How Dr. Myles Munroe’s Children Are Keeping His Legacy Alive

I did not quite know what to expect as I walked into the lobby of the Sheraton hotel in Fort Worth, Texas. I was there to interview Charisa Munroe and Myles “Chairo” Munroe Jr., the children of the late Dr. Myles and Ruth Munroe, who died together in a plane crash on November 9, 2014. Charisa and Myles Jr. were in Fort Worth for the Kingdom Summit conference hosted by Dr. Darrell Wilson of Acts International Church.

I had interviewed Dr. Myles Munroe twice, first in 2006 and again in 2013. His humility, wisdom, and infectious laughter had stayed with me, and as I waited for his children that day, I could not help wondering how much of the man I remembered I would see in them.

My thoughts disappeared when Charisa, Dr. Munroe’s first child and only daughter, and Myles Jr., his only son, approached me. They were warm and approachable, and whatever nervousness I had quickly faded.

Charisa bore a striking resemblance to her father and seemed to possess some of his commanding presence. Myles Jr., who reminded me more of his mother, Ruth, was quieter and more reserved.

I was especially interested in how these two young adults were coping after being thrust into unimaginable grief in the public eye. They had not only lost their father. They had lost their mother at the same time. And because their parents had touched lives around the world, they were grieving while countless people watched and wondered what would happen next.

We began our conversation.

Remembering Myles Munroe as Dad

May Oyairo: Your dad impacted so many lives around the world. The last time I saw him in person was during an international trip in 2013. I heard footsteps running toward the boarding gate while I was waiting for my flight and wondered who it was. To my surprise, it was your dad. No bodyguard. No aide. Just him, briefcase in hand and trench coat flying as he rushed to catch his flight. What do you remember most about your dad?

Myles Jr.: He was a people person, very humble and very modest. He greeted everybody with the same respect regardless of their status. He wasn’t judgmental. He was very compassionate, and he tried to give everyone his time.

Charisa: To lose one parent is almost unbelievable. To lose both parents is unimaginable. What I miss most is that before he was anything else, he was Dad.

People saw this intellectual icon on stage and probably thought he was serious all the time. But at home, he was like any girl’s daddy, and every girl needs her daddy. He and my mom were parents first. He knew how to be serious and how to switch roles.

I think that matters because some ministers become so consumed with ministry that they push their families aside. For my dad, family came first, then ministry and everything else.

The Day Everything Changed

May: I want to ask a difficult question, so please bear with me. Where were you when you heard what had happened to your parents?

Myles Jr.: We were in Freeport, Bahamas, preparing for an upcoming conference. My sister and I were on the planning team, so we made sure everything was ready for my dad, his team, and everyone coming for the conference.

May: When did it finally become real to you?

Charisa: The first Sunday, a week after the crash, we were all back in Nassau and went to church. Imagine walking into Dad’s church for the first time, and he wasn’t there. The place where he and Mom would normally sit was covered in blue. They were just not there.

Every time Chairo and I go back home and return to the church, it gets harder because they really are not there. I guess it is sinking in slowly. I can’t describe it. It is sinking in, but it still feels unbelievable.

Their grief was still painfully fresh. Listening to Charisa describe walking into the church and seeing the empty place where her parents should have been was a reminder that behind the international headlines and tributes were two children trying to comprehend the sudden absence of both their mother and father.

“We Don’t Have to Fill His Shoes”

May: I can only imagine. I have experienced the pain of losing a parent myself. People will inevitably say that you have very big shoes to fill. What are your plans?

Myles Jr.: I don’t look at it as having big shoes to fill. A lot of people say that, but my dad would be the first to tell me not to worry about his shoes. He would tell me to be myself and become who I am supposed to be.

There is no need to try to impress anybody. That is something he taught us growing up, and we carry it with us even now.

People compare us to Pastor Joel Osteen because he lost his father and had to step into the role of pastor almost immediately. I understand the similarities, but they are two very different stories and situations.

He has done well carrying his father’s legacy, and we plan to carry our parents’ legacy forward too. But there is no pressure on us. We have a strong support system, including our family and people like Pastor Wilson and his wife, who have been family friends for a long time.

We are walking in our own shoes as we carry the legacy forward.

His answer struck me. Here was a young man who had every reason to feel that the world expected him to become another Myles Munroe, yet he seemed determined not to live beneath the weight of someone else’s identity.

Charisa: This is the message my dad preached to so many people about discovering who you are and understanding your identity. So many people want to be like somebody else.

My brother and I don’t want to be like our dad. We actually want to be better than our dad. That is what he taught us and what he taught everyone around him. We don’t want to rush to fill his shoes. With God’s direction, at our own pace and in our own way, we want to carry his legacy forward.

A Faith They Had to Make Their Own

May: At what age did you experience God for yourselves? The way you both hold on to your faith is remarkable. When did you begin to embrace it personally?

Charisa: It wasn’t a particular age. We saw God show Himself in the lives of our parents and our family. We were born into this, but God was never pushed or shoved in our faces.

That is one thing our parents never did. They never told us, “You have to go to church,” or “You have to come work for me.” Everything Chairo and I did was by our own choice or because of an encounter we personally had with God.

My dad never forced us to do anything. I am a social worker by profession, while my brother is a businessman. We are not pastors, and we never went to Bible college. We were able to live our lives and follow our own dreams. Along the way, we realized we wanted to be part of our dad’s vision.

Myles Jr.: When you experience and see God’s work, you don’t need to search for something else. I have seen God show Himself.

