Who are we?

We’re storytellers (writers, speakers, bloggers, podcasters, etc.) who have wished over the years for a larger community of people who’d encourage and support us in our own pursuits of using our talents to honor God and disciple others. Trying to find such a community has been difficult and also at times painfully disappointing. Each of us have walked many hard and what felt like desolate paths on our journeys, and yet looking back we can all see God’s faithfulness in providing what we needed. It certainly wasn’t easy, but…

“…God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore [we won’t] be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord…who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus…” (2 Titus 1:7-10)(NKJV)

Our own journeys seeking to grow as Christian storytellers is why we are excited and humbly grateful to get to take part in offering this conference to you. We are approaching our partnership with God in this endeavor trusting and leaning into the truth that God’s grace is sufficient and that in our weakness He is strong. We know that we do not have all the answers, but we know God does.

Our goals with Intentional Discipleship in Storytelling (IDS) are uniquely specific. For some people these goals may be a reason not to attend. For other people we hope our focus on teaching discipleship, providing encouragement, and building community is exactly what appeals about this conference.

Many storytelling conferences focus primarily on teaching how to best craft, sell, and market stories. We at IDS absolutely believe this knowledge is important, and we are firm proponents that pursuing quality in storytelling is a huge part of creating stories that disciple others well. We have been wonderfully blessed over the years and greatly helped by conferences, classes, books, blogs, podcasts, groups, etc. that have taught us the skills we needed to become better crafters, sellers, and marketers of our stories. (If you are in need of these elements of storytelling, we would love to point you to resources and places that teach these skills.)

We received so much good teaching, and still we desired additional help with questions like: What about the spiritual side of storytelling? How do we get better at weaving the truth about God and Christianity into our work? How do we know what the truth is? Can we realistically have characters in our stories who ask and answer hard questions about faith? How do we know if we’re doing this right and doing it well?

Here and there we found storytellers addressing the challenges of including Christianity in their stories. Most often though we had to acquire from elsewhere our tools and knowledge about discipleship. We gained our instruction from a mix of places, everywhere from camps providing training in Christian apologetics and evangelism to podcasts teaching spiritual formation and Christian theology. We listened to sermons, studied Scripture, read books, dialogued with friends, debated with skeptics, spoke with pastors, etc. We strove to learn as much as we could and then had to hope we were doing well applying that knowledge to our storytelling.

Frequently we thought how great it would be if storytellers could take their work to pastors and Christian leaders and get their feedback and help. After all, discipleship is the primary call of the Church, and storytelling is one of the most powerful and influential means of teaching.

Truly, besides reading the Bible and or observing someone as they follow God, what better way is there to learn about what it looks like and means to be a Christian than by absorbing stories where the content disciples the audience and or where characters in the story are actively discipling?

This is true whether the stories are non-fiction or fiction, because truth doesn’t change when placed in an imaginary story or setting. Consider for example the fictional stories in the Bible like:

• “The Parable of the Sower”
• “The Good Samaritan”
• “The Wise and Foolish Builders”
• “The Lost Sheep”
• “The Two Debtors”
• “The Talents”
• “The Prodigal Son.”
• “The Pearl of Great Price”
• Etc.

And let’s not forget the fictional story that the prophet Nathan told King David, which helped convict David of his sin.

Through stories, we better see and understand ourselves, God, and other people.

So, who are we? We’re those offering a place of teaching, encouragement, and connection for those pursuing intentional discipleship in storytelling. Thus, we say…

Welcome, Friend! You’re not alone on this journey. Come join us, and see what God does.

“…brothers and sisters,…encourage the disheartened…” 1 Thessalonians 5:14 (NIV)

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV)