There are many events in the US and Canada this time of year to remember and honor indigenous peoples, people who long stewarded the land we live on today and are living near and among us today. I for one have much to learn. Perhaps you and your community participated in events for Indigenous People’s Day or are taking action to educate yourself.
As followers of Jesus for God’s shalom, I believe Christ invites us to participate actively in God’s shalom while being rooted in love. One way to get involved in Christ’s care for the dignity of all peoples and for God’s creation is to connect with organizations like the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery (CDDoD). Executive Director Sarah Augustine has expressed a desire to see more Mennonite men get involved in this work of right relations. Through Mennonite Men I’ve gotten involved in this transformative work, my relationships, awareness, and prayer life have all been enriched by doing so.
Photos: goshen.in.gov
I’m inviting you to join in as well. If you, your church, your conference, or your men’s group wish to take action, there are opportunities online or in-person to become more educated and take action about injustices faced by indigenous peoples. Take a look at upcoming events and webinars (see below) recently shared in a CDDoD monthly e-mail. For more details on each of these please visit: dismantlediscovery.org
Feel free to share this information with folks in your network.
WEBINAR: From Doctrine to Dignity – Moving Toward Right Relationship with Indigenous Peoples Through a Process of Truth-telling and Repair | November 17, 2026 from 6:30-8pm ET / 3:30-5pm PT | ZOOM | REGISTER HERE
MCC & DDoD JOINT TRAINING IN ACKRON, PA: Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Training | November 21, 2026 | The Meeting Place (21 S. 12 St. Akron, PA 17501) | Registration Fee is $40 and includes lunch and materials. | REGISTER HERE
DANGEROUS FAITH SUBMISSION CALL:A Dangerous Faith young adult zine is calling for submissions to our Fall issue! Our theme is Seeing God in Creation. | SUBMIT HERE and/or share the submission form with another young artist/writer you know! Deadline: Saturday November 14th, 2026
LAND JUSTICE DISCUSSION HOUR: (formerly Land Justice Coffee Hour) | Monday, November 9th at 4 PM Pacific / 7 PM Eastern | ZOOM | LandBack, land rematriation, Indigenous solidarity, and the Land Justice Fund | REGISTER HERE
VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION: Looking for how to plug-in? Want to learn more about the Coalition? Join our ZOOM Volunteer Orientation | November 19th from 4-5:30 PST / 5-6:30 MST / 6-7:30 CST / 7-8:30 EST. | REGISTER HERE
COALITION COFFEE HOUR: Hosted by Coalition Staff via ZOOM | Wednesday, November 25th at 9:00 am PST / 10:00 am MST / 11:00 am CST / 12:00 pm EST. |REGISTER HERE
Sermon on the Mount Mennonite Church is a small Mennonite congregation in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 1997 they were recipients of Mennonite Men’s JoinHands grant which helped them leverage the purchase of the building where they do ministry. The building itself is located on the top of a hill in a lower-income and diverse neighborhood on the east side of town. And though recent Sunday morning attendance is rather small, their impact in the neighborhood and wider community is large. Praise be to God.
I had the pleasure of speaking by phone to two different members of the congregation recently to hear more about Sermon on the Mount’s history and ongoing ministries. Sherri Donaldson was the first person from the congregation I spoke with.
“I started coming back in 1997. It’s been almost 30 years,” she mentioned.
Donaldson lives just a block from the church. She is the leader of their food giveaway ministry on Tuesday evenings.
“That’s my baby,” shared Donaldson. “We serve about 125 people per week. A nonprofit called Bread Break started by another local church helps bring food to Sermon on the Mount. Each Monday we get donations from places like Panera Bread, Little Caesars Pizza, Pomegranate Market, and Crumbl Cookies. On Tuesday mornings we get cupcakes and donations from Starbucks, too. Then our volunteers help package the food. Food giveaway happens Tuesday evenings. Unlike some nearby food pantries, we have no restrictions and are open every week. There are lots of regulars who come. We are listed on websites like 211, Pay It Forward, etc. Sermon on the Mount folks also can take home leftovers on Sundays.”
