Christ Kirk DC Inaugural Service: Wilson's CREC Denomination Plants in Capitol Hill Building Owned by Conservative Partnership Institute; Hegseth and Solheim in Pews

Opening

On July 13, 2025, Doug Wilson’s Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) denomination planted its first Washington, DC congregation — Christ Kirk DC — in a building on Pennsylvania Avenue owned by the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), a few blocks from the Capitol. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attended the inaugural service with his wife and children. Nick Solheim, head of american-moment — the JD Vance-linked conservative-staffer pipeline, was also present. The inaugural sermon, delivered by Jared Longshore (associate pastor at Christ Kirk Moscow, Idaho), declared: “We understand that worship is warfare. We mean that.”

What Happened

Pastor Longshore delivered the inaugural sermon to an audience of at least 120–200 people (sources vary; standing room only) in a small, non-air-conditioned room decorated with an upside-down American flag above the pulpit, a Gadsden (“Don’t Tread on Me”) flag, and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag on the walls. Longshore praised the Department of Government Efficiency, argued that “Christendom” founded America, and asserted the nation has become “fallen” by drifting from Christian roots. His framing — “politics is downstream from culture, and culture is religion externalized” — is standard Wilson-network post-liberal Reformed doctrine. On protesters outside: “We love it. What feels like crazy to you is actually normal stuff from the land of the free.”

The CPI-owned building connects the church plant directly to Trump administration infrastructure. CPI partners include organizations founded by Russell Vought and Stephen Miller; the institute is co-led by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Senator Jim DeMint. Wilson himself framed the DC plant as capitalizing on “strategic opportunities with numerous evangelicals who will be present both in and around the Trump administration” (Wilson’s May 12, 2025 blog post, “A Mission to Babylon”). The Christ Kirk Moscow associate pastor Joe Rigney confirmed the DC expansion was in planning before Trump’s second term but was accelerated by the influx of “theologically and culturally aligned” families entering government service.

Hegseth’s presence was the most visually loaded element: children whispered excitedly when he entered, and he was surrounded by supporters on exit. Hegseth is a documented CREC-affiliate — his family attends Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship (CREC) in Tennessee, and his children attend Wilson-network classical Christian schools. His Pentagon has hosted CREC-adjacent religious events, including a May 2025 prayer service led by his own pastor, Brooks Potteiger.

Why This Event Matters

The Christ Kirk DC inaugural is the denominational-beachhead moment for Wilson’s Reformed Christian nationalism inside Washington. It is not merely symbolic: the physical location inside a CPI building places Wilson’s network in the same institutional spine as Vought’s Center for Renewing America, Miller’s America First Legal, and Meadows’ CPI — the organizations that wrote and staffed Project 2025. Hegseth’s presence signals cabinet-level validation. Solheim’s presence signals the American Moment staffer-pipeline connection to Wilson’s network that has been documented since October 2021.

Wilson’s framing — a “mission to Babylon” — is theologically precise: it invokes postmillennial Reformed reconstructionist language in which Christians are called to reform civil institutions from within, not withdraw from them. The upside-down flag and the “worship is warfare” sermon language signal confrontational rather than accommodationist intent: the congregation is being assembled not for quiet influence but for cultural capture.

Broader Context

The DC plant is the downstream of at least four years of deliberate Vance-adjacent institutional bridge-building: american-moment hosted Wilson at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in September 2023; Solheim recorded a podcast with Wilson in Moscow, Idaho in October 2021; Wilson and Vance shared the NatCon 4 stage in Washington in July 2024. The Christ Kirk DC inaugural converts those episodic shared platforms into a permanent denominational infrastructure. Wilson stated in May 2025: “This is the first time we’ve had connections with as many people in national government as we do now.”

The CPI building is the institutional convergence point: a Hegseth-attended CREC church service is conducted inside the same real-estate footprint as Vought’s and Miller’s organizations. The Catholic-integralist and Reformed-postliberal lanes of the Christian-nationalist coalition, which operate distinct denominational substrates nationally, are sharing physical infrastructure in Washington.

Research Gaps

• Full attendee list beyond Hegseth and Solheim — which other administration officials or Hill staffers were present?
• Whether Wilson himself delivered remarks at the inaugural beyond Longshore’s sermon
• CPI lease terms and duration — is Christ Kirk DC a permanent tenant or a one-time venue?
• Ongoing Christ Kirk DC membership and service schedule post-inaugural

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