About North & Known
We exist to help people encounter God personally, discover who He made them to be, and learn to follow Him wherever He leads.
Why we exist
It is possible to know the right things about God and still live at a distance from Him. We believe Jesus invites us into something far more personal—a life of relationship, identity, transformation, and trust. North & Known exists to help people encounter the God who has made Himself known, receive who they are in Him, and build their lives around the One they love.
This is not about performing a better faith. It is about living close to God.
Our name
North
We were made for a journey, but we were never meant to determine true north for ourselves. God has made Himself known, and His truth gives us our bearings—revealing who He is, who we are, and how we were made to live.
Known
We were made to be fully known by God and deeply connected to others. As we receive His love and allow ourselves to be known, life begins to open up—honest, wholehearted, connected, and alive.
True direction. Authentic relationship. A life with God.
What shapes us
What we do matters, but so does who we become along the way. These values shape the way we pursue God, build relationships, lead, and live.
Everything begins and ends with Him.
We want our lives, relationships, and work to flow from knowing Jesus and remaining close to Him.
We were never meant to walk alone.
We pursue honest, enduring relationships where people are known, loved, challenged, and encouraged.
Who we are in secret matters.
We want the hidden life and the visible life to agree—walking honestly before God and people.
We are always being formed.
We stay teachable, embrace the process, and welcome the ways God uses truth, people, and experience to mature us.
We receive before we lead.
We listen, remain curious, honor others, and remember that everything we have is grace.
There is always more of God to discover.
We stay willing to follow Him beyond what is familiar, trusting that a life with God is meant to be lived with courage and wonder.
Our story
Ryan’s own life was deeply changed by people who walked closely with him and helped make Jesus real. That experience shaped a conviction that has followed him through years of ministry: some of the most powerful things God does happen in the context of honest friendship, shared life, and people pursuing Jesus together.
Over time, that conviction began to multiply. Ryan, Arthur, and others started creating spaces where men could eat together, open Scripture, tell the truth, pray, take risks, and make room for God to move. Those relationships began producing more relationships. Men who were being poured into started pouring into others. New gatherings formed. New ideas emerged. God Chasers, Weekly Reset, Maine Mornings, More Connection, retreats and adventures all became different expressions of the same growing culture.
North & Known is becoming a community of people who want to know Jesus deeply, build meaningful friendships, and create those kinds of places for others.
Not simply a ministry people attend, but a life with Jesus that keeps getting shared.
Ryan Burnham
Founder & Executive Director
Leadership
Ryan grew up in Maine and spent his college years at Northeastern University. Shortly after graduating, he got married and moved to Connecticut to help start a ministry. He spent the next fourteen years there before recently returning home to Maine. These days, Ryan lives with his wife, Cherisse, and their three children, Laurien, Everly, and Brooklyn.
He feels most at home outside—on a mountain, around a fire, in the woods, on the water, or exploring somewhere new. He loves soccer, golf, meaningful conversation, building things around the property, and just about any excuse for an adventure.
Ryan loves people and their stories, especially the kind of conversations that somehow move from laughter to the deepest things in life without anyone quite noticing how they got there.
He is also an Arsenal supporter, a former college soccer player still coming to terms with his diminishing abilities, and someone who would almost always rather gather people around a table than work alone.
Most days, he is happiest with his family, good friends, a little adventure ahead, and Jesus at the center of it all.
Ryan earned a master’s degree in Christian Ministry and Leadership, but much of his learning has come through years of helping lead and facilitate dozens of retreats, prayer experiences, and ministry environments. Along the way, he was trained in several approaches to inner healing prayer and helped develop Releasing Prayer, which became a meaningful part of many of those experiences. He also had the joy of helping to create the training for others to facilitate it as well.
He has also intentionally placed himself in environments that would deepen the way he understands people, relationships, and growth. That has included many intensives such as the weeklong intensive with Henry Cloud and John Townsend, participating in several marriage intensives and helping lead some alongside trained counselors, and completing Valorie Burton’s life coaching certification program.
Founding Board of Directors
North & Known is governed by a Board of Directors committed to the mission, health, and long-term integrity of the ministry. Together, they provide spiritual, organizational, and financial oversight as we seek to steward this work faithfully.
Board Chair
Arthur and his wife, Kathy, live in Darien, Connecticut, and have five grown children. Arthur’s journey has taken him from self-sufficiency and intellectual knowledge of God into a richer experience of God’s love and His purposes for life. Watching God work in men’s lives—and seeing deep friendships form through the growing community of North & Known—has brought him real joy. Professionally, Arthur serves as chief operating officer of a Wall Street law firm.
Board Member & Treasurer
Vinny and his wife, Katie, live in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, with their three children, Tessa, Avery, and Leo. His connection to North & Known began through a friendship formed at a family summer camp in upstate New York. Through that relationship, Vinny has personally experienced the impact of a ministry that invites people into deeper relationship with God, and he is excited to help further that mission. Professionally, Vinny runs a financial advisory practice. Outside of work, he enjoys time with his family and finding ways to stay competitive.
Board Member & Executive Director
Ryan is the founder and executive director of North & Known. After more than fifteen years of ministry, he returned to Maine with his wife, Cherisse, and their three children. He loves creating places where people can encounter God, build honest friendships, and follow Jesus in everyday life. Outside of ministry, he is usually happiest outdoors, around a table with friends, or finding the next adventure with his family.