There were times when I was in business with my dad, and we experienced ups and downs. When I wasn’t confident about certain outcomes, my dad never worried. Sometimes, as human beings, we are blinded by what our physical eyes can see. It takes faith to believe in something you cannot yet see.

That is what my dad brought to life for me.

Today, when I face difficult situations and wonder how my sister and I will get through them, I remember what my dad taught me about responding to circumstances. It has become second nature.

We are not made to be worriers. As Kingdom citizens, we have been instructed to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Their Father Did Not Choose Their Lives for Them

May: Are you telling me your dad did not begin grooming you from childhood to take over the ministry? We see that happen in many ministries with pastors and their children.

Charisa: Our dad trained us from day one, but not to become what he wanted us to become. He trained us to become whoever we were born to be and to discover that for ourselves. That is what we did.

Myles Jr.: That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have wanted my sister and me to become pastors in the church or perhaps take over the church one day. Maybe he would have wanted that, but it wasn’t something he forced on us.

He believed that once he had done his part in training and mentoring us, we would see the hand of God in his life and in our family and eventually make our own decisions.

I never intended to move back home and work with my dad. It wasn’t something I ever imagined doing.

May: So what happened? How did you end up working with him?

Myles Jr.: I graduated around the time the economy crashed, when a lot of people weren’t hiring. I was looking for a job, and my dad was trying to help through his contacts and network.

One day he called me and casually said, “Why don’t you come home and work for me in the family business?”

It was one of those conversations that didn’t need to last very long. Once he said it, it made sense. Why wouldn’t I go home, work with my dad, support him and, in turn, support our family and myself?

By not forcing us to become pastors or speakers and allowing us to develop our own convictions, the role we find ourselves in now feels almost second nature. He mentored and prepared us without us realizing it.

Charisa: That is what makes it so valuable to us. He didn’t force us.

I decided to work with my dad when I felt God speaking to me about it. Some preachers’ children go in the opposite direction because they feel forced into ministry.

Growing up, we wanted to make our mom and dad proud because we genuinely loved them. My dad loved to brag about Chairo and me, and that gave us a sense of responsibility to give him something worth bragging about.

Continuing what they started isn’t the hardest part. The hardest part is that they are no longer here.

Carrying a Legacy Without Losing Yourself

May: What should we expect from both of you in the next year or even five years?

Charisa: Expect great things. But if I tell you exactly what to expect in the next year, I would be making something up.

We are still trying to figure things out while allowing God to reveal Himself. For now, we are looking to Him for guidance. We can honestly say we don’t know what comes next, but we have opened ourselves completely to whatever God has in store for us.

Normally, Dad would know how to steer the ship. He is no longer here, so we have to trust God to direct us in how to steer it.

Myles Jr.: The only reason we are where we are today is God. I know that for a fact. I am confident that we are going to be fine.

We are still going through a process, and we want everything to happen when it is supposed to happen. I won’t interfere with God’s plans. This is what my dad would have wanted.

Don’t allow anyone to rush you into making a decision. My decisions have to be based on where I am and what I understand because every decision affects what happens in the future.

Now I understand why my dad did certain things the way he did and why he taught me to do the same.

At the time of our conversation, Charisa and Myles Jr. were still finding their footing. They weren’t offering a polished five-year plan or pretending to know exactly where their parents’ legacy would take them. That uncertainty was perhaps one of the most authentic parts of our conversation. 

Continuing What Their Parents Started

May: What roles are you playing in the ministry now?

Charisa: There is the local church at home in the Bahamas, Bahamas Faith Ministries International, and there is Myles Munroe International.

My brother and I have taken over and are spearheading Myles Munroe International. The church in the Bahamas is being run by the senior pastor, who is one of the founding fathers of the ministry.

The transition was easier because these were people who had been with my dad from the beginning. He had been training them from day one.

We are still very much involved. Nothing stopped. My brother and I are involved in everything our dad created.

Her answer reflected where the family and ministry stood at the time of this interview, during the period following Dr. Myles and Ruth Munroe’s deaths.

Finding Faith in the Middle of Grief

May: People everywhere are going through difficult seasons. After everything you have experienced, what would you say to someone facing a painful time?

Charisa: Ultimately, I would advise people to find out for themselves who God is and let Him take over.

My dad laid that foundation for us early. We had to discover who our source really was. Imagine if we didn’t have a relationship with God for ourselves and Daddy was our only link, and now Daddy is no longer here.

The Kingdom of God has so many benefits, and once you understand it, life becomes a lot easier.

Myles Jr.: Too many times we look in the wrong places. When your faith is grounded in God, you will still experience human emotions, but at the same time you remain grounded and rooted in the Word of God.

We ended the interview on a much lighter note, but I walked away thinking about something I had not expected to learn that day.

I had arrived wondering whether Charisa and Myles Jr. could carry the enormous legacy their parents had left behind. I left realizing that perhaps I had been asking the wrong question.

Their father’s greatest legacy may not have been children trained to become replicas of him. It may have been children who had been given enough room to discover who they were.

They spoke openly about grief, uncertainty and the difficulty of moving forward without the two people who had guided them for most of their lives. Yet neither seemed interested in performing for an audience that expected another Myles Munroe. Their determination was to honor what their parents had taught them while still walking in their own shoes.

That stayed with me.

As parents, it is tempting to believe that preparing our children for the future means deciding what that future should look like. My conversation with Charisa and Myles Jr. reminded me that perhaps one of the greatest gifts parents can give their children is something different: a strong foundation, room to discover their own identity, and the confidence to continue walking when we are no longer there to tell them which direction to take.

I had gone to the Sheraton expecting to interview the children of Dr. Myles Munroe.

May Oyairo is the Publisher of MannaXPRESS