About Church Forge
God is working through your church and on your church. We want to help with both.
Why “forge”
A forge is where something unfinished is shaped for a purpose. Iron enters raw and, through heat, pressure, and patient craftsmanship, becomes stronger, holds an edge, and is made useful. Every Christian is a work in progress, and so is every congregation. God is continually forming His people to know Him, reflect Christ, and serve more faithfully.
Church Forge exists to come alongside churches in that process. We equip congregations to strengthen their online presence, reach the people around them in new ways, and carry the light of Christ beyond Sunday and into the rest of the week.
But refinement is about more than better communication. Through practical curriculum, honest podcasts, and biblical conversations, we want to explore what it actually means to live like Jesus in an increasingly godless world. We want practical application over religious theory.
That is why we call it Church Forge. We want to help congregations become stronger, more faithful, and better equipped to serve their God and King for His glory.
How we started
Church Forge began as idle conversation between two brothers who looks at the state of the church, and saw a need. Zee has always been passionate and gifted in the fields of production and videography. God gave him a burning passion that he tried to quench through starting his own business. But God kept knocking at the door of his heart, urging him to use those gifts for something more. Chris has been passionate about the Bible since God used it to save him from himself. As God worked on his heart and gave him opportunity to preach the Word and lead others in various ministries, Chris constantly felt like he wasn’t doing enough. This burning in both the brothers was brought up a few times before they realized God was prodding them into something bigger.
We both came from a small church in Southeast Portland, OR, that was resistant to change. Eventually the Lord led us elsewhere, but that stubbornness our first congregation instilled in us remained. As we went to a different church body, we realized there were strengths this new one had that the past one lacked, and vice versa. A couple years went by, and the Lord kept whispering to our hearts that He wanted us to use our gifts not for ourselves, but for Him.
The first iteration looked a little different but the bones were there from the start. We wanted to help churches who were faithfully serving the Lord to shine a little brighter where the broken people were. With so many people addicted to their phones and social media, we wanted to help those congregations carry their Sunday sermons where the doomscrollers were. Even from the beginning, the Shorts Foundry was our first way of meeting the Church’s needs.
Sharpening Iron has been the same since that first conversation, with the goal of a podcast sharpening leaders alongside one another for the glory of our God. Inspired by Proverbs 27:17, we wanted to facilitate edifying conversations between pastors, worship leaders, youth ministers, etc. The church faces opposition on more sides than we often realized, and Sharpening Iron was intended to sharpen all of us for the battles believers face every day.
Eventually, Zee and I hope for Church Forge to serve sort of like a nervous system for the local Body around the Portland Metro area. The goal isn’t to bring all these separate congregations under one banner, but to let them all act as the hands and feet of Christ together despite our differences. Satan loves to breed division, and Church Forge was created to sow some more unity between Bible-believing congregations, to strengthen the whole Church, building itself up in love.
Our mission
To help churches grow their online presence, and equip them to better shine the light of Christ in this dark world.
Our vision
To see the body of Christ cross denominational divides and collaborate together for the purpose of building the Kingdom of God.
The work is just beginning
Church Forge is still in its first season. Sharpening Iron and Church Shorts are taking shape, our first relationships with churches are forming, and much of what we hope to build remains ahead of us.
If any of this sounds like something you want to be part of, whether as a guest, a partner church, or someone who just wants to follow along, we’d like to hear from you.
What we’re building toward
We believe churches are stronger when they can learn from one another. One congregation may excel at reaching new people while another has built a healthy discipleship ministry, and both have experience that could strengthen churches around them. Our role is to recognize those strengths and needs, then help independent congregations connect and build one another up.
Peter wrote to believers scattered across Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, yet addressed them together as one people.
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession…”
1 Peter 1:1; 2:9 ESV
Church Forge’s long-term vision begins with that shared identity: congregations may remain distinct in place, leadership, and structure, but everyone who belongs to Christ is part of one people called to proclaim Him.
Over time, we hope those relationships grow into a trusted network of independent churches that share wisdom, people, equipment, spaces, and opportunities to serve. Not one organization or denomination, but distinct congregations choosing to strengthen one another and accomplish more for the Kingdom together than any one church could alone.
We are not trying to build all of that at once. We are starting with Sharpening Iron and Church Shorts, trusting that the conversations, needs, and partnerships formed through that work will show us what to build next.