JoinMen Stories

​ The Follow Jesus 2025 denominational gathering in Greensboro, North Carolina, was an incredibly rich opportunity to interact with a wide swath of people from Mennonite Church USA. I am still riding the wave of gratitude for having been able to attend and to co‑present a workshop along with Co‑Coordinator Steve Thomas and Mennonite Men…

​As a co-director of Mennonite Men, it feels important to get to know Mennonite males from around the country and reflect on unique and shared experiences. Turns out that traveling to the far reaches of the US is not so affordable. And while phone and Zoom calls aren’t quite the same as meeting in-person, they…

​ Mennonite Men is gathering information on rites of passage for boys from an Anabaptist perspective. We want to explore the ways that Mennonites have or want to honor boys coming of age in meaningful ways. This could be through the giving of gifts, creating ceremonies, organizing special trips, words of blessing and more. Mennonite…

​Recently, I went on a walk with several men in their 30s who had attended a Mennonite Men’s retreat I helped lead in November 2024. They had arranged the meetup themselves via group text, eager to reconnect and continue building community. We walked and talked for nearly an hour, engaging in deep conversation. I’m excited…

​ ‘You should seriously consider doing the men’s rites of passage (MROP) with Illuman someday, Jon. If you decide to go, I’d even help make that happen,’ a good friend told me. I knew in my gut that someday I’d follow through on his invitation and sign up for such a journey. It took me…

​ As a congregational pastor, I was in the middle of a three-month sabbatical. What a gift! I had abundant time to be with family, to camp and spend time out in creation, to rest and renew… and yet the cycles of anxiety and anger within me remained. In fact, with so much time to…

​ ‘There are good ships and wood ships, and there are ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are friendships, and may they always be.’ – Irish Toast What does every journey require? A crew. A team with a shared sense of purpose and trust. A group of people you can trust enough…

​ ‘In patriarchal culture males are not allowed simply to be who they are and to glory in their unique identity. Their value is always determined by what they do. In an anti patriarchal culture males do not have to prove their value and worth. They know from birth that simply being gives them value,…

The Mennonite Church USA Executive Board and MC USA’s Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference filed an amicus brief on April 25, 2024, in support of Apache-Stronghold’s petition for a new full-court hearing on the potential destruction of Oak Flat, a sacred Indigenous site in Arizona. Mennonite Men along with 18 additional churches and organizations also signed…

​What does it mean to be a man in today’s world? A Christian man in North America? How do men deal with harmful legacies of “traditional” masculinity? These were just a few of the questions that 18 men gathered to ponder and reflect on during a half-day retreat at Zion Mennonite Fellowship, in Elmira, Ontario.…

​ Why do we exist? We have a purpose in life linked to God’s great project. Once we discover this, we realize our lives matter and that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. Knowing and serving this purpose gives our life focus, meaning, and joy. Our purpose is linked with God’s purpose to…

​ At Reba Place Church (Illinois Mennonite Conference), in a densely populated urban neighborhood in Evanston, Illinois, a group of men gather together once a month to encourage and pray for one another. Our group shares the commitment to spiritual growth and deepening our connections with one another as we navigate the complexities of modern…

Excerpted from Living That Matters: Honest Conversations for Men of Faith by Steve Thomas and Don Neufeld. Used by permission of Herald Press. All rights reserved. Brené Brown defines shame as ‘the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging.’ Living with or in shame…

​ ​Excerpted from Living That Matters: Honest Conversations for Men of Faith by Steve Thomas and Don Neufeld. Used by permission of Herald Press. All rights reserved. For many men, no role may dominate their waking hours more than that of worker. The usual response to ‘Tell me a little about you’ will often be…

​Excerpted from Living That Matters: Honest Conversations for Men of Faith by Steve Thomas and Don Neufeld. Used by permission of Herald Press. All rights reserved. There is little that goes more against the grain of traditional masculinity than the concept of vulnerability. In fact, much of what is generally taught to boys and men…

​ Excerpted from Living That Matters: Honest Conversations for Men of Faith by Steve Thomas and Don Neufeld. Used by permission of Herald Press. All rights reserved. A journalist once asked, Why are men so consumed by sex? ‘Did nature sim­ply overload us in the mating department, hot-wiring us for the sex that is so…

​ Excerpted from Living That Matters: Honest Conversations for Men of Faith by Steve Thomas and Don Neufeld. Used by permission of Herald Press. All rights reserved. Great books and films often depict the important role of friends. Consider Sam accompanying Frodo on his journey in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo wouldn’t have made…

