Evangelist Greg Laurie is set to headline a special Harvest Crusade event at Utah Valley University, the site where conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated earlier this year. Organizers expect approximately 10,000 people to attend the event.
Titled “Hope for America,” the crusade will take place on Nov. 16 at the same campus where Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10 during a Turning Point USA gathering.
In comments emailed to The Christian Post last Thursday, Laurie explained that Harvest Ministries had initially planned to hold an evangelistic event in Utah in the summer of 2027.
“We immediately reached out to the Utah pastors to offer our support. We asked if there was anything we could do. They responded, ‘Come sooner. Our community is hurting,’” Laurie recounted.
“We responded by committing to a date only six weeks away. That’s a first for us at Harvest Crusades! Normally, we plan events at least a year in advance. But there is an urgency, and we believe the message of the Gospel is the answer.”
Laurie noted that while Turning Point USA is not involved in organizing the crusade, “they are fully aware of it and supportive of it.”
The pastor, who also spoke at a TPUSA Faith event in California in August, recently appeared on The Charlie Kirk Show to discuss the upcoming gathering.
“I met Charlie several years ago, and also recently spoke at one of Charlie’s pastor conferences,” Laurie told CP. “I have long admired Charlie’s incredible work reaching young people and have been a strong supporter of it.”
Harvest Ministries anticipates around 10,000 attendees at the in-person event, with more than 60 churches across Utah planning to host simultaneous livestream gatherings.
“Our goal is simple and urgent: to reach as many people as possible with the life-changing message of the Gospel,” Laurie said. “We want to offer real hope — hope for this life and the next — that can only be found in Jesus Christ.”
He continued, “Charlie Kirk embodied that hope. His life and tragic murder have become a wake-up call to Utah, to our nation, and even to the world, especially to young people. Our desire is for them to discover the same hope Charlie had and to follow Jesus Christ.”
