Housing Options

If you're looking for a place to stay, we have three possibilities for you:

Host homes – a number of local families have offered to welcome our participants into their homes, sharing their guest bedrooms and hide-a-beds as places to sleep during the conference. The number of host homes is limited, allotted on a first come – first served basis. If this is your preferred option, please indicate that when you register for the conference. Cost = $0.00

Local churches – this is the “bring your own sleeping bag and sleep on the church floor” option. This is not for everybody, but will be an ideal situation for those who backpack or are otherwise a bit hardy. Most churches do not have showers. If this is your preference, please indicate that when you register for the conference. Cost = $0.00

Hotels – we have secured conference rates at three Nampa hotels.  All have easy access to the freeway, heated indoor pools and free breakfast options. The rates are available until all rooms are reserved, or until the cut-off-dates (as early as 12/1/2015). We strongly encourage you to book your room ASAP, mentioning you are with Idaho Discipleship Conference! Click here  for hotels & rates.

Questions, email our Hospitality Team Chair.

The Alex Street Band

Alex Street is a Worship Leader and Youth Minister based in Boise, ID. He has led music and worship for many events throughout the country over the last four years. He released his first recorded project, Made for More EP, in August of 2015 and has enjoyed the blessing of sharing those songs and stories with others. Alex and his band of mighty musicians are so excited to join the Idaho Discipleship Conference! For a listen, go to: www.alexstreetmusic.com.

Workshop: TAIZE PRAYER

Workshop: TAIZE PRAYER
Tony and Abby Rheault

TAIZÉ PRAYER is a combination of scripture, music, intercession and silence, joined together to create a communal contemplative prayer practice. Started in Taizé, France, this worship style has spread throughout the world and is utilized in many ways, such as seasonal devotions, group meditation and interdenominational services. We will consider each of the elements of this prayer form through discussion and example.

Tony and Abby Rheault, music ministers at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Boise, have lived in Idaho for 6 years. They both enjoyed careers in liturgy and church music for nearly 25 years. This included experience planning non-Eucharistic liturgies such as Taizé prayer. Tony is now a Software Developer and Abby is a Librarian.

WORKSHOPS

God’s Mission in Worship and the World
Susan Briehl & Marty Haugen
Our God is a missionary God, always moving in love toward the world, including when the Spirit gathers the Church around Word and Sacrament and sends us as a means of grace. How shall we plan liturgies in which we are welcomed into the Mission of God as we worship and as we live in the world God so loves?

Singing in the Reign 
Marty Haugen & Susan Briehl
For most Christians, music is an essential part of public worship. Lutherans in particular treasure the role of music, especially the assembly's song, in liturgy, even as they recognize that music is always at the service of the Word.

Amid rapid cultural and technological changes, those of us who prepare and lead worship need to ask ourselves anew why we sing, how best to sing, and what to sing, so that our music always is faithful to the Gospel while resonating with a living and prophetic voice.


Susan Briehl is a Lutheran pastor called by the Indiana-Kentucky Synod to serve the greater church as a teacher, writer, and liturgist. Previously she served with her husband Martin Wells as Executive Director of Holden Village, as campus pastor at Pacific Lutheran University, and as pastor of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Bellingham, WA. She has taught preaching and parish worship at Wartburg Seminary.

Marty Haugen is a liturgical composer, workshop presenter, performing and recording artist & author from Eagan, Minnesota. For the past 30 years, Marty has presented workshops and concerts across North and Central America, Europe, Asia and the Pacific Rim.  He has over 40 recordings and more than 400 separate printed editions available through GIA Publications. A number of his published songs, including "Shepherd Me, O God," "Gather Us In" and "All Are Welcome are well-known to many religious denominations. He has several published mass settings for Roman Catholic communities, including Mass of Creation, and several liturgical settings for Lutheran congregations, including Holden Evening Prayer, Unfailing Light (with Pastor Susan Briehl) and Now the Feast and Celebration, as well as a communion setting for the new Evangelical Worship Book (ELW-Augsburg Fortress).

Workshop: Stewardship

“Stewardship is what we do after we say we believe.” (Clarence C. Stoughton, 1949).   The beginning of stewardship is to realize that everything belongs to God.  In this workshop, you are invited to ponder what makes people and congregations ‘tick’ when it comes to generously sharing what God has entrusted to us.

