8,200 Attend Evangelism Crusade : Religion: It’s the first such event held in the Valley. An Argentine-born preacher and entertainer Pat Boone address Birmingham High crowd.

The five-day Luis Palau crusade, the first mass evangelism event ever held in the San Fernando Valley, began Wednesday night with an estimated 8,200 people listening to the Argentine-born evangelist preach a message of divine forgiveness--accompanied by an unscheduled lesson in nature’s power.

A 3.7 magnitude aftershock from the Jan. 17 Northridge quake caused a commotion in the crowd, sitting in bleachers and on chairs and blankets at Birmingham High School’s Tom Bradley Stadium.

The aftershock was felt just after the prayers for donations and just before ushers began distributing buckets for the offerings. “A little message there from the Lord,” quipped one Palau aide.

“You see how insecure this world is,” said Palau as he began his sermon.

“This is not a campaign to make us more religious, it’s a campaign to give us a personal relationship to Jesus Christ,” Palau said.

Palau was not the only preacher, as it turned out. Before he appeared, entertainer Pat Boone, honorary co-chairman of the crusade, addressed the crowd. He referred to his appearance in the lead role of “Will Rogers’ Follies” in Branson, the little Missouri town that has become a country music entertainment capital.

“While I’m playing a man who said ‘I never met a man I didn’t like,’ ” Boone said, “I serve a God who never created a person he didn’t love.”

“That’s the message of God,” Boone said.

The crowd helped Boone celebrate his 60th birthday by singing “Happy Birthday.”

“This is one of the happiest birthdays I’ve ever had,” Boone said.

Boone, who appeared in a white suit, was famous for his clean-cut, white-shoes image during the 1950s and 1960s when his records and movies were popular.

But U. S. evangelical and charismatic Christians also remember Boone as one of the few celebrities who spoke openly of his beliefs and lent his name to Christian causes in the 1970s when evangelical churches started to emerge from a self-imposed silence on social and political issues.

The crusade, which will conclude with a 4 p.m. Sunday rally, has other Christian entertainers appearing as guests other nights, including Motown singer Smokey Robinson tonight.)

Business executive Lawrence Hoke, executive chairman of the crusade, said in introducing Palau that the globe-trotting evangelist was a man who “comes with a lively sense of humor.”

Indeed, Palau began his remarks with a long joke about a black Christian and a white Christian arguing at length about whether God was black or white. The two Christians were still arguing when they had a fatal automobile crash, Palau said.

The two men, Palau said, were still at it as they approached the pearly gates and Saint Peter. They finally had the argument settled when God approached them with the greeting: “Buenos dias, senores.”

Warned Palaujokingly: “You Anglos better learn Spanish.”

A group of 50 San Fernando Valley area pastors, led by the large Church on the Way in Van Nuys, invited Palau nearly two years ago to conduct the crusade. More than 200 congregations and religious ministries have since pledged financial and volunteer support.

A crusade official said just before the crusade’s start that contributions have risen to just under $300,000, about 75% of the budget, much of which went for the hundreds of signs, posters and ads calling attention to the event.

Palau, 59, has preached to more than 10 million people in Latin America, Poland, Romania, Russia and other countries--and increasingly in the United States. As Billy Graham, slowed by age and Parkinson’s disease, has reduced his crusade schedule in recent years, the Palau team has received more invitations to speak.

Palau’s international evangelistic association is based in Portland, Ore., where he attended studies at a Bible college, then met his wife and became an American citizen in 1960.

An associate evangelist, Dan Owens, announced to the crowd that he was required to read a statement from the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education. The message, in effect, was a separation of church and state disclaimer. The message made it clear that while the board rented the crusade space on the school grounds, the board was not sponsoring it and does not endorse any statements or opinions made there.