“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” This famous verse, found in Proverbs 27:17 (ESV), captures the heart of the Iron Sharpens Iron (ISI) conference, which takes place every year at Hickman Community Church in Hickman, CA.
I have been hearing about the ISI Conference for several years, but this was the first time I had the opportunity to make the two hour trip up Highway 99 to this special conference. The first reason it is unique is because of where it is held. As of 2020, the city of Hickman had an official population of 751 souls. Hickman Community Church has a good size facility so I wouldn’t be surprised if the city size grows by several hundred every Sunday morning! The church campus has plenty of space to make room for all the people who come, whether it is on a Sunday morning for a worship service or for a men’s conference like ISI.
The second thing that impressed me about the conference was how many of the speakers are serving here in the Central Valley. All eight of the speakers came from Northern California. We had Tulare, Merced, Stanislaus, Sacramento, and even Nevada county represented at the conference. This may not be significant to many, but the fact that so many well-trained, godly speakers were available to speak was a great encouragement to me. My prayer is that this trend would continue as the conference prepares for the future.
The ISI conference is built around four main sessions and three break-out sessions. These are spaced out evenly between three meals, dinner on Friday night, and breakfast and lunch on Saturday. The theme of this year’s conference was on leaving a legacy for the next generation. Dr. Rick Gregory, from Grace Bible Church in Fair Oaks, did an excellent job keeping the men in attendance engaged and challenged from God’s word. The first session laid a foundation for leaving a legacy by emphasizing the importance of having integrity. A man’s impact on future generations will not have lasting power if he does not have integrity. The next session was focused on investing wisely in the next generation. The Bible has both positive and negative examples of how to pour into the lives of younger men (Positive 1 Thess. 5:11, Heb. 10:24-25, Negative 1 Ki. 1:6).
Pastor Rick’s third session was on learning how to use Godly influence in each man’s legacy. He gave very practical guidance on how a father’s role in a child’s life needs to change as the child grows. The role changes from that of a lot of control, when the child is an infant and toddler, to that of a coach as the child grows older. Later, when the child reaches adulthood the role needs to change to counseling and once the child is married and has children, the father’s role should develop into that of a consultant, giving guidance as needed. I found this to be a helpful session because I have seen my children show a need for my role in their lives to change in a similar way to what Dr. Rick mentioned. The fourth and last session, was actually a Q&A with all the available speakers. This was helpful and I especially appreciated the restorative answer to the question of whether someone can leave a legacy if they have made major mistakes in life. The pastors expressed a need for men to acknowledge their mistakes, to repent of them, and then to sincerely seek to live the remainder of their life for the glory of God. Overall, the main sessions combined to make a forceful argument for men to carefully consider how they are investing in the next generation.
I traveled up to ISI with two men from Grace Bible Hanford and one from Grace Church of the Valley in Kingsburg. Our brother from Hanford speaks fluent Spanish, so he was able to attend two break-out sessions in Spanish, the first was on Adoring God and the second was on Evangelism. The rest of us were able to hear two great sessions on sharing our faith and on family worship. The latter included a helpful description of Deuteronomy 6:4-8, which highlights God’s commands for parents to teach Scripture “diligently to your children” all the time. The session on sharing your faith was powerful to hear because it was given by a pastor who had seen God turn his life around, giving him the ultimate reason to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
As always, one of the highlights of a men’s conference is hearing so many faithful men belting out powerful worship songs to God. We had several opportunities to be led in singing by the worship band and each of them were powerful times to sing of who God is and what he has done.
The conference ended around 4:30 pm on Saturday. We thanked the hosts and got into our car for the drive home. We were able to talk about what we had heard and learned during the sessions. We set goals for how we would be able to implement the encouragement we had been given. I am happy to report that some of us have already had good conversations about the conference, which means we are already well on our way of pursuing the ISI goal to sharpen one another for the glory of God. Hopefully, we will be able to make a return trip next year.