Through our conversation I learned how this food ministry developed six years ago, starting when the COVID19 pandemic set in. An afterschool program with the elementary school across the street wouldn’t allow activities in the building after school hours. Sermon on the Mount offered space, so for two winters the program used the church building instead. After a few years, the school district resumed hosting programming back in school buildings, but food giveaways at the church continued.
I also spoke with Cheryl Lehmann, one of three ‘shepherds’ of the congregation who share leadership. Sermon on the Mount hasn’t had a pastor since 2018. Lehmann has been part of the congregation since 1982. I was moved to hear her describe the way their congregation and use of the building has evolved over the years.
“After COVID local people came by and expressed interest in renting space. A couple in the neighborhood wanted to start a new fellowship and asked to use the building. They are using the space on Friday nights and on Sunday evenings. We were also approached by a Liberian congregation, and they now use our building on Sundays from 1-3pm. Then a man who used to pastor a Spanish church and knew about us, said to others in his circles, ‘We’ve got to go to Sermon on the Mount!’ They now use our building on Wednesdays from 6:30-9pm and on Saturdays from 6-9pm. We have use of our space on Sundays from 8am – 1 pm for worship, Mondays and Tuesdays for the food giveaway, and we keep Thursdays open for ourselves. On Saturdays during the day and any other open time, we rent the space out to folks in the community. If they’re a community member or group, we just ask that they give a donation. We do have individual contracts that building renters sign.”
Photo by Chery Lehmann
Lehmann also noted that “It’s a blessing that our building is now paid off. We originally chose our location because it was affordable, it was a place where we could do outreach and we are across from a neighborhood school. The three congregations who now rent from us could not find a better deal in town. Because we don’t have a pastor, we have some extra money where we can help others.
For example, we hire a Native American family who helps mow and do lawncare for us. We receive requests for emergency needs. We also work with Everence and their matching grants to help others in the community. Not long ago a man approached us who wanted to buy some land we own at the bottom of the hill. We gave money from the sale to the Yankton Sioux Tribe which is the native group that lived on the land where the church is located.”
“Your grant gave us a start. And God has been taking care of us,” Lehmann added.
Sermon on the Mount Mennonite Church continues to evolve and follow God’s lead. During the pandemic the church started offering online ways for folks to join. Lehmann shared that, “Offering an online option each week brought us together as a congregation. We have better attendance because of that option. If someone is out of town or sick they can still participate. Our church meetings are also online. We don’t record services.”
We invite you to pray for Sermon on the Mount Mennonite Church, a congregation of Central Plains conference. You are welcome to visit any time you are in Sioux Falls. You can contact Sherri at donaldsonsherri62@gmail.com and Cheryl at cheryllehmann767@gmail.com. The congregation welcomes donations for their food giveaway program. As Sherri Donaldson mentioned, “We end up purchasing lots of produce bags and Ziplock bags.”
Mennonite Men also invites your prayers and financial contributions to our JoinHands ministry. New board members and JoinHands committee participation are also needed. We want to see this ministry continue to thrive and bless others, reflecting God’s shalom. Visit our website to learn more, or e-mail me at JonZ@MennoniteMen.org.
Every Tuesday morning from 7 to 8 am in the fall, winter, and spring, a group of 30-40 men who identify as Mennonite in the Harrisonburg, Virginia, area gathers for Bible study. They pray together, study Scripture and receive input, share a delicious breakfast, and have meaningful and reflective conversation around tables. Parkview Mennonite Church is the meeting place. Though many of the men are 60 years and older, attendees range in age from their twenties to their late eighties. Men who attend come from congregations in several Mennonite Church USA conferences, as well as from congregations in the Blueridge District of LMC. Want to learn more? Visit their website.
Recently, I followed up with a few men from the Bible study. I wanted to hear their personal perspectives on what it’s like at a given Tuesday gathering and to get a sense of why each of them is committed to this Bible study. Connecting by Zoom with three men from the group, I was blessed to hear them share practical information and spiritual reflections.
Floyd Blosser, who is on the planning team and purchases breakfast food, described the Bible study setting to me and what he enjoys most.
“After breakfast and the morning input, I like the table discussions we have while sitting at round tables together. At the table where I sit, it’s often the same guys sitting together. Over time we’ve built trust and really get to know each other. It’s a deep connection, not just surface level conversation,” said Blosser.
