New Season and Program Coming This Friday - The Men of Genesis | The Forge God Uses to Shape You

In this episode, Cartwright Morris unveils his new professional development program, The Forge, a 16-week journey through Genesis designed to shape men into the leaders they are meant to be. Discover how biblical stories, community support, and personal reflection forge a resilient and purposeful life.

We discuss: 

• The inspiration behind The Forge and why Genesis was chosen as the foundational text
• How God uses life's "furnace of affliction" to shape men into who they are meant to be (Isaiah 48:10)
• The structure of the 16-week program: weekly storytelling, reflection, and community engagement
• The importance of community, challenge, and clarity as pillars of growth
• How Genesis reveals our identity beyond productivity and success
• The role of personal mentorship and accountability in transformation
• Practical details: group formats, costs, and how to join or lead a local group
• The significance of showing up intentionally to be molded by life's heat

Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction to the Forge program and its purpose
 00:37 - Why Genesis? The biblical journey from Adam to Joseph
 01:19 - The personal why behind creating The Forge
 02:09 - Viewing life as God's furnace shaping us into men
 02:44 - Embracing the forge versus being victim or denier of life's trials
 03:02 - Who this program is for and what men will discover
 03:34 - Program outline: 16 weeks exploring Genesis with real community
 04:00 - Weekly rhythm: story, tension, reflection, and growth
 04:29 - Genesis as ongoing surgical tool in personal transformation
 05:16 - Genesis 1 and the true worth of men before productivity
 05:45 - The original value God assigns before work begins
 06:08 - What's unique about The Forge experience
 06:22 - Power of community in shaping men
 06:41 - The three pillars: community, challenge, and clarity
 07:05 - The weekly group: honest questions and real growth
 07:30 - The podcast as a challenge extending beyond meetings
 08:00 - Maintaining tension and momentum with ongoing content
 08:29 - Monthly one-on-one mentoring, prayer, and personal follow-up
 08:51 - The importance of transparency and confronting the real work inside
 09:20 - Personal stories of growth and God’s refining process
 09:37 - Practical details: ongoing engagement and accountability
 10:07 - Cost and commitment: $50/month and the importance of investment
 10:35 - How the podcast and workbook reinforce growth
 11:09 - Opportunities for men to lead and multiply the impact
 12:04 - Introducing a new workbook to facilitate local groups
 12:36 - Advice for men on the fence—trusting God’s work in the heat of life
 13:06 - Program start dates and logistics: August 11th and 13th
 13:56 - Call to action: visit Menareforged.com for more info and to schedule
 14:49 - Closing encouragement: you’re being forged for purpose and relationship

Resources & Links: 

• The Forge Program

Connect with Cartwright Morris:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram 

