You could say he's a stranger in a strange land, this Baptist preacher doing fundamentalist work in the most socially liberal enclave of Mormon country.
But the Rev. David Wellman, pastor of Park City Baptist Church, has carved out a solid niche for his family and managed to help found two congregations in Utah."Anywhere you go where there's a particularly dominant faith and you're not part of it - whether it's Utah with Mormons, Boston with Catholics, Alabama with Baptists - you will find challenges," said the Rev. Wellman, who started his church eight years ago and today boasts a congregation of 50.
His task has been compounded by the fact that Park City is not the most churchgoing community in the world.
"A lot of people come to Park City to escape religion of any kind," said the Rev. Wellman, though he adds that the town and its environs have a "tremendous diversity of faith . . . we have everything here from people who are cosmically conscious to us on the other end of the spectrum, which would be very conservative."
To be "conservative," said the Rev. Wellman, is to take a literal view of the Bible.
"We believe in the inerrancy and the infallibility of scripture," he said. The church, which is a mission of the independent Quint City Baptist Temple in Davenport, Iowa, also believes staunchly in salvation through some personal link between a believer and Jesus Christ.
The Rev. Wellman, who lives with his wife, Kathy, and 5-year-old daughter, Tara, in Park City, says his job is to develop a larger Baptist following in Utah.
He has seen steady success, watching his congregation grow from a handful of followers meeting at the Holiday Inn to a few dozen gathering at the church's old building at Compark Plaza before it moved last summer to a tiny strip mall on the I-80 frontage road east of Jeremy Ranch.
Today there is seating for 80 people, and the high-visibility location draws more members as time goes by.
As an aside to his Park City work, the Rev. Wellman does what he calls "church planting."
Five years ago he helped start the Independent Baptist Church of Provo, which has since merged with another congregation to become the Victory Baptist Church of Orem. Sometime this year, he wants to start another one someplace in Utah.
His recruiting technique is much like that used widely by LDS missionaries.
"Basically just knocking on doors and telling people we're here and we invite them to come on down," he said.
The Rev. Wellman said he believes a church's function is social as well as spiritual, so the Park City group hosts Thursday night meetings for women and next week will begin holding Wednesday morning breakfasts for men, events that will include more than prayer.
The church is in the process of drawing up plans for a baptismal font, in the meantime using one in Salt Lake City when the need arises.