Steve Pardini, who recently completed a term serving as Virginia Mennonite Conference Council chair and is part of the Bible study planning team, noted that not everyone chooses to sit at the same table.
“One of the men deliberately sits at a different table every week,” Pardini added. “He intentionally wants to get to know the various men in the larger group.”
I learned so much in this conversation. The Bible study input is planned out in advance, sometimes connecting to a multi-week series, and guest presenters are common. A collection is taken each week, enabling the group to offer an honorarium to presenters. By visiting the Bible study’s website, you can see who will be leading in the coming weeks. Folks can even view the YouTube recordings of the input and hear recordings of the men singing hymns together. Clearly this group is organized!
“Also, it’s not the same format each week. There is variety in who’s teaching and in the way we do Bible Study. A few weeks ago, our presenter had to cancel. With short notice Floyd Blosser volunteered to lead by presenting scripture as a Bible character,” Pardini noted.
“Our time together is not focused on what divides us. Sure, there are differences held in this group. But there are many things in the Bible we can study together. We value the relationships we have with each other more. The Spirit is creating community.”
Blosser added that, “I see our Bible study as a unifying time for men from different conferences and denominations. It may be one of the only occasions where this happens.”
Jim Musser also chimed in with, “Food also brings us together!” He also complimented Blosser’s breakfast-making skills. Hard-boiled eggs, bacon, and coffee were mentioned.
Others pointed out that Musser takes on the role of the breakfast team leader and is always there very early to get coffee started. Recently, when Blosser had surgery and couldn’t purchase food for breakfast, Jim stepped up to cover it. Then Ken Horst, from the planning team, did food purchases while Floyd recovered.
These men are deeply committed to showing up for one another and to providing opportunities to grow their faith together. I am moved to bear witness to the details of this men’s Bible study, and I invite you and your community to pray for their continued commitment to studying God’s word together and building community among men. You may also contact this group by e-mailing Virginia.mennonite.men@gmail.com.
Does your congregation or conference have a men’s Bible study or a men’s group with a story to share? If not, are you looking for one to join or feeling the nudge to start one? Mennonite Men welcomes hearing from you with stories, ideas, and requests for resourcing as we work to encourage men as followers of Jesus for God’s shalom. Anyone who wishes can reach out to us and find digital resources by visiting our website at www.mennonitemen.org.
People who work closely with livestock may understand this imagery well, perhaps better than most in the US and Canada today. Jesus calls us into partnership, side by side as companions and co-laborers.
This imagery from Matthew’s gospel helps inform my understanding of partnership and following in Jesus’ way towards God’s shalom. We walk in step with other followers to carry daunting loads together, not alone. Mennonite Men aims to walk and work in solidarity with partner organizations, church conferences, and congregations towards a Jesus-centered justice. We cannot do our work alone or in isolation.
Pursuing Jesus-Centered Justice with Partnerships
by Jon Zirkle
28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’
I love this passage from Matthew 11:28-30, especially given the agricultural imagery of taking on a yoke. This passage didn’t make as much sense to me until I visited an animal husbandry organization where I saw and felt handmade yokes. These yokes were purposefully made out of lightweight wood, and they were designed to bring together two animals—usually oxen—to share their work side by side. Many cultures around the world rely on livestock to cultivate soil or carry heavy loads far distances. Perhaps better than most in the US and Canada today’, people who work with livestock understand this imagery well. Jesus calls us into partnership, side by side as companions and co-laborers.
This imagery from Matthew’s gospel helps inform my take on the work of partnership and following in Jesus’ way towards God’s shalom. We walk in step with other followers to carry daunting loads together, not alone. Mennonite Men aims to walk and work in solidarity with partner organizations, church conferences, and congregations towards a Jesus-centered justice. We cannot do our work alone or in isolation. And we need Christ as our guide.
I want to highlight some examples of how partnership is playing out for Mennonite Men right now and how we are confronted by Christ’s calling towards justice as we do so. Our longstanding ministry called JoinHands (once called Tenth Man) has given out grants to newer congregations who wish to purchase their first building. Over $2,000,000 has been given out over 40 years to over 90 individual congregations in the United States, Canada, and countries around the world. Praise God!