Vicar Anne Palma is preparing for ordained ministry in the ELCA Lutheran Church. A student in Luther Seminary’s Distributed Learning Master of Divinity program, she is completing her pastoral internship at King of Glory Lutheran Church in Boise.  She also works as an Internal Medicine physician specializing in hospice and palliative care.

Keynoter: Mia Crosthwaite

Mia Crosthwaite has been speaking, writing and teaching about living a life modeled on Christ for almost twenty years.  She wrote, Go and Do Likewise, Catholic Social Teaching in Action, published by Twenty Third Publications and served many years in ministry in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise. She has spoken locally and nationally, including at the LA Religious Education Congress, National Catholic Catechetical Leaders conference, and the Diocese of Helena conference. She holds a Master in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University in New Orleans and is currently working on a Master of Divinity from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.  She looks forward to entering candidacy this fall for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Mia makes her home in Boise, Idaho with her husband, Brian.  Together they live the adventure of parenting nine children ages 4 to 24, including a sibling group adopted from foster care, and running a baby dairy farm.   She shares Christian community with Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Boise and directs the Idaho Discipleship Conference.

Registration is OPEN

Registration is now open for the Idaho Discipleship Conference.  Registration is limited to the first 1,000.  Click here to get started.

WORKSHOP: Mentoring Young Disciples

WORKSHOP: Mentoring Young Disciples

We all want our students to know God's love deeply.  Beyond that we want them to live out that love in the world.  What practical tools do we have as parents, grandparents, ministers and mentors to give to them?  Whether you are a parent, volunteer or professional this seminar will equip you with some practical, tangible and realistic ideas for mentoring.

Zach Davis has been in youth ministry for 18+ years.  He has a degree in Social Science from Washington State University and a Post Graduate Certification in Christian Education from Concordia University in St. Paul.  He's blessed with a wonderfully supportive wife and 3 teenagers at home.   In his spare time Zach can be found playing guitar at local open mic nights, watching movies, or working on one of his writing projects.

More Workshops

Building Community by Ear
Joel Westby
You have probably known people that play a musical instrument “by ear”. That is the ability of a musician to reproduce a piece of music one has heard, without having observed another musician play it or having seen written music. It is a matter of the ear. This workshop will give attention to how we listen to others in order to build community.

Pastor Joel Westby is currently serving as Interim Pastor at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran, Boise.  He has 25 years experience as settled pastor and six years as intentional interim pastor. He has been trained in Intentional Interim Ministry, Transformative Mediation, Nonviolent Communication and Healthy Congregations. He has served congregations from Family size to Program size.

House Churches of the 1st Century
Bob Parish
This one hour session will explore the first and second century world that the young Christian church grew up in.  We will look at the variations in the Gospels and Epistles that inform us of the numerous churches in the eastern Mediterranean.  We will also use texts from early historians and the comments of modern scholars. We will conclude with a discussion of how some early church practices might inform a modern home church among small groups of believers.

Bob Parish is a life long Lutheran who has long been interested in, among other things, the first and second century church. He became interested in this when he discovered that there was little unity in the thinking and practices of the early church.

Spiritual Direction
Meg Sass
An interactive, experiential presentation for those people with questions about the ancient yet ever new practice of spiritual direction.  What's the point of spiritual direction? Can someone tell me if I'm really praying?  Are some kinds of prayer better than others?  Does spiritual direction help keep you honest on your spiritual journey?  How do you find a spiritual director? How do I know if I'm ready for spiritual direction?  Could I ever be a spiritual director?

Sister Meg Sass, OSB, a Benedictine sister from the Monastery of St. Gertrude in Cottonwood, Idaho has listened to the prayers and spiritual journeys of people from many faith traditions for almost 50 years.  She has her Master's in Pastoral Studies from Loyola, University of Chicago.  Currently she offers retreats, classes and spiritual direction in Boise, Cottonwood, Moscow, McCall, Lewiston and beyond. Grounded in her  Benedictine spirituality Sr Meg is a Mission Centered Education certified spiritual director.  srmegsass@gmail.com

David Lose Workshops

In addition to a keynote and preaching at Sunday worship, David Lose will present three workshops.

