Following the death of global evangelist Luis Palau last week at the age of 86, a special page for reflections has been instated on his official website, which has already attracted over 600 tributes. What was it about this humble servant of God that appealed to so many people across the globe?

Early days

Argentinian by birth, Luis Palau was born in in 1934, in a small town close to Buenos Aires. Influenced by his godly mother’s life of faith, Luis gave his life to Christ at a summer camp in 1947, at the age of 12. “You don’t have to have a jaw-dropping story of how you received Jesus. It just must be yours,” Palau later wrote in a memoir.

Palau began preaching on street corners as a teenager and was hosting his own Christian radio programme by the age of 19. A visiting Californian pastor and missionary leader by name of Ray Stedman began mentoring the young man, and invited him to the United States in 1960. It was while studying at Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon, that Palau met his future wife, Patricia. Together they embarked on a life of missions, eventually settling down in Portland and raising a family of four sons.

You don’t have to have a jaw-dropping story of how you received Jesus. It just must be yours

Growing reputationLuis with Billy Graham (www.luispalau.org)

Luis had been greatly inspired on hearing Billy Graham preach on the radio as a teenager – in the States he served for a time as an intern with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and occasionally helped as Graham’s Spanish translator at major rallies. In the late 1970s Graham and his team helped Luis start his own evangelistic organisation.

Throughout his life, Palau retained a special love for his home nation, and for Latin America as a whole. His two daily Spanish radio programmes aired in millions of homes for decades. Palau also had the opportunity to share the gospel personally with dozens of Latin presidents, dictators, and heads of state. And yet he managed to gain a reputation as one who shunned making political statements of his own.

To the ends of the earth

Palau’s heart for sharing the gospel soon caused him to reach out well beyond the Americas, and during his life he conducted no fewer than 500 evangelistic campaigns, festivals, and rallies in more than 80 nations across the globe. In countries like Egypt and Russia, where evangelicals and Orthodox Christians had long been at odds, the events served as catalysts for partnership.

Palau was one of the few foreign preachers allowed to hold spiritual campaigns within the old Soviet Union, and when the Iron Curtain came down in 1991, he was among the first to hold open-air campaigns in the region.

Palau publications

Palau was respected by people from all denominations and none. Catholics, charismatics and conservatives alike attended his events. And he became lifetime friends with a fellow Argentinian who in 2013 become the most famous South American in the world: Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis).

Perhaps lesser-known than his evangelistic campaigns are the dozens of books that Palau authored. I remember being deeply impressed on reading his formidable autobiography, ‘Calling the Nations to Christ’, in the late ‘90s. Another volume I valued dearly (and still retain, though now long out-of-print), was his short ‘Scottish Fires of Revival’ – his interest in Scotland no doubt stemming from his own part-Scottish ancestry.

Jesus his goal

One who’s life was transformed on hearing Palau preach was an impressionable ten-year-old lad from Watford. “He spoke of Christ’s saving love on the cross, and of the perfect Father heart of God. Having lost my own dad just a few years before, that part of the preaching was particularly meaningful to me—and I found myself surrendering to Jesus, a new-born Christian”. That boy was Matt Redman, who went on to become one of the world’s most popular worship song writers and musicians.

Luis always sounded enthralled with the love of Christ and overwhelmed to the core by the powerful grace of the gospel

Many others have shared glowing tributes. Some spoke of the passion and fire that characterised the evangelist right up to the very end. “Luis always sounded enthralled with the love of Christ and overwhelmed to the core by the powerful grace of the gospel”, said one friend.

Preaching in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 2003 to 340,000 people“He was filled with the joy of the Lord – that’s what I will always remember of Luis”, remarked author, Francis Chan. “Ministry was never an end in itself”, observed Rick McKinley, a church leader in Portland. “Luis finished well because Jesus was his goal”.

The personal qualities that are most commonly remembered by those who knew him are his genuine humility and obvious humanity, along with his ubiquitous warmth and kindness.

No regrets

Luis Palau was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in 2018. Shortly afterwards, Paul J Pastor interviewed him for his 2019 biography ‘Palau: A Life on Fire’. “We talked about heaven”, Pastor noted. “Frankly, he was ready—even anxious—to get there”.

We close with a quote from Luis that sums up his very life. “I have no regret in pouring out my years, from the time I was a boy, for the sake of the Good News. If I was given a thousand lifetimes, I would dedicate them all to the same calling”.

Readers are invited to celebrate Luis’ life by tuning in to the livestream of his private memorial service to be held on Saturday, March 20 at 9 pm British time.

Quotes are taken mainly from his official Obituary, from an obituary published by Christianity Today and from a subsequent Tribute in the same magazine.