Greg Laurie will headline a Harvest Crusade event at Utah Valley University, where conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated, with around 10,000 attendees expected.
Known as “Hope for America,” the event will be held on Nov. 16 at the campus where Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10 during a Turning Point USA event.
In emailed comments to The Christian Post last Thursday, Laurie explained that Harvest had originally planned to host an event in Utah during 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 TPUSA was not helping to organize the Harvest Crusade, “they are fully aware of it and supportive of it.”
Laurie, who also spoke at a TPUSA Faith event in California in August, was on The Charlie Kirk Show earlier this week, where he discussed the event.
“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 is expecting approximately 10,000 people to attend the UVU event, while over 60 congregations in Utah are scheduled to host 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.”
“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.”
Pastor Lucas Miles, senior director at TPUSA Faith, told CP that he and the organization “deeply respect Pastor Greg Laurie and the incredible work he’s done through the Harvest Crusades.”
“His boldness in bringing the Gospel to hurting communities like Utah Valley University is exactly what America needs right now. It is a clear and unapologetic message of hope, redemption and truth found only in Jesus Christ,” he added.
On Sept. 10, Kirk, 31, was fatally shot in the neck during TPUSA’s “America Comeback Tour” stop at the university in Orem, shortly after a member of the audience asked him about mass shootings by transgender-identifying individuals.
Thirty-three hours later, authorities arrested 22-year-old Tyler James Robinson, who reportedly killed Kirk over his conservative Christian views on various issues, especially transgenderism.
Robinson was charged in the Fourth Judicial District Court of Utah County, Utah, and is facing counts that include aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, tampering with a witness, and violent offense committed in the presence of a child.
