Our History

Our story begins back in early 2006, when four Christian men (Commando777, Commando888, Commando999, and Chyno) developed a friendship with another Christian gamer with no arms (2Prosthetics). Becoming regular BF2 buddies, they shared with one another all the struggles that God had seen each of them through and realized that they had another thing in common, a desire to be all that they could be for God!

Commando777 recalls:

We were doing our usual Friday night thing of getting all setup on 3 way calling to each other and playing Battlefield 2. One night while we were playing on the Men Of God server (one of the few Christian servers we would play) another player with the name 2prosthetics joined our squad. I was cruising around in a tank with 2pro up in the gunner position. One time when we spawned back in he ended up in the drivers spot with me in the gunner spot, I didn’t think anything of it till he says over squad speak “do you mind driving, it is easier for a guy with no arms to work the gunner spot.” So I thought, “hmmm that explains the game name of ‘2 prosthetics’” and we went about having a good time and squading up with him each round.

From a weekly meeting of just a few friends, ISI began as any other gaming clan begins, with some differences. All other Christian clans were made up of fellow Christians who enjoyed computer gaming and provided a safe and friendly gaming experience to everyone. Most secular servers did nothing to control harsh language, bad sportsmanship and all around poor game play on their servers, but ISI took a slightly different approach in its formation. We wanted to reach out to non-Christians in fellowship and fellowship amongst them, while maintaining a clean safe environment for all to enjoy. Not only did ISI start out as a group of friends, but the foundations for outreach were set. These friends and brothers in Christ began seeking out a name to best describe our purpose and God confirmed it in their hearts, [ISI] – Iron Sharpens Iron Christian Clan which is based off of the verse:

“As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”
~Proverbs 27:17 (NKJV)

Beginning with one BF2 server, ISI set out to combine the spirit of Christian fellowship and enjoyment of computer gaming. With the help of fellow Christian clans, MoG (Men of God) and CGO (Christian Gamers Online) the ISI server began to be seeded, at first by Christians, but as time passed we started getting more and more non-Christians as well. Most loved the safe environment and game play, not only for themselves but for their kids as well. We did have problems with people who just wanted to be troublemakers and mock what we were doing, but we stuck to our goal of loving gamers into the kingdom.

Over the next few years, God put His SUPER on our NATURAL and ISI started growing exponentially. Change is hard and there were definitely some stumbling blocks along the way as we tried to figure out just what God wanted ISI to be, but as time went on it became apparent that we were to walk by faith and be whatever, for whomever, whenever God opened each door. Today ISI maintains an average of three game servers, a fifty slot Ventrilo (VoiP) server (where we fellowship, have Prayer Group, and at least one Bible Study each week), and now has over 500 members all at different stages in their walks with Christ and it has been such a blessing to sharpen them and be sharpened by them for whatever season God has called each of them here!