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Transcript

Cartwright: 0:03

Hi, welcome back to the Men are forged Podcast. I'm Cartwright Morris, as you should know me. I'm flying solo today. It's a little different than usual. We're not unpacking a chapter. ~ I'm inviting you into something starting August 11th. Something I've created, a young professional development program called The Forge. And we're gonna be ~ jumping into the men of Genesis this fall. before you tune out I built this because I wish I had somebody hand it to me at twenty-six. So give me the next few minutes this is where that ~ next step goes. ~ so let me just start by mentioning, Isaiah 48 10. See, I've refined you through not through silver, but I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. Here's the conviction behind everything I'm doing. ~ if you've listened for five minutes and you've heard me say your life is the forge God uses to shape you into the man you are meant to become. He uses your job, he used your ambition, your fears, other people's expectations, or just people around you. That voice in your head wakes you up at 2 a.m., right? The scoreboard, nobody else can see. You keep checking on constantly. And the questions are the same over and over again. What is success? What kind of man am I? What is it that I ~ that really matters? What is it that I do that really matters? So here's the way I've come to say it. your life is the forge God uses to shape you in the man you meant to become. The question is, will you partake or be a victim of the denier of it? Will you succumb to those things and say It is what it is, or deny that God's using it to really grow you, strengthen you, develop you in the man you're meant to be. Because this is what the forge, this young professional development program exists, is for men who really want to discern, discover, and know and embrace the forge that God has them in. and come to really know Him, the God who forges you. ~ so what is it? let me give you the kind of the shape of it. It's sixteen weeks. We're going through the book of Genesis, the whole arc from Adam to Joseph. ~ a full room of men in their twenties and thirties. ~ right now I'm looking for about six to eight guys. We've got half of that filled in two of my groups. It's not a lecture. I'm not sta standing at a whiteboard, even though I do use the whiteboard every now and then. Every week runs the same rhythm. We encounter the story. we heat up the furnace in a sense. We ~ we explore that tension, we embrace a hammer and really how to and then we enter that forge and find really hold up the mirror and really reflect and what are the things that are really growing us and shaping us. and that's kind of what hits you in the face every single week and twelve years in and Genesis is still doing surgery on me. Still unpacking stuff. It's such a powerful book. we take week one, And Genesis, and we talk about the creation s story and the heart of God, where we see really the heart of God from the beginning, the very beginning. And it's it's fun and it's engaging and it's a lot of questions and discussion remember the first time that one landed, and I've spent years convinced that the problem was my schedule, my boss, my circumstances, my you name it. it got quiet enough for me to see it. The problem was me. I was living like my worth was my output. Like I was only as good as my last win. And Genesis 1 gets this. That's where it starts. ~ if we really look at the audience, the first heard by people fresh out of Egypt, 400 years of slavery, where a man's entire value was his break count. That's it. That's the whole school board. And into the world where God says something else, almost offensive. Before you produce anything, before you made a single brick, I called you very good. That's week one. And it doesn't let up from there. The thing. What is the thing? This the room. It's the is the one piece that this is we're part one actually think l that this program sets itself apart from anything. I everything that's really been shaped me has been being in a room full of great men that I admire, respect, and the collective wisdom when we really show up and not to impress but to serve the guy next to me or really to learn to grow at the end of the day. it it can be selfish and selfless at the same time. So there's three pillars here. It's community, challenge, and clarity. ~ pillar one, community, that's the weekly group, real teaching, direct questions, honest answers, one concrete step before you walk out the door, no sitting in the back, staying comfortable. Everybody's in it. pillar two is real is more of the challenge. ~ that's the podcast. This is what I hope to use this podcast and you'll start seeing as these episodes roll out in some ways to challenge you individually, help you prepare for if you are coming to weekly meetings, but also for those out there who who aren't in my the weekly meetings. each ever extends the story into your Tuesday commute, your workout, your drive home. And that matters more than it sounds like it should. Because there's what happens with most groups. You feel it Monday night, you're fired up and by Thursday you're gone. the podcast keeps the tension alive. when you leave the group is the podcast keeps that tension alive between sessions and the momentum doesn't reset every week in your not ~ you're not starting cold. as I know, we all get busy and life happens, things ~ develop and you miss weeks. We got s I got sixteen weeks. I don't I don't think every guy's gonna be able to come out each week. But you stay up to date. You stay deep in the discussion. You stay deep in the forge by keeping up with the podcast. ~ and then pillar three is the clarity piece and this is where the monthly one on one mentoring I offer for mys with myself or or placement with somebody else, ~ who's tracking your story, not reading off a script, but life updates, entering the forge, action, prayer. ~ that's the meaning. It's where everything the group is teaching gets named, gets gets personal, gets follow up on. You know, we'll say the quiet part out loud. That's the piece most guys wanna skip because it's the one piece you can't hide. It's easy to sit in a group and nod along. It's a lot easier to fix other people than sit still and let God work on you. Trust me on that one. I spent ~ solid decade as an expert on everybody else except ~ problems except myself. I was gifted at it, genuinely. So the forge is the name when the room expires, right? we wanna keep the momentum going. You know, we want a guy who knows your story. This is a month to month thing. So it's not a one time thing. You don't get to sit somebody and just vent or help them fix your problems for one session. It's this ongoing monthly thing. When we really or men are really willing to engage in relationship, which we get in w in Genesis two, you really find out ~ the value of it and when we walk a l when you have somebody to walk alongside you who's been a couple of steps before you it really matters. And accountability that's personal. It really like it's not just your generic stuff, but it's actually it's true to what who you want to become and who you're really developing into. Yeah, so the practical stuff, let me just say this. there's two ways in and a third coming for the men who want to lead. So yeah, so I I've kind of mentioned, yeah, so it it for me personally, you know, this is not for everybody. if you really want one on one mentoring, it's it there is a a low cost to it. Fifty bucks, that's for some of y'all maybe a night out. Or a date maybe, but it's it's fifty bucks a month and what it is is the reason why I do that is 'cause I need personal investment for you. If I'm gonna carve out time and I schedule to meet with you regularly, I want there to be some skin in the game. And then like I said, there's a weekly podcast that comes with it as we talk about it. This really helps the momentum grow and he continues to challenge you in going through the book of Genesis. And what's great also about the podcast is you get to kinda real time here ~ me and Bo share our own personal stories connected to how we're really growing and learning. So ~ with you. And the last thing, yeah, I do want to mention is is in this first column here is the workbook. I know not all of you are looking into joining a group. Some of you are the guy already thinking, I could lead this in my city, my church, the guys at the office. Yeah, I see you. I know it. You're there. ~ I see them all at, you know, you in Birmingham, Alabama, where our group meets. I walk into any breakfast place ~ at seven, you know, 6 30 or 7 a.m. and there's men meeting. ~ but the question I always get is like we need content. So I've got something coming for you, a workbook, a plug and play built to pair with a weekly video of myself. And you can open the story with your own full room full of men without having to build the whole thing from scratch the way I did. It's close. ~ Keep an ear on this feed and Minorforge.com before it drops because you'll hear about it here first. Here's what I'd say to the guy on the fence, the one listening on his commute right now, going, Yeah, maybe, maybe in the spring, you've watched how God works by now. You've got enough road behind you to know he wastes nothing. Heard me say that multiple times. He wastes nothing. Not your failures, not your dead end job, Friends, community, not the season you're white knuckling through right now, the second. it all becomes material. But here's the catch. ~ he asks you to show up to the forge to experience the heat on purpose, to allow those things in your life to really shape you and mold you, because there's nothing being wasted here. ~ So the medal doesn't shape itself, right? We are the workmanship of God. So August eleventh that week, that's a Tuesday. We have I have a Tuesday morning group. I have a virtual group on Tuesday, and then I have a Thursday morning group. ~ the in-person groups we meet at the Center for Executive Leadership here in Birmingham, Alabama. And yeah, we're going starting with Genesis 1. You can go to MinorForge.com backslash theforge and schedule a call with me. ~ or you're able to really just grab a spot on there. I will see a notification. You can do it through my scheduling link. Don't come alone. Bring a friend, coworker, bring a guy from your office who's may look like he got it all together on LinkedIn, especially that guy, right? ~ and we'll see you in the room. we are being forged by the challenge, built for purpose, but ultimately to know him. So that's you. See you August Tuesday August 11th, 645 a.m. or 7 a.m. on Thursday, August 13th.