Evangelist Luis Palau and Chicago Pastor, Rev. James Meeks preached to more than 14,000 people in China March 20-21 at the Hangzhou Chong-yi Christian church. Joining the two American preachers was Rev. Meeks’ 52-voice Salem Baptist Church Choir from Chicago.

Speaking from Isaiah 55, Palau invited the young audience to pray a sinners’ prayer and to become followers of Jesus Christ. Chong-yi Senior Pastor Rev. Joseph Gu then invited those who had prayed with Palau to stand. More than 500 responded to the invitation.

Vietnamese pastors told evangelist Luis Palau this week that big changes are taking place in their country.

Palau was in Vietnam March 11-17, meeting with church leaders, officials and U.S. diplomats.

During a two-day event with more than 500 pastors, they discussed a recent Christian celebration that drew 40,000 people, all with government permission.

San Diego Cityfest With Luis Palau Launches Area-wide Season Of Service

Luis Palau Prepares More than 600 Business and Church Leaders for Five Months of Service

San Diego CityFest with Luis Palau includes a five-month Season of Service and a culminating two-day world-class festival. The outreach launches next week as Luis Palau addresses more than 600 community, business, and church leaders on March 1 and 2.

At the March 1 event, the County Board of Supervisors will declare 2010 the official Season of Service in San Diego. City of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders will be in attendance to show his support. Palau will share the vision of county-wide service with area church leaders, preparing them to lead their communities in the Season of Service effort. Along with Palau’s teaching and encouragement, long-time San Diego resident and international leader Dr. Ken Blanchard will teach his world-famous Lead Like Jesus seminar. Both will be present Tuesday night to cast the vision again for area business leaders.

The Season of Service, an historic partnership between area churches, businesses, and civic agencies to serve the community, will show the city an unprecedented display of compassion and love. The first SOS was launched in Portland, Oregon, in 2008 and produced 109,000+ service hours and engaged 25,000+ community volunteers. San Diego’s SOS will emphasize the areas of homelessness, hunger, schools, military, and mentoring. It is expected to exceed Portland’s success and will provide several opportunities for individuals and church groups to serve at “high impact events.” The first of these events, Sleepless in San Diego, will take place on April 24 in conjunction with the San Diego Rescue Mission.

Culminating the Season of Service will be a two-day world-class festival showcasing top contemporary Christian artists, adrenaline-pumping action sports demonstrations, a Family Fun Zone featuring VeggieTales® characters, and much more. Past Palau festivals have attracted tens of thousands of people, including 225,000 in Houston; 200,000 in Minneapolis; 300,000 in Fort Lauderdale; and 800,000 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Luis Palau festivals are free, family-friendly events that have drawn more than 8.5 million people since 1999.

The Plan to Reach 100 Million People in 1 Week was announced by the Luis Palau Association during Easter Week, 2010.

Innovative Evangelism Conference to encourage hundreds of evangelists

Hundreds of evangelists will gather next week, but this time not to evangelize. Instead, participants in the Innovative Evangelism Conference will be soaking up encouragement and training to get rejuvenated to do the Lord’s work, reports MNN.

The conference will last from November 10 to November 13 in Portland, Oregon. It is being hosted by Next Generation Alliance, a branch of the Luis Palau Association.

“NGA exists to encourage, to equip and to network evangelists, sharing from the experiences that Dr. Palau and all of our team have had over the last 40 years,” says NGA Director Tim Robnett. “We just want to help other people reach more people for Jesus Christ.”

NGA was formed in 1998 with only 10 participants at first, as an opportunity for evangelists to learn under the instruction of the entire Luis Palau staff. Since then, the group has grown to include more than 200 ministries and has branched off into two other ministries: Livin It, a ministry with an extreme sports focus and about 40 members, and a growing Creative Arts ministry.

The Innovative Evangelism Conference is only one of NGA’s initiatives, but it is certainly an important one. The conference will serve to teach evangelists by means of 75 to 80 workshops. Luis Palau and others on the staff will speak to encourage evangelists.

“[The conference is for] encouragement of fellowship, training, and then the third major thing that always comes out of these conferences is just the networking that occurs — people meeting new people or renewing old friendships, things that people could do together, along with creative ideas and new ways of doing evangelism,” says Robnett.

Luis Palau brings Season of Service to Southern California
Churches urged to begin planning projects to reach the community

by Lori Arnold
Christian Examiner Newspaper group

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — San Diego County churches, assisted by area businesses, will usher in the largest coordinated volunteer effort in city history April 24 in conjunction with the annual Sleepless in San Diego homeless campaign.

Sleepless in San Diego, an annual outdoor sleepover project of the San Diego Rescue Mission, will get some much-needed assistance from the Season of Service.

“It’s a good way to really raise awareness,” said Chris McFarland, director of the Luis Palau Season of Service project and its subsequent two-day CityFest festival, a communitywide celebration marking the August conclusion of the official volunteer season.

“We use the festival to build up and increase their (volunteers) focus on evangelism,” he said.

Last month, evangelist Luis Palau and his festival team announced it was accepting an invitation from San Diego pastors to bring its two-pronged service-and-evangelism effort to the region.

Already, the Season of Service campaign has received partnership pledges from more than 175 churches. It hopes to increase that amount dramatically before the official April kickoff. In Portland, Ore., where the volunteer project was inaugurated two years ago, more than 600 churches signed on.

“We want to see more churches partner together,” McFarland said.

To be a partner church, congregations are asked to commit to at least one of five areas: praying, serving, equipping, investing or celebrating.

McFarland said many churches in the community already participate in service projects, especially since the Faith in Action days were launched several years ago. Through the national FIA campaign, churches are encouraged to close their doors for one Sunday while they head out into the community to do various service projects.

This year, Point Loma’s Rock Church launched it own churchwide volunteer outreach, called “Do Something,” pledging 600,000 community service hours. To date, the church is 77 percent completed with that goal. Within that project, the church also pledged 100,000 “Mayor’s Hours” for work to benefit the city of San Diego, including Balboa Park. Volunteers at the church have already exceeded that projection, logging 104 percent of the goal hours.

Churches that already have their own existing service projects are encouraged to continue with that work, but to include them under the SOS umbrella.

“That (collaboration) can be used to show what the body of Christ can do, not to brag, but to show we care, to show, ‘hey, the body of Christ is part of the solution for the city in the issues that we all face,’” the director said.

“When you can compile all of that data, all of a sudden you see the scope of the impact.”

A clearinghouse
The Season of Service staff will serve as a clearinghouse to help plug churches into areas of need. Regardless of size, churches can either develop their own service plan or contact SOS to find identified areas of need.

McFarland said his team is currently assessing community needs that will be addressed by the thousands of volunteers who will participate in the plan. The teams will concentrate on five focal points: the homeless, military, schools, hunger and existing projects.

While a major thrust for the manpower is on the church community, local businesses—Christian and secular—are also being tapped, as well as civic officials. McFarland said that by adding the element of business, and encouraging Christians to bring their non-believing friends to work parties, not only will more work get done, but there also are widespread opportunities to share the love of Christ.

“We always get, ‘Who are you and why are you doing this?’” McFarland said. “The idea is just going out to serve because of Jesus’ love for us.”

In Portland, the SOS project was able to bridge some significant divides between the liberal-leaning city and its conservative churches. The SOS project, McFarland said, allowed churches to show another dimension of their faith.

“We can show what we are for,” he said. “We’re for loving our city and serving Christ. We can step away from those divisive issues and love the community. When we do, it sends a powerful message.”

http://www.sandiegocityfest.com/