The Gaylord Opryland Resort was packed with Christian leaders, broadcasters, and activists when Lucas Miles took the stage Friday morning at Israel365’s Israel Rising strategic briefing. Miles, Senior Director of TPUSA Faith and lead pastor of Nfluence Church in Indiana, didn’t sugarcoat what he’s seeing on the ground.
“There is a massive, massive divide when it comes to evangelicals — especially young evangelicals — on this issue of Israel,” he told the packed room.
Miles has as good a vantage point as anyone. As the head of TPUSA Faith — which he described as potentially “one of the single largest Christian nonprofits in the history of Christendom” — he works daily at the intersection of conservative politics and Christian faith, shepherding a generation that is simultaneously surging in religious interest and deeply confused about where Israel fits into that picture.
Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, Executive Director of Israel365 Action, who was moderating the panel, had framed the issue sharply: despite a striking surge in conservative and biblical values among young Americans, the Israel piece isn’t gaining the traction it should. Miles confirmed it.
But he was also careful to draw a distinction that frustrates many in the pro-Israel community. Turning Point USA is a big tent movement, he explained, built to maximize conservative votes. In that framework, Israel is a secondary issue — not because it doesn’t matter, but because the goal of the coalition is to unite Americans on the economy, the border, the Constitution, and the founding documents. “As much as it pains me to say it,” he added, “their Christian faith is a secondary issue in that regard as well.”
Miles was direct about where he personally stands. “My position on Israel is not squishy. It’s not squishy at all.” The moral case for Israel, he insisted, is black and white with zero gray area. The late Charlie Kirk, he said, understood this intuitively — he could argue for Israel theologically, morally, and practically, and was never going to be pro-Hamas.
The challenge Miles is describing is real and it isn’t new, but he may be one of the few people in his position willing to say it plainly to a room full of pro-Israel Jews. The current evangelical awakening — whatever its ultimate staying power — has so far been more focused on domestic cultural battles than on the ancient covenant connecting the Christian world to the Jewish people and their land.
Miles believes the answer lies in persuasion, not purity tests. “I want to win them over,” he said. “In the marketplace of ideas, I’m going to stand up boldly and win them with logic, reason, good theology, prayerful thought.”
It’s a gap that Israel365 has made its mission to close. The evangelical world is clearly stirring — but stirring toward Israel is not automatic. It requires exactly the kind of work Miles described: patient, persistent engagement inside the spaces where this generation is actually forming its convictions.
Two arguments in particular need to be made — and made effectively. The first is theological. For Christians who take their Bible seriously, the return of the Jewish people to their land is not a geopolitical curiosity. It is the fulfillment of prophecies that run from Genesis through the final pages of the Hebrew Bible. A generation rediscovering biblical faith cannot afford to treat Israel as an afterthought. The two are inseparable.
The second argument is strategic. Israel is America’s most reliable ally in the most volatile region on earth. At a moment when the Middle East is being reshaped, when Iran continues to arm its proxies, and when the United States is reassessing its global commitments, a strong Israel is not a foreign policy preference — it is a national security imperative. Young conservatives who care about America’s strength and sovereignty need to understand that Israel’s fight is America’s fight.
Israel365 is working to make both of these cases where it matters most: with the next generation of evangelical leadership. Its Young Leader Fellowship brings promising young evangelical leaders into direct relationship with Israel and the Jewish people, equipping them to carry a credible pro-Israel voice into their communities and platforms. Its Conservative Influencer trips to Israel take young conservative voices on the ground — not for a sanitized tour, but for an unfiltered look at the country and the people on the front lines. When young Americans who shape opinion actually stand in Israel, the abstraction disappears.
The Israel Rising briefing, held at the close of the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, was designed to give Christian leaders a direct, unvarnished look at what Israel is doing in the Middle East and why it matters. Friday morning’s session made clear that the Jewish state has plenty of friends in the evangelical world. The work now is to make sure the next generation knows why that friendship is non-negotiable — and acts like it.
