An Interview with Bob Bixby: God Focused Training Conference Speaker

Conducting this interview with Bob Bixby was fun, but it was certainly more than that. It was personally challenging. The pull quotes at the beginning (below) cut to my heart. A thought that distinctly crystallized in my mind during the hour was that if there is hope for the Church in this age, that hope will be manifested in churches—not organizations, ministries, or movements. I know that is far more obvious than it is profound, but it is just way too easy for me to lose sight of that truth. Here are some of Bob's sound bites:

Being God-focused is actually a work of grace. It's not a work of decision.

I don't think these people can come to a God-Focused Conference and think they can walk away with a program unless they come prepared to be repenters, and cry out to God to start working in their souls.

And what I hope to encourage young pastors or youth pastors is, "Change your mindset from being an activities director to being a shepherd of their souls."

It has been interesting to see registrations pick up in the past couple weeks. The geographical distribution is amazing, and some of the encouragement from registrants has been overwhelming. My favorite is from an associate pastor who was so amazed to see someone training youth workers to emphasize God-centered preaching rather than wowing kids with games and gimmicks that he pulled the entire church staff into his office to show them the website.

I hope to meet some of you here this fall.

P.S. In case you missed my earlier post about my interview with Frank Hamrick, the driving force behind this conference, you can listen to it here.