Preaching 2.0
Preachers across the country confess that while they have only worked harder to deliver messages that are faith and relevant, they are unsure of the impact of their preaching. Building on our plenary discussion of cultural change, in this session we’ll explore the need for preachers to tend both gospel proclamation and faith formation. We’ll also consider a variety of ways by which to cultivate greater biblical imagination through more participatory forms of preaching.
 
Why Don’t My Children and Grandchildren Go to Church (And What Can I Do About It?)
It’s a common refrain: my kids/grandkids don’t go to church? But unless we understand why – and especially what’s different about the world our kids and grandkids are growing up in than the world in which we grew up – it’s hard to do anything about it. In this workshop, we’ll take our conversation about cultural change a step further and investigate the powerful and varied cultural stories our children are listening to and how we might invite them into a dynamic experience of the Christian story.

Cultivating Vibrant Congregations
What makes dynamic congregations tick? Is there a secret to moving to greater congregational vibrancy? What are the best practices of engaged and engaging congregations? For five years I led a study of 36 congregations of different Christian traditions across the U.S. and Canada that attempted to answer these questions by discovering some of the keys to cultivating more vibrant, healthy congregations. In this workshop I’ll give participants a taste of the process we used and share the key insights we learned.

Registration coming soon.

A full schedule for all ages

Friday, February 19, 2016

6:15pm   DOORS OPEN
               Nursery Opens
7:00pm   OPENING CEREMONIES

7:30pm   KEYNOTE: Tony Camplo
               K-6 activity
9:00pm   close

Saturday, February 20, 2016

8:00am   DOORS OPEN
               Nursery Opens
8:30am   MORNING PRAYER

9:00am   KEYNOTE: Susan Briehl
               K-8 activity
10:30am WORKSHOP SESSION 1
               K-8 activity
11:45am LUNCH (provided)

1:00pm   WORKSHOP SESSION 2
               K-8 activity
2:15pm   break

2:45pm   WORKSHOP SESSION 3
               K-8 activity
4:30pm   KEYNOTE: David Lose
               K-8 activity
5:40pm   EVENING PRAYER

6:00pm   DINNER (provided)

7:30pm   CONCERT: Alex Street Band & Others

9:00pm   close

Sunday, February 21, 2016

8:00am  DOORS OPEN
              Nursery open
8:30am  MORNING PRAYER

9:00am  KEYNOTE: Mia Crosthwaite
               K-8 activity
10:30am WORSHIP: Bishop Martin Wells, Presider and David Lose, Preacher
               Children's Church
12:00pm SENDING FORTH

Keynoter: TONY CAMPOLO

Tony Campolo

is professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University, a former faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, and the founder and president of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education. He has written more than 35 books. He is one of the founders of the Red Letter Christian movement and blogs regularly at his website, RedLetterChristians.org, and can also be found on both Facebook and Twitter. Dr. Campolo and his wife Peggy live near Philadelphia and have two children and four grandchildren.

In November 2012, Tony Campolo received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Youth Worker’s Convention. The wording on the award is: “Award of Lifetime Achievement is proudly presented to Tony Campolo who has defined and courageously pioneered what is means to encourage, care and lead students, possessing the qualities that inspire us and provoke us to continue the journey into the future with boldness and confidence. As a result of Tony’s life of ministry and leadership he has left a legacy of encouragement and hope to youth workers and students everywhere.”

When the presentation was given, a great mention of Tony’s work with Compassion International was made and Compassion asked to be able to say thank you to Tony for the lifetime of child sponsorships he has helped to make possible. At this link, is the thank you video.

To learn more about our somewhat amazing story, we invite you to read “Over The Top For Jesus: A Brief History of the Life and Ministry of Tony Campolo and EAPE.”

Music Lead & Clinician: MARTY HAUGEN

Marty Haugen is a liturgical composer, workshop presenter, performing and recording artist & author from Eagan, Minnesota. 

