IDAHO MOUNTAIN MINISTRIES
IDAHO MOUNTAIN MINISTRIES exists to serve as a resource to pastoral couples in Idaho and beyond. Our primary focus is on those ministering in smaller churches and/or back country locations. We are dedicated to standing with these men and women, encouraging and supporting them both in their ministries and in their personal concerns.
We host an annual complimentary Shepherds' Conference in the fall in which we focus on practical, proven biblical principles. In past years we have brought to this conference such teachers as Ray Stedman, Stuart and Jill Briscoe, J. Oswald Sanders, Walter Kaiser, Howard and Jeanne Hendricks, Ben Patterson and Louis and Melissa McBurney. Clergy couples and lay people from Idaho and surrounding states attend.
We host a complimentary Pastors' Wives Dinner annually in conjunction with the Cole Community Church Women's Conference held in Boise for women from all churches. This gives pastors' wives an opportunity to spend an evening with the speaker for that conference and to hear her address issues related to being a pastor's wife. These women also enjoy the time of fellowship with each other. In the past we have had such speakers as Jill Briscoe, Becky Pippert, Coleen Townsend Evans and Carole Mayhall. Pastors' wives serve as Table Hostesses and Cole Community Church families host those who must travel. This past year pastors' wives from more than eighty-two churches attended.
We invite pastors and their spouses to lunch or dinner, visit with them, listen to them, share their joy and pain and provide peer-support in both ministry challenges and personal matters.
We have a number of Friends of IMM who have made themselves available to serve churches and pastoring couples. They give themselves through prayer, medical and counseling support, hospitality, the use of cabins or condos, clerical help, construction work and in other ways. We are the catalysts to connect these caring people with couples and ministries in need.
We meet in several locations throughout the state with small gatherings of pastoring couples. We also meet with small groups of pastors (David) and pastors' wives (Carolyn) for reflection, learning, prayer, mutual support and encouragement-to gain a biblical perspective and to strengthen one another's grip on God.
IMM provides pulpit supply as requested so pastors and their spouses can have time away. (about 60 times a year).
As personal needs come to our attention we prayerfully assess them and provide assistance if possible and if appropriate. In the past we have purchased materials-teaching aids, books, commentaries, magazine subscriptions and computer software-for pastors and/or their spouses. We have also paid for correspondence courses, given scholarships to conferences, sent couples to retreat centers which specialize in pastor care, helped with unusual family expenses and provided other financial assistance as funds have been available. We occasionally invest in a couple's well-being by providing weekends away and/or "fun money" for recreation and renewal.
We have a listening line-a personal 800 number we make available to clergy couples so they can call us when they need to talk. We send regular "e-musings"-essays on ministry and other matters-to couples and other leaders. (Let us know if you want to be included: roper@cyberhighway.net). We also have a web page (http://www.cyberhighway.net/~roper).
We have a homey and comfortable "safe house"in an Idaho mountain community-"Shepherd's Rest" we call it-where we meet with couples for extended periods: to provide friendship, support, encouragement, time alone with God and with one another. It is a place of rest and refitting for the world.
David and Carolyn Roper are the founding directors of IDAHO MOUNTAIN MINISTRIES. They have served together in ministry for over thirty-five years. Carolyn helped develop Cole Community Church's extensive women's ministry, serving in leadership in this area for many years. She has written numerous Bible studies and trained others to carry on this work. David served on the staff of Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California for seventeen years and was Senior Pastor of Cole Community Church in Boise, Idaho for seventeen years. He is the author of several books, including A Burden Shared, a book of encouragement for pastors and other leaders. David and Carolyn's passion now is to encourage pastors and pastors' spouses in spiritual formation and ministry leadership.
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