Iron and Ember started with a question that would not leave me alone.
I worked alongside a handful of lifeguards at an organization that had no Christ-centered piece in it at all. Good people. Everyday tasks. Nothing in the culture of that place pointing any of us toward something deeper.
So I asked myself a simple thing. How do I plant a seed inside this organization without forcing it.
How it started
The idea was a small group for the lifeguards who actually wanted in. Nothing required. No pressure. An open door.
We started by meeting on the land. Then we moved to the house. The location shifted as the group got more comfortable with each other.
After a few meetings we added Scripture. Not as a backdrop. As the actual ground. The first study we worked through was on love. We finished it together. The next study we are starting is Gospel Fluency.
In between the studies we prayed for each other by name. We went out to eat. We went rock climbing. We took small camping trips. We went snowboarding.
The point was never the activity. The activity was the reason for the friendship to keep meeting.
What it has cost
Time. The biggest cost is time. From the very beginning, some people would not put the effort in. Some people would not show up. That is part of it. You cannot make someone want this. You can only leave the door open.
Comfort. We did not say a lot of real things at first. The honest conversations only started later, after we had been meeting for a while. And the only people who got to that place were the ones who kept coming back. The people who showed up once or twice and then drifted, they never got there together. Some of them opened up with me one-on-one. That is a different thing for a different reason.
Performance. This one took me by surprise. Sometimes people would try to one-up each other with their pain. Whose story was heavier. That is not what this is. The point is not to compete over suffering. The point is to slowly put real things on the table, sit in a room with a group of men and women, and be present with the person across from you.
What we are learning
Faithfulness is a long pattern, not a moment.
You cannot fake your way through a group like this. The people next to you eventually know.
Scripture is heavier than we usually treat it. Reading it slowly, together, makes it bigger.
Praying for each other by name, every time, has changed the relationships in ways we did not predict.
What is next
We are not currently expanding Iron and Ember to new members. The group works because the people in it have a history with each other. Adding people to that history requires care.
What may happen as Christ Fields grows is that NEW groups form. Different cities. Different names. Same principles. We are not in a hurry to make that happen.
If you read all of this and felt something pull, the form on /faithflow is where to send a real message. Not an application. A note. We respond personally.