Knievel spoke for about 20 minutes to more than 4,000 people who gathered inside the Crystal Cathedral for services, telling them how he'd been a sinner all his life and now things had changed.

Schuller said Knievel had called him a couple of weeks earlier, telling him, "Dr. Schuller, I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior."

Schuller said he has long admired Knievel for what the minster calls his "possibility thinking" in attempting motorcycle jumps that seemed impossible, but he had kept his distance because Knievel's private life was non-Christian.

Schuller flew to Tampa, Florida, to verify Knievel's conversion.

He said Knievel stood at the baggage claim without a cane despite all his physical ailments, including a liver transplant, diabetes and hepatitis.

And to those who think Knievel found Jesus only because he's afraid to die, Knievel says: "Let them say what they want to say. I'm a long ways from dying."

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