Bob met his wife Jan during high school. They traveled together in The New Folk, fell in love and married during their time in the band.
Bob Horner had to rethink his future plans when a friend challenged him with this question. Although involved with Campus Crusade for Christ at Colorado University, he wasn’t planning on going into ministry and was applying for engineering jobs.
Because Bob wanted to make a difference for Christ, he joined Campus Crusade for Christ staff – just for a few years – to receive training in ministry he could apply in his future work environment. That was almost 50 years ago; he’s still a staff member!
One of the first things Bob was asked to do while on staff was emcee an outreach at a fraternity house at Oregon State. He had never even been in a fraternity house and wasn’t sure about emceeing. His director asked Bob to share his story instead. This opportunity began a long history of public speaking.
After helping launch Campus Crusade in Canada (1965/66), Bob was asked to lead a new outreach within Campus Crusade – a folk group called The New Folk. Bob honed his speaking and emcee skills while traveling with The New Folk.
“My speaking abilities were maximized during those three years of being in front of people. Being in a band was a concentrated training program on communication. I was able to learn to read audiences and respond to them.”
Today Bob continues to be involved in speaking and emceeing as well as training others. Some of his roles include: coaching and training speakers for FamilyLife, programming and emceeing events for various ministries, equipping up-and-coming emcees at Keynote’s Emcee Training, and involvement with ministries near his home in Boulder, Colorado.
Bob relates a favorite ministry story:
The New Folk helped with a recruiting event at Wheaton College to launch a ministry in Europe. The response was less than enthusiastic; the atmosphere was almost hostile. Derogatory comments about Campus Crusade’s use of the The Four Spiritual Laws didn’t deter us from performing. Normally, the second half of our program was a presentation of The Four Spiritual Laws. At intermission, we decided to share about the ministry of the Holy Spirit instead. The atmosphere was electric. We weren’t sure, at first, if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
God had a plan. His Spirit moved during the second half of that concert and revival broke out. Students at Wheaton experienced a spiritual awakening. Visiting Campus Crusade leaders remained on campus for several days to help students discern what God was doing and what He was leading them to do.
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