Photo: Canva Pro
In recent years Mennonite Men has not received many JoinHands applications from US and Canadian congregations. Applications we do receive are often from immigrant and refugee congregations. Congregations of immigrants and refugees in the United States may struggle in working with banks and getting loans, potentially facing hardships and discrimination when doing so. I suspect many Mennonite congregations of majority European descent are funding the purchase of new buildings internally and perhaps are successfully acquiring traditional bank loans. Matters of fairness, privilege, and discrimination quickly show themselves.
On the other hand, Mennonite Men is increasingly receiving more JoinHands and JoinTrees grant requests from congregations and organizations in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. With international grant applications, our partners play an essential role for Mennonite Men in better understanding the congregation and their context if we can’t dialogue directly with the congregation. For example, I spoke with Mennonite Church Canada’s Witness Liaison, Norm Dyck, earlier this summer by Zoom who helped share insights about a JoinHands grant application coming from a congregation he knows of in Myanmar. And our ongoing partnership with Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM) has helped connect Mennonite Men with African congregations applying for JoinHands grants and JoinTrees grants. As I’ve learned from the late Executive Coordinator, John Fumana (who died tragically in May 2026), and Interim Coordinator, Tara Burch, AIMM also does an incredible amount of cultural translation, language translation, and technological legwork to help some applicants fill out Mennonite Men grant applications.
Through partnership Mennonite Men discovers so much, and what we discover is humbling and transformative for North American Mennonites. It is very humbling to discover the many layers of additional work that applicants whose first language is not English or who do not have reliable internet for digital communications have to go through simply to apply for a grant. We are also humbled by the disparities of resources and stability (geopolitical and climate-related) between applicants that shapes the reasons they are applying in the first place. JoinHands applications from communities in Global South countries are often worshipping outdoors with no structure, in structures with no roof, or in structures made of salvaged materials that are vulnerable to inclement weather and theft. Many JoinTrees grant applications coming from the Global South propose growing trees that will provide food, fiber, and economic livelihood as well as protection from oppressive tropical heat. Our international sisters and brothers applying for grants are living with realities of deforestation, poverty, hunger, violence, and war-ravaged landscapes.
I return to the Matthew 11 image Jesus gives us of being yoked together with him, the imagery and invitation this gives us for how to follow in his ways. Jesus invites us into deeper and even more vulnerable territory of partnership. When we agree to being yoked together with our partner and rooted in Christ, we see and hear and feel up-close what our fellow sister or brother is experiencing. Sometimes it’s messy and uncomfortable being yoked together. But both parties are changed. Both partners have more stability and clarity to move forward together towards God’s shalom. The burden is lighter indeed.
Mennonite Men is at a threshold, one in which I believe Jesus is showing us the disparities that exist among God’s people. Following Jesus for God’s shalom may involve deeper looks into our policies and making policy changes. Doing our work may mean getting more intercultural competency training and more intentional relationship building with partners of varying backgrounds. I believe this can help build our capacities for relationship.
I welcome your responses and prayers about pursuing Christ-centered partnership. I invite you, your congregation, your conference, or your company or organization to support our work and our commitment to partnership through prayer, through amplifying our messages (and sharing about our work online and verbally), and through financial gifts. Help us continue taking steps forward into the work of love, rooted in the ways of Jesus.
Mennonite Men has a long history of carrying out its mission and ministry in Canada and the US, as well as having board members and leadership from both countries. Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) is also a binational organization and has Canadian faculty and staff members as well as those based in the United States. One such Canadian staff member at AMBS is Yoel Masyawong who serves as Development Associate for Canada. Yoel also is a pastor in Ontario, the Regional Minister for Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (MCEC), a husband, and a father.
Photo: Yoel Masyawong
I have had the pleasure to meet with Yoel recently to get to know him as a fellow brother in Christ and learn about his ministry as well as his life in Canada. In talking with him I learned that he and diverse group of other Canadian pastors recently embarked on a five-day wilderness canoe trip together. I wanted to learn more.
What Yoel shared was profound. A number of the men present on the trip were from urban settings, some of them leaders of immigrant congregations. I asked Yoel what felt special about this experience.
