Fresno-Clovis Prayer Breakfast at Fresno Convention Center Draws Hobby Lobby President

Hobby Lobby President Steve Green headlined the annual Fresno‑Clovis Prayer Breakfast in the Fresno Convention Center Exhibit Hall, with KMPH/FOX26 reporting more than 2,700 people at the 7 a.m. gathering and the Business Journal noting that “more than 2,500 community leaders” were expected for an event scheduled to run until 9 a.m. KMPH posted a video of the appearance on YouTube on Feb. 17, 2026, while the Business Journal published its preview on Feb. 16, 2026.

Green, who became Hobby Lobby president in 2004, tied the company’s corporate growth to his public remarks and institutional roles. KMPH and Business Journal coverage cite the chain as operating more than 1,000 stores in 48 states, employing “more than 45,000” people in KMPH’s report and “46,000” in the Business Journal, and reporting more than $7.5 billion in sales in 2023. Green also serves as chairman of the Museum of the Bible; KMPH reported he assembled a team of academics, designers and technologists to build the 430,000‑square‑foot museum that opened in November 2017 and drew about one million visitors in its first year.

At the Convention Center Green framed his remarks around faith, business and civic life and explicitly connected those themes to constitutional principles. Fresnoland recorded Green saying, “Our government’s not perfect, it never has been, nor will it ever be. We are grateful, though, that our nation has been built on concepts, on principles found in God’s Word, and we stood on the fact that our founders enshrined in our Constitution our religious freedom.” Coverage from local outlets and the event summary also said Green referenced Hobby Lobby’s 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case over contraceptive coverage as part of his narrative on faith and corporate policy.

The breakfast brought a cross‑section of faith leaders and civic officials to the Exhibit Hall. Fresnoland listed Rabbi Amnon Shor of Bet Shalom Messianic Congregation and Bishop Joseph Brennan of the Catholic Diocese of Fresno among attendees, and KMPH reporter Alexis Govea interviewed co‑chair Sylvia Plum on site. Organizers and the Business Journal framed the gathering as one of the region’s highest‑attended annual events, tracing its origins to the 1940s when five businessmen met on Divisadero Street.

Local business ties and regional footprint featured in the morning’s conversation. Fresnoland reported Hobby Lobby operates three locations in Fresno and noted the company’s first California store opened in Visalia in 2011, setting a company record for first‑store sales. Business Journal background material highlighted Steve Green’s personal origin story, assembling picture frames for seven cents apiece at age seven and the company’s start with a $600 loan in 1970, as context for the chain’s current scale.

Media coverage of the breakfast captured public engagement with the event and its messaging. KMPH’s YouTube upload page recorded engagement metrics at the time of capture, and Facebook posts referencing the station’s video showed additional views and reactions. Fresnoland reported that organizers used the occasion to announce next year’s keynote speaker, Amir Tsarfati, founder of Behold Israel, signaling continuity in the prayer breakfast’s role as a forum where national religious figures, corporate leaders and local civic officials converge on questions that link faith, business and public policy.