Growth. Change. Impact.

Our Growth Group is a gospel-centered missional community—a group of people seeking to be shaped by the gospel and to live out the mission of God together as a family.

We meet twice a month for Family Dinners (on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month). Each month we do one dinner with kids and the other dinner without kids. This gives us a chance to go a bit deeper in discussion, prayer, study, etc. The dinners with kids are open to outsiders – believers and not-yet-believers.

We meet weekly in Delta Groups. The men meet at 6:30am on Friday mornings, at Chucks in downtown Lake Oswego. The women meet at 7pm on Tuesday nights, in the fellowship hall at River West Church.

And at least once a month, we do a Work Project to love, serve, or bless someone in our neighborhood.

Growth Groups

A Growth Group is a group of people seeking to be shaped by the gospel and to live out the mission of God together as a family. Growth Groups consist of committed core of believers who are seeking to be missionaries in their own culture, newer Christians who are learning to live on mission, and seekers who are not yet convinced of the Gospel.

To clarify, a Growth Group is NOT primarily a small group, Bible study, support group, social activist group, or weekly meeting. Rather, a Growth Group is devoted to the pursuit of glorifying God together through all of life by making disciples.

Current Study:

REAL MARRIAGE

Pastor Mark Driscoll and his wife, Grace, talk about sex and marriage in down-to-earth terms, hitting issues other Christian books won’t. From the importance of date nights to answers to the most tricky “can we do that?” sex questions, they share practical help and hope with people just like them-who entered marriage a complete mess-or who are planning to be married someday and want to avoid some sticky pitfalls.

Recommended Reading:

A MEAL WITH JESUS

Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table. Tim Chester brings to light God’s purposes in the seemingly ordinary act of sharing a meal—how this everyday experience is really an opportunity for grace, community, and mission. Chester challenges contemporary understandings of hospitality as he urges us to evaluate why and who we invite to our table. Learn how you can foster grace and bless others through the rich fare being served in this book.

DELTA Groups

A DELTA Group usually consists of three to six people—men with men, women with women— who meet together weekly. They seek to be known and to bring the gospel to bear on each other’s lives so that they become more like Jesus. Lasting change can only happen in community, and we need regular reminders from one another of the truth of the gospel. We need each other in order to be transformed.

If you are in a Growth Group with multiple families, you should begin to build DELTA relationships with a subset of those people, so you can pursue gospel change together.

Current Study:

GOSPEL DELTA

Delta is the mathematical symbol for growth and change. The concept of change is not foreign to us. Right now, there are probably several things about yourself you’d like to change. But change also raises many questions: Why should I change? What needs to change? How do I go about changing? Why is change so difficult?

This tool was developed for to help address those questions, and to help lead a small community of people toward lasting change.

Previous Study:

JAMES

We’ve all heard the old adage “practice what you preach.” Even more so, we’re all keenly aware of the label that Christians (sometimes rightfully so) get as hypocrites—that we say and believe one thing but do and act totally different. Christians are called to much more than a series of memorized responses or stock answers—we’re called to live like those who are saved by God’s grace.

James is a 13-week study exploring the rich themes of suffering, practical faith, and more found in the Book of James. Filled with proverbial writing and striking imagery, James is a fascinating and controversial New Testament book.

The Mentoring Project

In Portland, Oregon, there are 1000 boys on a waiting list for mentors. Statistics tells us that these fatherless youth are the most at-risk to: join gangs, get girls pregnant, use drugs, drop out of school, or commit suicide. These 1000 on the Portland waiting lists are at-risk of becoming statistics. Help us END THE LIST.

Recommended Reading:

Fight Clubs

Fight Clubs: Gospel-Centered Discpleship is a radical call to fight the fight of faith in the strength of the gospel. In it Jonathan Dodson calls us to join the fight against sin, legalism, and license by looking to Christ and His gospel. Fight Clubs equips us to fight by exposing the fleeting promises of sin and drawing us into the grace-saturated promises of God. Displacing defective forms of discipleship, Dodson keeps the gospel at the center by tapping into various layers of biblical motivations to promote joyful obedience to Christ. He also provides a strategy to fight sin as the church, small fighting communities called Fight Clubs. These communities are shaped by three rules: 1) Know your Sin 2) Fight your Sin 3) Trust your Savior.

Current Study:

BIBLICAL WOMANHOOD

Everywhere women face choices — home or career, money or relationships, ‘secure’ marriage or ‘free’ singleness, the ‘progress’ of feminism or the ‘nostalgia’ of motherhood and apple-pie? Our culture has plenty to say on all these issues. But a Christian woman, seeking to live for the Lord, will first of want to find out what God’s design, purposes and promises are for women. And here’s the book to help. Sarah Young, in this set of nine Bible studies, aims to answer these questions.

Set within the big picture of God’s redemption of sinners through Jesus Christ, the heart-felt aim is that 21st century women will be enabled to live obediently and joyfully for Christ, as women after his own heart.

Neighborhoods

We gather together to love, serve, bless, and build relationships in our neighborhoods, with the people whom God has sent us to.

We believe God has placed us where we are for a reason: to live life among others in such a way that it demands a “gospel explanation”, to bring light into dark places, hope where there is only despair, and restoration in the midst of brokenness

Thanksgiving Basket Giveaway

Each year, Ironwood Community seeks to bless the needy families in our neighborhood with the gift of Time Around the Table.

Each basket provides everything necessary to prepare a delicious meal that can be shared with family and friends; a gift many simply would not be able to give on their own.