“The special thing about having men from diverse cultural backgrounds together was that we shared life in a very simple and meaningful way as men. There was a kind of common, unspoken men’s culture that connected us, something that could not be defined by our job titles, economic backgrounds, or different life experiences. We had one another’s backs, helped one another, and listened to one another. If someone could not paddle, someone else would paddle for him. If someone could not portage, another person would step in and help. One person could look for firewood while another started the fire. We learned to depend on each other.
In hearing Yoel bear witness to this story, I sensed the living Christ and asked Yoel where he sensed Christ showing up in the experience:
“One of the ways I believe Christ showed up was in the way we cared for one another. The most important thing I learned from the wilderness experience is that Christian community is not about everyone being the same. It is about learning how to live together as one body of Christ while bringing our own stories, cultures, and gifts. It was not only about conversations about faith, but also about the relationships we built with one another through sharing life together.”
I hope this trip inspires others in the US and throughout Canada to break bread and explore God’s creation together, including in groups that are comprised of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, men from rural and urban settings, and men of different ages. Click here If you would like to read the piece Yoel wrote for Mennonite Church Eastern Canada. You can also read more about Yoel on the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary website and learn about the intercultural worship gathering and potluck he is promoting and helping lead October 2026 in Kitchner, Ontario.
Please reach out if your men’s group, congregation, conference, or friend circle wants support or ideas from Mennonite Men regarding experiences that join men together. In the mean time, you are in our prayers and please pray for Yoel in his work and ministry as a follower of Jesus for God’s shalom.
Mennonite Men’s JoinTrees campaign is proud to support a project in Kenya from Wakulima ni Sisi (We Are The Farmers) called “Trees for Food, Peace and Ecological Healing”. Not only is this project generating native and edible trees and perennial crops but also providing education about regenerative agriculture to farmers, schools, and local communities in Kenya and beyond.
Samuel Lasiti and Ariana Perez Diener are the leaders of this project. I spoke with them a few months ago by Zoom to learn more about the project and their lives in Kenya. They shared that their location is quite dry and it is a challenge to retain the little moisture they receive from rainfall. Practices like mulching, using biochar, and digging swales help slow down and retain precipitation. Samuel and Ariana are promoting native trees and plants which are better adapted to the climate. They are certified in permaculture, are trained in coppicing and silvopasturing, and both have worked on diverse farms in the US and elsewhere. They also have been offering trainings to local farmers on sustainable practices for over a year now. They plan to grow many trees from seed for this nursery project. Clearly they care deeply about God’s creation and being stewards.
“We do a lot of seed collecting when we go on walks,” they told me.
Farmers in this part of Kenya face many challenges. Overgrazing is a problem, and it is tempting for farmers to graze their animals in areas where trees have been planted. Most tree nurseries sell exotic trees and the nearest tree nursery is over two hours away. And in this part of the world, it’s possible for elephants to come through the area, making it important to put up fencing on new plantings.
These challenges don’t appear to stop Samuel and Ariana and the We Are the Farmers group to have big ambitions. With help from the JoinTrees grant funding from Mennonite Men, they plan to plant over 24,000 trees, plant trees in partnership local schools, teach workshops for farmers for 50 farmers in the area selected for training. These farmers will receive 200-250 trees for their farms depending on how larger their farms are.
Mennonite Men is so excited to support this work and to be part of a growing community of Earth stewards to raise and plant native trees, increase food security, and be part of healing God’s creation around the world.
To learn more about We Are The Farmers and their impressive work, visit their website at https://wearethefarmers.org.
In its final chapter of Revelation, the Bible ends with imagery of the tree of life. I love that Scripture is bookended with creation, healing, and abundance.
Mennonite Men’s JoinTrees campaign is rooted in the biblical call to care for God’s creation. Our campaign is not only intended to reduce the harmful effects of climate change, but also to be life-giving to creatures, people, faith communities, and ecosystems. Tree planting efforts create jobs as well as hope. Together, the JoinTrees campaign enables you to participate in reconciliation and restoration as active agents in repair, rooted in love.
As our fiscal year comes to a close July 31 and a new budget cycle begins August 1, we hope for a strong finish and a strong beginning. Tree planting efforts in central Illinois, Elkhart County (Indiana), Kenya, and Indonesia are being funded and getting underway. Many of the trees being planted will help reduce pressures to cut down native forests.