​ This piece comes from the upcoming book, Living that Matters: Honest Conversations for Men of Faith. In the classic story Animal Farm, barnyard animals revolt and set out to establish a better social order than what they had under the farmer. After the revolution, they create commandments to reorder their life: No human is…

​ Two years after a JoinMen grant helped purchase their first church building, African Community Church of Lancaster (ACCL) is thriving with a renewed sense of vision and connection to the broader Mennonite Church. After nearly 15 years of saving and praying, the congregation purchased its first building in Manheim, Pennsylvania in 2020. A $40,000…

Mennonite Men has released a new book with Herald Press, Living that Matters: Honest Conversations for Men of Faith. The book was written by Steve Thomas and Don Neufeld, Coordinators for Mennonite Men USA and Canada, respectively, as a guide for men. It can be used by individuals or groups, but is intended to lead…

​ Did you know that wood consumption in the U.S. is approximately 640 pounds per capita? That’s like a white pine tree 43 feet tall and one foot in diameter. Global forest loss is approximately 11.6 million acres each year. Severe drought and insect outbreaks related to climate changes have killed hundreds of millions of…

Peaceful at Heart was released in 2019 to present a vision of peaceful living as an alternative to the expectations for masculinity widely held by society. The goal has been to engage as many men as possible in this important conversation. To that end, Mennonite Men, in collaboration with Mennonite Central Committee’s Ontario office, has…

​ In June, 2022, Mennonite Men will host an eight-day eco-excursion in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The June 11- 19 trip provides an opportunity for a different kind of vacation that will give participants an opportunity to explore outdoor wild spaces and learn about forests and ecosystems in God’s creation. The excursion will include hiking in…

​ By Ron Larson Reba Place Church hosted a Men’s Retreat on October 22-24, 2021, and invited Steve Thomas, USA Director of Mennonite Men, to lead our three day retreat. The original retreat was scheduled for March 2020, but the COVID lockdown forced us to cancel. It took us a year and a half to…

​Reba Place Church hosted a Men’s Retreat on October 22-24, 2021, and invited Steve Thomas, USA Director of Mennonite Men, to lead our three day retreat. The original retreat was scheduled for March 2020, but the COVID lockdown forced us to cancel. It took us a year and a half to reschedule, but during that…

At Mennonite Church USA’s biannual convention, Mennonite Men engaged with convention attendees in two in-person seminars. The first seminar explored tree planting as a way for congregations to engage in creation care and the second addressed issues of healthy masculinity and identity. On Wednesday, July 7, Steve Thomas, U.S. director of Mennonite Men Men, led…

Clockwise from bottom, Don Neufeld, the editor of Peaceful at Heart; David Blow, Mennonite Central Committee program associate, top left; and Rod Friesen, an MCC restorative justice program coordinator, plan their agenda for week four of the online book club they facilitate dealing with healthy masculinity. (Screenshot by Rod Friesen) Note: This story was originally…

As a part of God’s reconciling work, we are called to dismantle racism and build relationships across racial divides. On Saturday, January 23, 2021, from 9:00 – 11:30 a.m. EST, Mennonite Men will be hosting a Zoom meeting, open to all genders, with members of Seeking the Beloved Community, a group of Black and White…

​Early March as the warm weather and longer daylight hours inched closer,men gathered at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp for the annual Men’s Retreathosted in part by Mountain States Mennonite Conference. This retreat wasattended by 46 men and was filled with laughter, good singing, and muchconversation. Saturday afternoon the tradition continued of competing in HumanCurling (a…

These questions drew men together in a retreat on generativity in later life. This Mennonite Men gathering for men in the second half of life was held at The Hermitage retreat center in southern Michigan on November 1-2. John Kotre, Ph.D., author of Make It Count, Outliving the Self, and the PBS series Seasons of…

Don Neufeld shared his reflections on the themes of masculinity and Anabaptism at a “Probing the potential for peace” discussion series held at Grace Mennonite Church in St. Catharines on May 3. His insights came from years of experience working for House of Friendship in Kitchener, Family and Children’s Services in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and for almost…

​A Week-long Wilderness Adventure Taos, New Mexico, September 8-15, 2018 Mennonite Men had its first week-long immersion experience in the wilderness of New Mexico to address the question, “How then shall we live?” This was led by Todd Wynward, wilderness educator and Mennonite minister for creation care, and author of Rewilding the Way: Break Free…