For the past 30 years, Marty has presented workshops and concerts across North and Central America, Europe, Asia and the Pacific Rim.  He has over 40 recordings and more than 400 separate printed editions available through GIA Publications. A number of his published songs, including "Shepherd Me, O God," "Gather Us In" and "All Are Welcome are well-known to many religious denominations. He has several published mass settings for Roman Catholic communities, including Mass of Creation, and several liturgical settings for Lutheran congregations, including Holden Evening Prayer, Unfailing Light (with Pastor Susan Briehl) and Now the Feast and Celebration, as well as a communion setting for the new Evangelical Worship Book (ELW-Augsburg Fortress). 

Marty has served as an editor or consultant to a number of GIA hymnals and has been a contributor to hymnals or supplements for many denominational groups including the ELCA and ELCIC (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and Canada), the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Mennonite Brethren, the United Church of Christ, the United Church of Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Roman Catholic groups in Great Britain, Canada, Ireland and Australia.

Keynoter: DAVID LOSE

David J. Lose is the President of The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Before returning to his alma mater, Lose taught on the faculty of Luther Seminary (St. Paul, MN) for fourteen years. While there, he also served a term as Academic Dean, was the founding director of the Center for Biblical Preaching, and led the creative team that developed WorkingPreacher.org. Author of Preaching at the Crossroads (2013) and the popular Making Sense series of books and resources from Augsburg Fortress, Lose has also written for the Huffington Post, Patheos, and The Christian Century. You can find his daily bible devotions and other writings and reflections on connecting faith to daily life at “…In the Meantime” (www.davidlose.net). A graduate of Franklin and Marshall College (B.A.), LTSP (M.Div., S.T.M.), and Princeton Theological Seminary (Ph.D.), Lose speaks throughout the US and abroad on preaching, leadership, Christian faith in a postmodern world, and biblical imagination. But his favorite thing to do is hang out with his family in Kennett Square, PA, where he can play tennis, root for the Eagles, or get wrapped up in a game of Settlers of Catan with his kids.   

Keynoter: SUSAN BRIEHL

Susan Briehl

Susan Briehl is a Lutheran pastor called by the Indiana-Kentucky Synod to serve the greater church as a teacher, writer, and liturgist. Previously she served with her husband Martin Wells as Executive Director of Holden Village, as campus pastor at Pacific Lutheran University, and as pastor of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Bellingham, WA. She has taught preaching and parish worship at Wartburg Seminary.

She has written numerous hymns, worship songs, liturgical texts, and books, including On Our Way: Christian Practices for Living a Whole Life, edited with Dorothy Bass (Upper Room), Holden Prayer around the Cross: A Guide to the Liturgy, with Tom Witt (Augsburg), and, with Marty Haugen, Turn My Heart: A Sacred Journey; Unfailing Light: An Evening Setting of Holy Communion; and Santo: A Bilingual Setting (GIA). She lives in Spokane, WA.

Idaho Discipleship Conference announced.

This February, 2016 the Boise area Lutheran (ELCA) parishes are proud to invite you to a all-weekend, whole-family, inspiration-laden event that will send you on home standing tall in your discipleship and on fire for the mission of Christ.

All ages are welcome.  Nursery will be available tiny children.  Activities for elementary-age children run currently on-site.  Teenagers can stay with the adults or attend sessions just for them.  Families and congregations will go home with shared experiences that they can reflect on together.

All faiths are welcome.  The Idaho Discipleship Conference is an effort of the Boise-area Lutheran (ELCA) parishes.  Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, UCC and Catholics will find language and liturgy that is familiar and uplifting. 

Friday 6pm through Sunday noon.  February 19-21, 2016.

• Opening Ceremony that immediately sets of the tone of joy, inspiration, and energy
• Keynoters:  Tony Campolo, Susan Briehl, David Lose, and Mia Crosthwaite
• Music Clinician & Lead: Marty Haugen
• Band: Alex Street
• Location: Nampa Civic Center
• Workshops on how to do specific ministries as well as workshops to inspire and educate. 
• Full exhibit hall
• Inspiring liturgies with the finest liturgical music & preaching
• Event activities for teens, children, and adults so families experience together
• Food provided
• Sending forth liturgy with presider Bishop Martin Wells and preacher David Lose that leaves people on fire for Christ
• Host homes for out-of-town participants
• Fee $59/person (with a family cap)