Please pray for the JoinTrees ministry of tree planting and creation care, including our partners in North America and across the globe. Gifts from individuals, family estates, companies, congregations, and conferences towards the JoinTrees campaign are welcomed, and these gifts make a difference!
Mennonite Men is engaged in exciting work with the JoinHands ministry. In the past few months, we have received requests from congregations on the African continent who are without a place to worship. We are humbled to learn of the barriers that our sisters and brothers in Global South countries face which hinder their abilities to build or purchase a church structure and what it means to gather without a secure space. Partnering across continents and across cultures takes relational commitment, patience for all partners, becoming educated about what a project actually entails to get started, and almost always more time than is often desired by both partners. Our commitment to this work and ministry remains, and we are committed to remain rooted in the love and grace and teachings of Jesus Christ.
Being committed to learning, patience, relational care, and the ways of Jesus naturally means that we are constantly being confronted with needs to adapt and change. There are new opportunities to not just share money with congregations but to root ourselves more intentionally in longstanding relationship. We realize ministry involves more than financial transaction, and we long to deepen our commitments to congregations who receive JoinHands grants. This could involve collaborative partnerships with church agencies and other nonprofits, Zoom calls to build connection and understanding with congregations receiving grants, follow-up communication, in-person visits where both parties mutually bear witness, and perhaps modifying our grant application and grant policies. Who knows what the future might hold. But surely the future involves more capacity and engagement.
As Mennonite Men wraps up its fiscal year and begins a new fiscal year August 1, we ask you as our partners to continue praying for the projects in North America and across the world that are in process and for new grant applications we have yet to receive. We ask you to continue believing in our ministry by helping us grow the pool of available resources to new congregations and to spread the word to new congregations in your area, your province, your conference that we are open to receiving JoinHands grant applications. Let’s be creative! Contact us if you have ideas, dreams, and new energy for this longstanding ministry of Mennonite Men.
After a few years of waiting to adopt a child, my wife and I received an e-mail on a Sunday afternoon that changed our lives. Hours before folks at church asked me for updates about our adoption. I didn’t have much to say. After an afternoon nap, I awoke to hear my wife tell me we got an e-mail from our adoption agency titled “new adoption case—mother in labor.”
Before she had read the full e-mail aloud, we got a text from our adoption agency. This mom was choosing between us and just one other couple. We were e-mailed four questions to answer as soon as possible. After hitting send, we got a call minutes later.
“The mom read your answers, and she is choosing you two. Can you buy plane tickets and fly out here tomorrow?”
We said yes, and the rest is history still unfolding.
This wild adoption story is our lived reality. It’s far too fresh and too personal to share all details. However, there is witness to bear. Far from home, we’ve encountered the love of Christ and the gifts of the Spirit around every corner—in Uber rides to and from the hospital, in free meals from Ronald McDonald house, and in the holy and vulnerable conversations with nurses, doctors, hospital volunteers, and other new parents facing uncertainty. My wife and I have sudden situations where we are asked about our faith commitments, including with random strangers and a birth mother. I’m frequently in situations where I ponder gender and how masculinity gets expressed, experienced, and tested—in talking with other men (including total strangers) about fatherhood, being one of many fathers experiencing the stress of sudden and difficult births, and in being a new dad with a male baby boy spending many hours a day in a hospital wing filled with babies, young moms, and a female-majority nursing staff. I’m learning to be a man in new ways. And I’m learning to be a dad.
My wife and I joke that I’m in ‘Dad School’. I’m an enrolled student, living the lessons and drinking from a firehose while doggy paddling. Many males throughout the US and Canada, throughout MCUSA and MC Canada, and all over the world are also going through ‘Dad School’ too or will be in the future. But many of us don’t have male friends, don’t have a men’s group, don’t have a positive father figure or male family member, and don’t have faith for guidance and support during the testing experiences of Dad School. On the other side of that coin, there are many boys in need of love and support from a dad or father figure. The tiny baby boy in many hands is one of them. We all do.
