{"id":170438,"date":"2026-02-26T19:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170438\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T19:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:40:15","slug":"turning-point-usa-erika-kirk-postpones-orlando-stop-of-tour-following-reported-venue-controversy-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170438\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning Point USA, Erika Kirk postpones Orlando stop of tour, following reported venue controversy | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TPUSA<\/p>\n

The postponement comes amidst reports that Orlando’s First Baptist Church\u00a0pastor,\u00a0Chris Ogden,\u00a0is allegedly being put on administrative leave after a disagreement\u00a0with three head pastors’ decision to host the tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joseph Wiedeman<\/p>\n

Turning Point USA\u2019s Orlando stop of its\u00a0\u201cMake Heaven More Crowded\u201d tour, which was set to host Erika Kirk at a local church,\u00a0was scheduled for Wednesday\u00a0before being unexpectedly cancelled at the last minute amid reports of ongoing issues in the church’s leadership.<\/p>\n

The postponement came just one week before the organization and its CEO, Erika Kirk, were set to appear at Orlando\u2019s First Baptist Church. The event was scheduled for Wednesday\u00a0at 6:30 p.m. and had a goal to \u201cpack the house<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tour’s website<\/a> calls it a \u201cgospel-centered gathering calling people to repentance, faith, and bold obedience to Jesus,\u201d and is being held in honor of Erika Kirk’s late husband and\u00a0the organization’s founder, Charlie Kirk. The postponement of the Orlando stop leaves the tour with 17 stops.<\/p>\n

The tour started\u00a0in Los Angeles on Jan. 21\u00a0and is\u00a0set to end in Phoenix on Dec.\u00a019 for this year’s America Fest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the addition of Orlando, the tour page also lists an additional 18 stops to be determined.<\/p>\n

“The tour is a good message. As a Christian, we are called to bring people to heaven, to have a relationship with Christ,” said David Brandt, sophomore business major and president of UCF’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom.<\/p>\n

The Orlando stop’s postponement comes amid reports from Baptist News<\/a> that the pastor of First Baptist\u2019s Horizon West campus, Chris Ogden, was allegedly\u00a0put on administrative leave following an internal disagreement regarding the tour’s booking at the church’s main campus.<\/p>\n

\"TPUSA<\/p>\n

Turning Point USA’s “Make Heaven Crowded” tour was set to make an appearance\u00a0at Orlando’s First Baptist Church on\u00a0Feb. 25.<\/p>\n

Joseph Wiedeman<\/p>\n

According to Baptist News, an apology video was posted to the First Orlando YouTube page by Chris Ogden on Feb. 14, but has since been deleted.<\/p>\n

First Orlando<\/a> is led by three pastors, David Uth, Danny de Armas and Trey Hildebrant, and was set to be the fourth\u00a0host of the tour.\u00a0First Orlando’s website\u00a0states it is home to a congregation of 14,000 that believes \u201caccepting the Bible to be the very word of God” and that as people we must come to “understanding the importance of knowing and obeying its truths.”<\/p>\n

“The definition of the church leaders’ job is to bring people to Christ,” Brandt said.\u00a0“That’s pretty disappointing that they tried to have the tour cancelled and not held there, but it’s unconfirmed reports and I think it’s bad to make theories off unconfirmed reports.”<\/p>\n

The Charge reached out to Pastor Ogden, along with the First Orlando Ministry, with multiple inquiries both prior to and after the tour’s\u00a0cancellation, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

\"TPUSA<\/p>\n

The original scheduled path of Turning Point USA’s “Make Heaven Crowded” tour.\u00a0The event was set to appear in Orlando on Feb. 25, but was postponed\u00a0due to disagreement within Orlando’s First Baptist Church leadership.<\/p>\n

Joseph Wiedeman<\/p>\n

The tour has already faced some controversy for having Pastor Greg Laurie as a speaker and hosting its inaugural event within his ministry at Harvest Church.<\/p>\n

The conflict comes from a recent slew of lawsuits filed against The Harvest Christian Fellowship, saying that for years the church failed to stop ongoing abuse by some of its senior members, according to the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I used to be a part of it and a huge supporter of it. Charlie was the person I would watch for everything,” Brandt said. “To see that go downhill, not fast or in a catastrophic way, but just downhill at all, it’s pretty sad.”<\/p>\n

The Charge reached out to UCF\u2019s chapter of Turning Point USA on numerous occasions for comment regarding both the tour and the cancellation of the Orlando stop, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

Currently, there have been no new updates about a new date or location for a potential Orlando stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The postponement comes amidst reports that Orlando’s First Baptist Church\u00a0pastor,\u00a0Chris Ogden,\u00a0is allegedly being put on administrative leave after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[115,139,141,140,99],"class_list":["post-170438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}