Greetings Men-
I am excited to write to you to let you know of a new opportunity within the Grace Fellowship Men’s Ministry. The Men’s Ministry exists to build and equip men to lead their wives and families as God has called them to do. To that end, we are starting up “Iron Men” groups, which are designed to specifically build the men into that God-given leadership role. Below are the specifics:
Who: Groups of 2-5 men.
What: The groups would meet together regularly to foster accountability and transparency.
When: Either weekly or bi-weekly at a time mutually agreeable to those within the group.
Where: At a location mutually agreeable to those within the group.
How: An initial 6-week “trial period” commitment to the other men within the group to be serious about attending and participating and to encourage one another in their roles as the God-ordained leaders of their families. Each meeting should consist of prayer for each other, discussion as to what is going on in each other’s lives, and a series of 3 questions that should be addressed by each member. The questions are: 1) What has God been teaching/showing you this week? 2) Who has God been placing in your life to share Christ with? 3) How has it been going as the leader of your family? After that initial 6-week period a review will be conducted to ascertain effectiveness and improvements needed. Once conducted, members will commit for a 6-month period of time to the other men in the group.
Why: As we invest in other men and hold them accountable and have them hold us accountable, we should improve in our roles as the leaders of families and thus spread God’s fame further into and ultimately through our families.
At each of the meetings, a sergeant-of-arms type person will facilitate the group. This man will be responsible to ensure that the meetings start and stop on time. In addition, he will be the one who will “drive” the meeting to ensure that the questions are covered. At this point, we are gathering men to be the sergeant-of-arms for the groups. If you are interested in being a sergeant-of-arms for a group please contact O’Ryan Anderson or myself. As these roles are filled, we will begin to establish our groups from there. The groups will be based upon information we obtain from all of those interested in participating in order to put together groups of men who either live or work in proximity to each other. Please call or email me if you have any questions, thoughts, or ideas in regards to this. Thank you for your time.
For God’s Fame-
Pat Dirrim
Men’s Ministry Director
O’Ryan Anderson
Iron Men Coordinator
This is great news Pat! I have been recently involved with the ISI (Iron Sharpening Iron) monthly meetings for Christian Business Owners, and it looks like the format you are showing is based closely on that. It has been very beneficial to get together with other men, opening up and being honest/transparent about all aspects of life in light of Christ.
This a great way to bear each others burdens, and to build up each other in a non Bible Study, open discussion format. I recently hoped that GF could have such a group for all men and it appears that my prayers have been answered.
The only way for this to be successful is for men to trust one another by being willing to open up and be transparent. This means a willingness to share about what is REALLY going on in your life outside of Sunday morning, and asking for help, support, encouragement, prayer, and advise on issues and even sin in our lives.
Confidentiality within the group is a key to building that trust and willingness to open up.
All that said to simply say this is great and count me in!!
To echo what C.A. said, here’s something Mark Dever just posted on the Together for the Gospel blog:
“If I am committed to my sin above a humble, self-revealing honesty…” Ouch!