I learned at a very young age there is something special about sitting around a fire with other men. I’ve always enjoyed the camaraderie that it brings. Not long after we bought our house, I quickly purchased a disposable fire pit. After a year or two, my wife and I decided to build a permanent stone addition to our patio for a fire pit.
No matter the weather or season of the year, we host a fire for all of our friends and neighbors every Friday night without fail. It has grown to such an event that we can reliably count on 10 – 20 people stopping by every week. A few of our neighbors and friends come weekly, some stop by every few weeks, some just once or twice a year; but it is rarely the same crowd every week. They all know that when they walk around the corner to my back yard, a warm “HEY – YO” yell will welcome them. Once somebody has attended they almost always will find their way back again. I feel blessed to host such a welcoming event every week.
It didn’t take long to notice the trend of the fire, from 7-9pm the kids play games and roast marshmallows while the women catch up on each other’s lives. The men enjoy a beer and talk about the week, cars, music, or any other type of small talk you might imagine. However, around 9PM most of the children disappear inside to watch a movie, or head home to bed. The women, tired of the outdoors, tend to head in with them. It’s normally just the men from this point forward.
What’s great about a fire, especially when there are just a few other men around, is a man will sit down and feel free to open up his entire life to you. He will share his troubles, his doubts, his fears, even his views on faith. You can find out almost anything you’ve ever wanted to know about a man by standing around my fire pit. It has become an escape for many of these men. That’s what keeps them coming back.
As these men share their troubles with each other, and work out the world’s problems it’s easy to have a conversation to discover where a man stands with God. The natural barrier is down to such a conversation. It just seems to be the right environment.
Like clockwork, every week presents the opportunity to drip the Gospel on one man or another. They serve up softballs by telling all the troubles in their life, they feel comfortable enough to listen to some advice the Bible would give on their current situation in life. After all we are standing around a fire, this is where men bond.
Over the 6+ years since I’ve first become a believer, God has presented me with 6 men for a solid weekly Bible study directly as a result of fire conversations. A few others have committed to attend a church service or a men’s retreat for the first time in many years. At a bare minimum, I’ve been able to drip the Word of God on somewhere between 40 to 80 men over the last 6 years. These men range from late teenagers to late in life.
It is said that every man has his own ministry, an environment by which he can share the Word of God. It took a good friend to point out to me that I already had one in my back yard.
The question is… What’s in your back yard? There’s a good chance God has already provided a platform to you, it’s just a matter of finding it.
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