Denver drivers are accustomed to nasty traffic snarls at the spot where Interstate 25 exits into acres of parking lots servicing the enthusiastic fans of three pro sports teams—basketball's Nuggets, football's Broncos, and baseball's Rockies.

But not at 8 o'clock in the morning. The nearly 13,000 people who were slowing the interstate down to a crawl near McNichols Arena on a brisk September morning did not look like they were about to spend a day eating hot dogs and drinking beer. Some were driving shiny BMWs, or talking on their cellular phones, and were dressed for success in designer wool suits or similar professional attire.

Rather than dreaming about line drives and stolen bases, 13,000 of greater Denver's business leaders were driving toward the wealth and success that had been promised for weeks in full-page newspaper ads. A one-day business seminar was showcased in the ads, featuring such big-name speakers as military hero H. Norman Schwarzkopf, motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, Olympic Gold Medalist Mary Lou Retton, and the Crystal Cathedral's Robert Schuller. Nearly 200,000 people attended the "Success 1993" seminars last year in 45 major cities across America.

THE HUNGER FOR SUCCESS

The thousands of people squeezing into the tight stadium seats were gearing themselves up for a day's worth of selling tips and high-powered motivation. Most of them did not have any idea they would also hear a straight-talking evangelical gospel presentation from seminar organizer Peter Lowe, president of the Tampa, Florida-based Peter Lowe International, and one of the most unusual itinerant evangelists around.

Just as Jesus grabbed the attention of first-century crowds with parables involving ...