FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - With a mixed sense of triumph and urgency, some 900 evangelical Christians from more than 40 states gathered at Fort Lauderdale's Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church on Friday to hear prominent Christian conservatives opine on how to advance their political agenda.

"We used to be a minority, and now we've got to learn how to lead," said Dr. Gary Cass, the executive director of the Center for Reclaiming America, in urging the crowd to get involved in government by lobbying Congress and starting local political action centers. "It's very ambitious, and we can't do it alone, and that's why you're here."

During one of several grassroots training sessions Friday at the church's annual Reclaiming America for Christ conference, Cass outlined four new initiatives in his group's fight to ban gay marriage, outlaw abortion and promote religion in schools and public life.

They include:

- Opening a lobbying office in Washington, D.C.

- Launching a "strategy institute" to study the tactics of their political opponents.

- Expanding the center's media outreach.

- Recruiting one million grassroots activists around the country.

Also high on the agenda: influencing the appointment of Supreme Court judges, opening faith-based action centers in all 435 Congressional districts, and, naturally, raising enough cash to accomplish the above.

"We're raising money to have a war chest so that we can do what we need to do," said Cass, who heads the political arm of the $37 million evangelical empire run by the Rev. D. James Kennedy.

Keynote speakers at the conference included Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; David Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh's brother and author of "Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity"; and David Barton, a Christian historian who was listed among Time magazine's 25 most influential evangelicals.

From a pulpit ringed with red, white and blue banners, Land captivated the crowd with a Scripture-laced speech that was part sermon, part political pep rally.

"We've got God-sized problems in our country and only God can solve them," Land said, drawing frequent applause and occasional gasps as he lamented the nation's divorce rate and the advancement of "the homosexual agenda."

Land also drew cheers when he credited Christians with the reelection of President Bush.

"It's a pro-life, pro-family, pro-Judeo-Christian win," he said.

Some church-state separationist groups denounced the conference for inciting anti-gay sentiment and attacking the separation of church and state.

Jennifer Hancock, the executive director of the Humanists of Florida Association, called Dr. Kennedy and his followers' rhetoric divisive and dangerous.

"Fundamentalism around the world starts with this kind of rhetoric," Hancock said.

Others said the triumphant tone of the conference marks a new sense of political empowerment among evangelicals.

"Kennedy's organization, like a lot of religious right groups is really feeling empowered by the results of the election, and their going to focus their efforts," suggested Rob Boston of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group, which monitors the political activity of religious groups. "The rhetoric used at his conference was among the most strident that I've ever heard, and I've covered the religious right for 18 years."

A potent symbol of conservative Christians' fight for a faith-based government - all 5,280 pounds of it - sat locked to a wooden platform on a six-wheeled truck outside the church:

"Roy's Rock," the granite statue of the 10 Commandments that former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore once displayed in his Montgomery courthouse, made a stop at Coral Ridge this week during its nationwide tour.

One fan of Moore's hoisted herself onto the platform and posed in front of the monument with her dog Baby, as a security guard snapped a photo. Mary Jo Jones said she hopes Moore, who was forced to resign from the judgeship for refusing to remove the statue from the rotunda of a Montgomery Courthouse, will run for political office.