Contact: Courtney Banister, Luis Palau Association, 503-614-1500, courtney.banister@palau.org

PORTLAND, Ore., July 30, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- World evangelist Luis Palau is known for proclaiming the Gospel to massive crowds packed into arenas, city squares, and waterfront boardwalks in some of the most influential cities in the world. On August 19-21, he will be addressing a much different and smaller audience -- a group of people that won't need any convincing of the power of the Good News, because they are as convinced and eager to share it as Palau himself.

Along with best-selling author Lee Strobel, Palau will speak to the next generation of evangelists at the Connect Conference in Portland, Oregon, an event organized by the Luis Palau Association (LPA). Attending the conference will be over 150 evangelists, most of whom lack the years of experience and platform that Palau has developed, but share his energy and relentless passion to reach as many people as possible with the Good News.

The conference will include educational workshops on topics of critical concern to evangelists, including ministry development, collaboration, financial accountability, fundraising, technology, marketing, social media, and message contextualization. In addition, there will be labs on the personal life of the evangelist, including how to balance family and marriage with career evangelism. Along with Palau and Strobel, plenary speakers will include Palau's son Kevin, who is the LPA President, York Moore, Nick Hall, and Scott Dawson.

The conference is part of a larger effort within the LPA called Alliance Ministries, which is focused on identifying, affirming, equipping and mobilizing evangelists across the globe. Alliance Ministries was born out of the understanding that a single evangelist or organization can only reach so far, but collaboration across ministries can multiply their impact.

"We deeply appreciate the phenomenal openness and encouragement that flows from Alliance Ministries. We have tried to emulate that spirit of cooperation and unity when other ministries approach us for advice and assistance," said evangelist Steve Wingfield, who will be leading one of the workshops at the Connect Conference.

"I thank God for the vision of Luis Palau to mentor younger evangelists like myself, and to give us a platform to share Jesus Christ around the world. I couldn't have done it without him," said evangelist Jose Zayas, who will be emceeing the Connect Conference.

According to Kevin Palau, "For 50 years, dad's passion and our ministry's mission has been to win as many people as possible to Jesus Christ. We realized we would be more effective in accomplishing that mission if we would affirm and bless other evangelists."

Luis Palau sees Alliance Ministries as a way to mobilize the next generation of evangelists, many of whom have adopted unconventional methods of ministry. The motto of the Alliance is "one message, many expressions." While a number of Alliance members hold evangelistic festivals like Palau, many use unusual ministry methods such as skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, music, break dancing and even poetry.

For more information about how to attend the Connect Conference or how to join the Palau Alliance Ministries, contact Courtney Banister at courtney.banister@palau.org or call 503-614-1500.