PORTLAND - Some of the biggest names in contemporary Christian music have been announced as featured artists for Luis Palau's Portland Festival 2000 this August.

Confirmed to appear Friday night, Aug. 18, during the two-day, free-admission festival at Tom McCall Waterfront Park is Steven Curtis Chapman. Saturday night's roster will include Sixpence None the Richer, Jaci Velasquez and gospel artist Kirk Franklin.

Also rounding out the program Saturday will be Reliant K and Skillet; additional performers for Friday are yet to be announced. Also planned during the festival will be an exhibition by professional skateboarders, an expanded children's activities area, and an expanded Thriftway food court.

Updated plans for the festival were outlined by Palau and his team to 275 pastors and church leaders representing about 165 local churches during a special gathering Feb. 3 at the Palau headquarters in Beaverton. They also viewed a newly produced video about the festival.

"This kind of enthusiastic support to launch a crusade or festival is outstanding," said Andrew Palau, director of the festival. "Every single day churches have been getting on board."

After the enormous success of last August's festival, which drew a total of 93,000 people to the park over two nights, hundreds of Portland-area churches invited the Palau association to stage the event again this summer. Luis Palau announced in November that he and his team would do so.

"We've never done a crusade in the same city in back-to-back years," said Andrew Palau. "We're doing so in Portland only because the churches want to. Even the city wants to. We believe it's of God."

The festival leaders emphasized the importance of prayermembers of the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association visited Christian leaders in Shanghai to discuss the possibility of a Luis Palau evangelistic mission. Last August, four Christian leaders from Shanghai came to Portland to observe Portland Festival '99. Since that experience, the Chinese have invited Palau to preach in Shanghai next May.

Kevin Palau, LPEA executive vice president, said the team felt comfortable visiting Shanghai after careful research and consultation with leaders of the China Christian Council and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. These two official organizations represent China's Protestant churches to the Beijing government and have been regarded with skepticism by some American evangelicals who assert that they are fronts for the Chinese government and the Communist Party, and that these churches do not preach the gospel. During the survey trip, the team found more than 120 open churches exist in Shanghai and pastors have freedom to preach the gospel.

"People are coming to Christ, and thousands of Bibles are being distributed," Kevin Palau noted. "The pastors that we met have a genuine relationship with Christ and are passionate about our Lord." Kevin Palau added that the Shanghai evangelistic services featuring his father will provide opportunities for church members to bring unsaved friends and families to hear the gospel. Counselor training will be offered to church members ahead of time, and follow-up materials will be provided for those making decisions for Christ.

David Jones, LPEA vice president of administration, said the budget for the Shanghai May 2000 Mission will total about $115,000, which includes costs for travel, meals, lodging, pastors' seminars, counseling and follow-up materials, promotion, evangelistic tools, media work, logistics, and books and training materials. Some of Palau's greatest evangelistic crusades have been in that part of the world. In 1986, 60,000 filled a stadium in Singapore; in 1987 and 1997, thousands heard and responded to the gospel during historic missions to Hong Kong. Kevin Palau added that his father has had a heart and vision for China for years, praying persistently for open doors of opportunity to share the gospel with the Chinese people. "One by one, God has opened those doors, and now He is opening another door - to mainland China - a miraculous answer to prayer," he said.