More than 60,000 tickets were distributed, primarily...

More than 60,000 tickets were distributed, primarily through Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod churches in Southern California, but fewer than 20,000 people attended the free, three-day “God and Country” festival at the Los Angeles Sports Arena last weekend.

“I was disappointed in the crowd, but not in the festival; it was first-class,” said the Rev. Lothar Tornow, a Costa Mesa pastor who chaired the laymen-dominated sponsoring committee.

Recording artist Debby Boone, who sang Sunday afternoon, was one of many performers who are also active in Christian circles. (Johnny Cash, who performed for about 90 minutes the first night, May 15, was admitted the next night to a hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa, after being helped off a high school stage. Admitted for irregular heart beat and exhaustion, Cash was released Monday.)

Tornow said many Lutherans did not invite non-churchgoing friends because they were under the impression that it was going to be a traditional religious rally. Undaunted, the organizing committee--though faced with a financial deficit to make up--talked about doing it again in three years, Tornow said.