WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – What possibly is the first Polynesian church in the Southern Baptist Convention started a year ago in a western suburb of Salt Lake City.
All it took was connecting a pastor who prayed for 10 years in South Carolina with a church planting catalyst who prayed for 10 years in Utah. Connecting the two involved a Send City missionary and an associational missionary casually chatting at a North American Mission Board conference in 2023. Each of them knew the concerns of leaders in their locale.
“We wanted to be in a place where there were a lot of Samoans, Tongans, [Native] Hawaiians,” David Sturgeon told Baptist Press. He and his wife La’ai, who is Polynesian, had been serving churches in South Carolina. “I’d been praying about and talking for at least 10 years to anyone who would listen about the need for evangelical, English-speaking, Polynesian-led biblical churches and small groups, for Polynesian people to hear and experience the Gospel in their heart culture.
“There didn’t seem to be any way to take action on it,” Sturgeon said. “We couldn’t find an opportunity.”.
As then-Salt Lake City Send missionary Bobby Wood talked with Jamie Rogers of the Columbia Metro Baptist Association in South Carolina, needs in Utah came into the conversation. Wood said Utah Idaho Lead Church Planting Catalyst Michael Cooper had been praying for years about the need for someone to start work among Polynesians in Salt Lake County, and Rogers said one of his pastors had been praying for years about a place to start a Polynesian work.
“I saw the number of younger Polynesians and realized they were not happy with their church,” Cooper told Baptist Press. “Their pastors were elderly and authoritative in nature. There was a large gap [from 18 or younger to elderly] not being reached, and it was a gap without a solution.”
It’s a gap typical of many ethnicities where immigrant parents arrive and cling to traditional ways, while their children quickly become Americanized.
“Most younger Polynesians are not fluent in their heart language,” Sturgeon said. “Most of the [Polynesian] churches we knew about [in South Carolina] were Pentecostal, Assemblies of God, all led by pastors in their 70s and they only speak their island language.
“I’m excited when we get a young man who wants to be trained to be a pastor,” Sturgeon continued. “We have a few talking about it.”
Sturgeon had been pastoring in South Carolina for 20 years before he moved to Utah in January 2024 as a NAMB-endorsed Missions Service Corps (self-funded) evangelism catalyst with a calling to start a Polynesian church, which is one based on the culture of Tongans, Samoans, Tahitians and Native Hawaiians.
There is one church in California, one in Hawaii and five in American Samoa that minister in a Samoan context. Valley Light Polynesian Church is the only one that includes all Polynesians as its focus group. A second is to start this July in Hawaii, Craig Webb told Baptist Press. Webb is executive director of the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention.
An estimated 50,000 Polynesians live in Utah, including more Samoans than live on the island of America Samoa, Cooper said. Most Utah Polynesians seem to live in West Valley City, the second-largest city in the state. At least 12,000 Polynesian students are enrolled in Granite School District’s 83 schools from K-12.
The Sturgeon family’s first Sunday in Utah had them attending Valley Light Church in West Valley City, and “we started doing ministry right away because a couple [Polynesian] families were attending Valley Light,” Sturgeon said. The first Bible study, in February 2024, was at the home of a Tongan family. “There were six of us.
“What we do now, on Friday nights we mostly meet in someone’s home, but tonight we’ll meet at a park because the weather is so good,” the church planter continued. “We’re trying to expand to a Saturday evening Bible study also, for newcomers, because the houses we meet in are so small. We have had two worship services where we rented space, with an all-Polynesian band and a Polynesian speaker, and are going to continue that once a quarter.”
They’ve developed youth and children’s ministries so the whole family can be involved.
“With Polynesians, if you reach dad, you reach the family,” Sturgeon said. “If you reach the family, you get three families.”
Cooper, the lead Utah Idaho CPC, said he was surprised by the immediate growth of the Polynesian ministry.
“I thought it would go well,” Cooper said. “I didn’t expect it to go as well as it has. It surpassed my expectation. The Polynesians are encountering Jesus and the Bible in a fresh way, and they’re telling their friends and family they have to come to it. It’s a ‘come and see’ evangelism.
“If David was able to spend less time working his day job, the work would grow even faster,” Cooper continued. “The biggest thing now is time to develop leaders. It’s going to be hard to grow at the rate they’re doing and develop leaders at the same time. David doesn’t have the time to start another work.”
Sturgeon has made several trips to Southern Utah University and First Baptist Church in Cedar City since Easter helping that pastor, Scott Maxwell, start a Polynesian collegiate ministry.
“The ministry continues to grow,” UISBC State Missionary Jason McNair told Baptist Press.
Church Planter Sturgeon works part-time as a licensed mental health therapist for the state of Utah. His wife is a special education teacher for the Granite School District in central Salt Lake County.
“David Sturgeon, I love the man,” Cooper said. “He’s a seasoned Southern Baptist pastor with a heart to reach his wife’s people. He’s steady. Consistent. His wife, she’s flamboyant; she’s high energy. They make a really good pair.”
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