Partial Criteria to Host and Facilitate an IRON SHARPENS IRON National Men’s Conference:
Iron Sharpens Iron is a conference network of interdependent ministries. Each and every organization that hosts a conference must be a ministry that is tax exempt under IRS code 501(c)3. Each and every ministry hosts and facilitates its own one-day conference.
A ministry that hosts an IRON SHARPENS IRON Conference agrees in writing that the conference model will be the same in every city. The conference schedule, policies on seminar presenters, honorariums for keynote speakers, guidelines on exhibitors and many other items are standardized and agreed on by every host ministry. An IRON SHARPENS IRON Men’s Conference should look the same in every conference city.
An important distinctive of the IRON SHARPENS IRON Conference ministry is the model of a local grassroots ministry to men that is on the ground and that will not only help the local church mobilize its men to the conference but will be there after the conference is over to offer formal and informal training as well as ongoing encouragement and coaching in ministry to men. This ministry should work across denominations and should have a geographic focus. All ministries that host a conference should be local enough to follow up and serve the churches in that city/region that mobilize men to the conference.
A ministry that hosts an IRON SHARPENS IRON Conference must agree in writing to the Statement of Faith, which is also the Statement of Faith for the National Association of Evangelicals.
A ministry that hosts an IRON SHARPENS IRON Conference should have a very real focus on ministry to men in the context of the local church. All ministries that host a conference should have some proven ability to put on a men’s event and draw men from that geographic area.
It is recommended that a ministry that hosts an IRON SHARPENS IRON Conference be an active member in the National Coalition of Men’s Ministries www.ncmm.org
For more information on the ministries that are presently hosting an IRON SHARPENS IRON Men’s Conference as one of the resources that they are offering the churches in their area, please see the ISI network.