Father’s Day may have been celebrated back in June, but being a father is an experience and an honor that many of us will practice daily for much of our lives. But being a father is not like a once-a-week Sunday worship service and not once-a-year holiday. Fatherhood is an ongoing commitment. In trying to practice Anabaptist faith, being a father will be shaped by trying to follow in the ways of Jesus, being rooted in community, and actively participating in reconciliation. My journey as a father is just beginning, yet I am confident that I will need help from male peers, role models, family members, and my faith community along the way. Being in a men’s group, having male friendships where I can be honest about what’s hard and what’s beautiful, and being in spaces where I am accountable to respecting women and supporting mothers suddenly feels more important than ever before.
I look at this new baby boy and hope I will try my best to be a good father. I hope we can navigate this crazy life together as a team. I hope I can continue learning from him what it means to come to Jesus as a child. And I hope I can model for him my attempts at serving God and being a co-creator in the peaceable kin-dom where all of God’s people and all of creation is cared for and respected.
To all the fathers, grandfathers, uncles, male mentors, and stand-in male father figures out there, thank you for taking part in the life of a child. It will be hard, we will mess up, and there is much joy and reward to experience regardless. It’s holy work. Let’s join together to walk the Good Road with each other. Visit www.mennonitemen.org/joinmen and reach out to Mennonite Men for resources and ideas of how to join with other men on this journey.
The Christian Bible gives us four accounts of Jesus. We see different angles of Jesus—Jesus as a baby, as an adolescent, and as an adult man. Jesus appears to his disciples after his death. Stories describe his birth and his brutal execution, his adult experiences of escaping to wilderness for prayer, walking long distances, healing sick people and casting out demons, crossing boundaries and facing taboo head-on, feeding others, riding on donkeys unarmed. As a male Jesus had a life full of experiences that involved risk.
Here in 2026 living on the North American continent, displays of masculinity constantly confront us in the media, online, at sporting events, and in politics. Boys and men daily see images of men who dominate on the field, in the bedroom, and in the workplace. Often the images in ads are of men alone, solo heroes. We see men who refuse to admit wrong-doing, men who abuse and steal without consequences, men driving big trucks through rivers and over huge boulders, men worshipped for their chiseled bodies. Men are portrayed as above reproach, measured by their financial worth, have things under control and are in control.
These images are vastly different than what we hear in the stories of Jesus. The Jesus I witness was a man who forgave others, a man who left behind a normal way of life in order to share good news and help others who suffer, a man who wept openly and cried out to God, centered love and service, could express joy and took time to celebrate with friends, and regularly depended on a group of men. The Jesus I read about was not married with children, did not own a house or many possessions, was bullied and taunted and threatened, and didn’t retaliate towards enemies. He was obedient to that which was beyond him, to his Creator. He believed in the power of prayer. He was willing to publicly die in a humiliating way. I can only imagine the kind of bullying, name-calling, and taunting Jesus would experience if living in 2026.
Are we—am I—ready to follow Jesus?
Following Jesus as a male in 2026 in North America is feeling pretty radical. Let’s be real. We—myself included—are continually tempted to believe that we don’t need help from others, that work and making money are more important than offering love and service, that “our” time is better spent working out than in prayer and fellowship. Porn, fierce competition, displays of unfiltered anger and violence, and celebrations of war and military service abound. This can all feel overwhelming. I believe we men need support, a healthy sense of self, a commitment to prayer, and vulnerable brotherly community to follow Jesus’ alternative path.
If you identify as male and you’re reading this right now, I hope you know that you are not alone if you are struggling to resist the forces that bombard us as men. I hope you know that your life, your story, your gifts, your body, the person that you are really matters in this life and beyond. I hope you can hear God’s voice that calls your name, that you feel permission to lean into the messages of Jesus, rejecting false idols of empire and domination.
I hope you’ll join other men who want to try to follow Jesus. If you (or another male in your life) do not have community, consider attending a men’s retreat or to join or start a men’s group, which could be an online group. Identify a friend, family member, co-worker, therapist, pastor, or another mature person you trust who might help you connect or might even join you in your search for fellowship. Reach out to us at Mennonite Men by e-mail for ideas. Explore our resources, books, and videos found at https://mennonitemen.org/joinmen/. Brothers, you are in our prayers.
