SALT LAKE CITY—Much like some foreign countries, the United States has its own evangelical deserts where few people believe the gospel. 

“Salt Lake City, believe it or not, is an unreached people group,” said Travis Kerns, a missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board.

Kerns said only 2 percent of the 2 million people living along Salt Lake City’s Wasatch Front are affiliated with Bible-believing, salvation-preaching churches, making Utah one of the Top 10 least evangelical states in the U.S. 

Kerns will be partnering with the Kentucky Baptist Convention to host a Salt Lake City Vision Tour in November. Kentucky Baptist pastors and mission leaders attending the vision tour will learn how their churches can help church planters cast wider swaths of gospel seeds.

“Our Kentucky Baptist churches can be great encouragers to church planters in Utah or any of our other Vision Tour cities,” said KBC Missions Strategist Doug Williams. 

KBC provides church leaders opportunities throughout the year to expand the missions outreach of their churches in such cities as Boston, Cincinnati and São Paulo, Brazil.  

Williams said a new vision tour in Greece, planned February 2018, introduces pastors to missionaries who are trying to shine the light of Jesus among locals and war-torn refugees.

In Utah, Kerns said the challenge is not the lack of religious knowledge. Almost three out of every four people church planters encounter are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as Mormons.

“Will you come to Salt Lake City and work alongside the faithful already here?” Kerns asked. “Partner with us, and let’s watch God work miracles together.”

The Salt Lake City Send City Vision Tour will be held Nov. 7-9. Registration information is available on the Kentucky Baptist Convention website at www.kybaptist.org/slc.