us. Uri Brito: Exactly. We have a couple of Series C churches in the area that have afternoon services. Nathan: Mm-hmm. Uri Brito: And, um, that may have worked well, but I just, I’m just, I feel just convictions in that regard. Anyhow, you can tell it’s been in my mind last, uh, 12 hours. So I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit. Nathan: Absolutely. I, um, I reached out to you and scheduled this, I think three or four weeks ago. Um, and, uh, none of what has happened in the last week or so has, was, had transpired. So I kind of originally. Reached out. I listened to a podcast I think he did a couple years ago about rites of passage and how you did that in your [00:03:00] household. And I was like, I gotta talk to this guy about this. ’cause that’s something, we’re a predominantly special operations community, so it’s something that the dads here, um, I think as I look at the landscape, do very well in the discipling of their children. And then, you know, tying that to some, some pretty masculine activities. Um, and so, but I think the, the, the flavor of, of what I wanted to talk about changes a little bit. I think it does go back to that because Charlie was speaking to these young men that hadn’t been spoken to, hadn’t been, uh, hadn’t gone through a rite of passage, if you will, or had, had been going through a rite of passage that, um, the government gave them. I talked to a friend about it with being the. Driver’s license or graduating high school or things like that, that the government tells these young men, they’re, they’re entering a new phase necessarily, but the church is not. Um, so I guess, you know, maybe [00:04:00] give people a little bit of background about who you are and then maybe we can jump into that. Um, and I got a couple bullet points, but I, I, I don’t have a whole lot of structure. I’m, I’ve told people that I, I started a podcast ’cause if, if you call somebody up, a wiser, older man that, um, you want to talk to and you say, Hey, can we jump on a phone call? You can kind of sound like a weirdo, but if you got a podcast, it’s a little bit easier to, to get to talk to the men. So that’s kind of been my, my strategy is, is it gives me a little bit of access to men that I wanna learn from and then, uh, allows others to maybe tag along. And my son usually edits the podcast, so at least he gets to hear. Uh, what these men are saying as well. So I, my edification and then my son’s edification and that’s enough for me. And if everybody else gets it, so be it. Uri Brito: That’s great. I, I love all, all those things. ’cause I think that’s the, nature of it, you gotta do it. The conversations need to happen and they, it’s [00:05:00] really remarkable to see that will visit our congregation here in Pensacola and they have been, listen to something i I podcast I did seven, eight years ago. I, I literally, Nathan have absolutely no recollection of anything. But uses all these, little fragments to pierce the souls of a lot of us, a lot of good saints. And, uh, they learn from it. So I’m grateful. Nathan: Yeah. Maybe I can get you to get our, our pastor on social media. He refuses. Um, I think that’s, that’s maybe the, uh, faithful using of the, of media has been something I’ve, I’ve kind of preached, uh, locally and, you know, I’ve had people. Join our congregation because of my construction business’s Instagram. And I try to, I try to give people the option to follow as much of Nate as they want to. So if they want to just see my professional construction work, they can. But it’s a pretty easy hop to find my wife and I, um, and what we’re doing and, uh, [00:06:00] you know, but, but I, at the same time, I, I, I wouldn’t want my pastor to go off the deep end. And I, I, I get a lot from, from what he, he does. I don’t think he would, ’cause he is a wise man, but maybe, maybe we’ll get you linked up with him about, about putting out the podcast. What some of the men in our church have taken the liberty to just start recording him and putting out stuff, uh, the sermons. And we, we do have a live stream that is, that goes out, but starting to kind of try to get a little bit more of, of what he’s putting out mostly for our own church. I think that’s the thing that’s missed too, is that. Church members are sick or tending to something like that, that they, they actually honor the Sabbath, but they legitimately have something happen that is, uh, emergencies type stuff that can go back and listen and, uh, as well. So anyway, I’m this, we’re not gonna, we’re not gonna change my pastor’s mind in this, this talk. Uri Brito: Yeah. Well, I mean, just for the record, I, I suspect that, [00:07:00] uh, you know, Spurgeon and his manuscript, they were obviously were very prolific and, uh, we, we gained from Spurgeon, I think when Spurgeon died, we were years or four years from the first recordings that occurred. Nathan: Hmm. Uri Brito: And so, um, but I mean, think about how much we’ve gained. I suspect he would’ve easily, or, or, or Martin Lloyd Jones, right? The minister of Martin Lloyd Jones, or, I suspect he, every generation people have recorded their thoughts, not because they thought they were. Significant or special, but because they thought that what they had to offer was gonna benefit their immediate community. And, um, and, and then I realized the responsibilities that are placed on UND seasons of national chaos. And, um, I think, you know, we’ve, I think we had seven or eight visitors that came because of my articles on, on Facebook, on the, on the, on the, the Kirk situation. People are listening and people are gaining their data in the nine, in the 19th century through the national [00:08:00] newspaper that was coming out in the Netherlands. Right. That’s how Abraham Kiper got involved in these kinds of things. today, the, the medium is what it is. Anyway, I’m talking too much. I, I have a, I enjoyed his footnotes. Nathan: Yeah. Yeah. So give a little bit of background of geography, family, um, maybe a little bit of, of how you came to this point for, for context, and we will, we’ll, uh, dive in to some of those other things. Uri Brito: Yeah, I am, uh, pastor Uri Brito. I received my, my. My doctorate from Reformed Theological Seminary and Pastoral Theology, years ago. And so much of my work has been geared towards training pastors to think, theologically liturgically, but also politically as well. I have, um, I, but I always make the case very clear that the true politics begins in the worship of God’s people, and that overflows to the politic of the, of the home. even the word household means [00:09:00] ika comes from ika, which means the economy of the home. So there’s, there’s an economic structure that is very much part of the world that God created. the question for us is not so much do we engage ourselves in these economic structures of the home, of the church or the state. The question is how do we steward these economic structures the, this exchange of not only, uh, currency, but the exchange of ideas is something that I’ve been very much, uh, geared towards. I have, uh, five kids, all of them are, um, either homeschooled or go to a local classical Christian school. I have spoken in homeschool environments. I’ve spoken in classical school environments. So my commitment has been very much to the, to the blessing of indoctrinating our, our youth and our young ones through biblical education and also encouraging parents to take on that remarkable task. And I think Nathan, part of this larger conversation you and I are having, uh, stems from how do we, how do we handle then the, the gifts that God has given [00:10:00] us in our home, uh, namely our children? And that’s what I’m, I’m very eager to talk about this morning. Nathan: Awesome. Yeah, I, um, I, I guess the. I asked my pastor, we, we had a, uh, um, you know, the incident with Charlie, the assassination with Charlie happened, uh, Wednesday and we have Wednesday midweek prayer service. And I was on a, uh, spaces on X for a little bit talking about it and, you know, what are they gonna do? And I said, I’m, I’m gonna do what I do every week, uh, on Wednesday, and let’s go to church and pray with the saints. And, you know, obviously, um, everybody, uh, was in a, in a different state depending on where they were and what their station was in life. But that, that touchpoint of, of being in the sanctuary of the Lord, being on our knees and, and praying and um, having that ritual was anchoring to me. Um, [00:11:00] and, you know, I load my five kids up and go to pray. And, and some of the people we’re talking about, you know, in these, these spheres about how that. And they, and they didn’t mean it disrespectfully, but they talked about how th…
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