“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” — Proverbs 27:17 

Iron Men Fellowship

• Every Tuesday at Kingdom Kitchen (7115 McFarland Blvd, Northport, AL 35476-3444 – behind 84 Lumber).
• First meeting: Tuesday, September 15 and every Tuesday thereafter.
• Time: 6:00 PM – 6:45 PM (start at 6 – home by 7)
• Discussing How Lead When You’re Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority by Clay Scroggins (Foreword by Andy Stanley)

We know the value of good tools. A knife never sharpened becomes dull. A saw never maintained becomes harder to use. The strongest pieces of equipment need attention if they would do what they were designed to do.

Men are not much different from tools. We were not designed to go through life alone. We need other men around us to encourage us, challenge us, pray for us, laugh with us, and sometimes tell us what we need to hear rather than what we want to hear.

That is the idea behind Iron Men Fellowship. We’re looking for a few imperfect men, because you don’t have to be a perfect man to become a better man.

You Don’t Have to Have It All Together

It’s not for men who already have it all figured out. It’s not men who have achieved perfection. It is a community of men who recognize their need for God’s grace and who are learning, sometimes slowly and unevenly, what it means to follow Jesus Christ.

The men sitting around the table may be at very different places.

• One may have followed Christ for fifty years.
• Another may have become a Christian recently.
• Someone else may have attended church most of his life but is only beginning to take his faith seriously.
• Another may simply have questions.

All of them belong in the conversation.

Iron Men Fellowship is not looking for perfect men but for men willing to grow.

Iron Sharpens Iron

Proverbs 27:17 gives us one of Scripture’s clearest pictures of friendship among men: “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” Sharpening involves contact. It requires one surface rubbing against another. There is friction. There is resistance. But there is also improvement.

Christian friendship works much the same way.

• Sometimes another man encourages us when we are discouraged.
• Sometimes he helps us recognize something we have overlooked.
• Sometimes he challenges an assumption.
• Sometimes he asks an uncomfortable question.
• Sometimes he simply listens.
• And sometimes seeing another man’s faithfulness quietly challenges us to become more faithful ourselves.

That is why Christian fellowship matters. We see faith lived out in people whose struggles often look like to our own.

Men Need More Than Casual Acquaintances

Men can spend considerable time around other men without developing meaningful friendships. We may talk about sports, work, politics, cars, hobbies, hunting, fishing, home projects, or whatever else interests us. There is nothing wrong with any of those conversations. But they can remain safely on the surface. A man can be surrounded by people and still carry his greatest burdens alone.

Christian fellowship gives us an opportunity to go deeper.

• What are you struggling with?
• What decision are you trying to make?
• How is your marriage?
• How are your children?
• What pressures are you facing at work?
• What is God teaching you?
• Where are you succeeding?
• Where are you failing?
• What are you afraid to talk about?

Those conversations rarely happen accidentally. Someone has to create a place where they can occur. That is what a men’s fellowship can become.

We Help Each Other Follow Christ

The New Testament repeatedly describes Christian life in terms of “one another.” We encourage one another, bear one another’s burdens, pray for one another, serve one another, forgive one another, teach one another, confess our sins to one another, and spur one another toward love and good works. While Christianity involves a personal relationship with Christ, it is not a private relationship with Christ.

Following Jesus places us within a community, and in that community, other believers become part of the way God shapes us.

• Sometimes the lesson comes through a Bible study.
• Sometimes it comes through an older man’s experience.
• Sometimes it comes through the questions of a younger man.
• Sometimes it comes through watching another man endure a difficult season faithfully.

In all of it, one man sharpens another.

Men Need Places Where They Can Be Honest

There is tremendous pressure on men to appear capable. Men put it on themselves to solve problems, make decisions, provide answers, carry responsibility, and keep moving.  That can make three words surprisingly difficult to say:

“I need help.” A healthy Christian brotherhood makes those words easier.

A man should be able to say:

• “I don’t know what to do.”
• “My marriage is struggling.”
• “I made a mistake.”
• “My faith feels weak.”
• “I’m worried about my children.”
• “I’m angry.”
• “I’m discouraged.”
• “I need someone to pray for me.”

And the men around him should not think less of him. They should move closer. That is Christian fellowship.

Older Men Need Younger Men—and Younger Men Need Older Men

One of the great strengths of Christian fellowship is the opportunity for generations to learn from one another. Younger men need the perspective of men who have already walked through careers, marriages, parenthood, setbacks, victories, disappointments, and difficult decisions.

Older men have something valuable to give.

• Experience.
• Perspective.
• Stories.
• Warnings.
• Encouragement.

But the relationship works in both directions. Older men need younger men too. Younger men bring questions, energy, new perspectives, emerging challenges, and opportunities for older men to invest what they have learned rather than simply keeping it to themselves.

Biblical community is not simply a gathering of men of the same age and circumstances. It is one generation helping another learn how to walk faithfully with God.

Fellowship Helps Us Become Better Men Everywhere Else

The goal of Iron Men Fellowship is not simply to create better meetings. It is to help develop better men. Men who become:

• Better husbands.
• Better fathers.
• Better grandfathers.
• Better friends.
• Better coworkers.
• Better leaders.
• Better neighbors.
• And, most importantly, more faithful followers of Christ.

What happens around a table should eventually show up everywhere else. If Christian fellowship is working:

• Our families should eventually notice.
• Our coworkers should notice.
• Our neighbors should notice.
• The people we serve should notice.

They should notice not because we become louder about Christianity, but because Christ increasingly shapes the kind of men we are becoming.

Sometimes You Need Someone Beside You

There are seasons when faith feels strong. There are other seasons when it does not. A man may encounter illness, unemployment, financial pressure, family conflict, disappointment, temptation, grief, or simply exhaustion. Those are difficult times to discover that you have been trying to live the Christian life alone.

Ecclesiastes says: “Two are better than one… For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow” (Ecclesiastes 4:9–10). Every man eventually falls in some sense. The question is whether someone is close enough to help him get back up. That is one of the gifts of Christian brotherhood.

The Goal Is Not Perfection. It Is Direction.

Iron Men will never be a room full of men who have everything figured out. The goal is to become men who are increasingly oriented toward Christ.

• Men who are learning.
• Men who are growing.
• Men who are willing to ask questions.
• Men who are willing to listen.
• Men who are willing to encourage another man.
• Men who are willing to be challenged themselves.
• Men who fall down and get back up.
• Men who understand that spiritual maturity is not pretending to have no weaknesses.
• It is increasingly allowing Christ to transform those weaknesses.

That kind of growth rarely happens in isolation.

• It happens in community.
• It happens through friendship.
• It happens through conversation.
• It happens when one man decides to invest in another.

Looking for a Few Imperfect Men

So who belongs in Iron Men Fellowship?

• Not perfect men.
• Not men who know every answer.
• Not men who have mastered the Bible.
• Not men whose families, careers, finances, and spiritual lives are completely under control.

We are looking for something much simpler.

• Men willing to show up.
• Men willing to listen.
• Men willing to learn.
• Men willing to encourage somebody else.
• Men willing to become a little more like Christ than they were yesterday.

In other words: We’re looking for a few imperfect men. There are plenty of us for that.

See below for a book