Salt Lake City will be the host of the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in June of 2027.
Heile expressed excitement for fellow Southern Baptists to experience the city and pray for the churches there, but also expressed caution about the evangelistic efforts visitors may bring with them.
“I am thrilled to have people come and see Salt Lake because this is a place that you need to come and see,” Heile said. “I don’t think people understand the lostness until they see what it looks like here. I’m thrilled about that because it gives us a lot of exposure, and I’m over the moon that people will be praying for us.
“I just hope that people who come will firstly follow Paul’s example in 2 Timothy of sharing the truth with gentleness, and also take the time to try to learn some of the differences in the way we use language.
“A lot of stuff we would say, people in the Salt Lake community would totally agree with, but they would mean something totally different. You’re going to have to do the work that it takes to figure out how to speak the Gospel in a way they can hear it.”
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Heile encourages Southern Baptists to not wait until 2027 to develop loving relationships with different belief systems wherever they are.
“I think it’s helpful to find an LDS person where you are at and love them well over time,” Heile said.
“If you care about a person, then you’ll do your homework to learn what you need to know to be able to speak to them. If you reverse that order, then sometimes you get excited about a debate rather than sharing the Gospel with a person.”
This article originally appeared at Baptist Press.
