{"id":26737,"date":"2026-03-06T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=26737"},"modified":"2026-03-06T23:06:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:06:38","slug":"registration-open-for-second-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/registration-open-for-second-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"Registration is open for second denominational L.E.A.D. Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Nathan D. Polzin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Registration for the Church of the Brethren\u2019s L.E.A.D. (Listen Equip Adapt Disciple) Conference is now open at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brethren.org\/dlf\/lead-conference\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.brethren.org\/dlf\/lead-conference\">www.brethren.org\/dlf\/lead-conference<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year\u2019s conference is May 1-3 at Ephrata (Pa.) Church of the Brethren and also open to virtual attendees. The scripture theme is Hebrews 11:8, which talks about Abraham following God through unfamiliar territory\u2014certainly an apt description of church leadership today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tod Bolsinger, author of <em>Canoeing the Mountains<\/em> and <em>Tempered Resilience<\/em>, will be the keynote speaker. Michaela Alphonse, pastor of Miami (Fla.) First Church of the Brethren, will be the opening preacher. More than 20 Church of the Brethren leaders will be presenting breakout sessions in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. Translation into all three languages will be available for the entire conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The L.E.A.D. Conference aims to strengthen the leadership skills of local church leaders. It is for church board members, Sunday school teachers, deacons, treasurers, pastors, and anyone else who serves in leadership of a congregation. It is sponsored and planned by the Discipleship and Leadership Formation department. Continuing education units are available for credentialed ministers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Early registration is open until March 31. <\/strong>Early registration to attend in person costs $99 per person or $79 per person for 5 or more from the same congregation. Early registration for virtual attendees is $49. On April 1, registration costs rise to $140 for in-person attendees and $75 for virtual attendees. Those attending virtually will be able to view the worship services, keynote messages, and the four breakout sessions that take place in the sanctuary. In-person attendees will have access to more breakout sessions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"776\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/L.E.A.D.-flyer-600px.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26738\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/L.E.A.D.-flyer-600px.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/L.E.A.D.-flyer-600px-232x300.jpg 232w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/L.E.A.D.-flyer-600px-560x724.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To register and for more information including the full schedule, speaker bios, and other details, go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brethren.org\/dlf\/lead-conference\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.brethren.org\/dlf\/lead-conference\">www.brethren.org\/dlf\/lead-conference<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The workshop options and presenters will be updated on the conference website soon. Attendees will be emailed a form to select the breakout sessions they wish to attend before the conference begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We hope to see you at L.E.A.D.!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8212; Nathan D. Polzin is executive director of Discipleship and Leadership Formation for the Church of the Brethren.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">#MissionAndMinistryBoard #StrategicPlan #RacialJustice #LoveOurNeighbors #Discipleship #NewTestamentGiving<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Find more Church of the Brethren news:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__list wp-block-latest-posts\"><li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/board-approves-statement-of-intent\/\">Mission and Ministry Board approves statement of intent regarding future of the General Offices<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/intercultural-ministries-frontliners\/\">\u2018Frontliners\u2019 certified to serve in their districts on behalf of Intercultural Ministries<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/juneteenth-prayer\/\">Juneteenth Prayer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/networking-groups-new-at-ac2026\/\">Networking Groups are new this year at Annual Conference<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/brethren-bits-113\/\">Brethren bits<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Registration for the Church of the Brethren\u2019s L.E.A.D. (Listen Equip Adapt Disciple) Conference is now open at www.brethren.org\/dlf\/lead-conference. This year\u2019s conference is May 1-3 at Ephrata (Pa.) Church of the Brethren and also open to virtual attendees. The scripture theme is Hebrews 11:8, which talks about Abraham following God through unfamiliar territory\u2014certainly an apt description of church leadership today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[2610,3330,2225,2947,2155,2611,1304,3095],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-26737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-discipleship-and-leadership-formation","tag-dlf","tag-ephrata-church-of-the-brethren","tag-l-e-a-d-conference","tag-leadership","tag-nate-polzin","tag-training","tag-events"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26737"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26740,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26737\/revisions\/26740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26737"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=26737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}