Mennonite men

[kscarle]

At a Mennonite church I reckon the ladies will be dressed a certain way, but how do the men dress?

This is perhaps an odd question but my husband called (he's at work) and asked me to post this questions

[Brother Randy]

kscarle,

This is a good question It depends alot on the Mennonite church. 0

In our church which is a mixture from different areas. Some of us have beards, wear Mennonite style suits, other will wear just white shirts , or fairly plain ones, dress pants, undershirt. loosely fitted clothing . Men are to be modestly dressed too not just the ladies. Not all but alot will button up the top button on their shirt. Our hair is very conserative in style. Mine tends to get a bit long at times when I am busy dear wife has to remind me to get it cut. I hope this helps all I can think of right now.

I would have to say our ladies are more uniform in dress the us men tend to be, was a time when it was not that way.

Bro Randy

[Tammy]

The mennonites here in Guatemala wear those mennonite suits on the Lord's day (Daniel likes 'em). I don't remember seeing any beards when we visited the church, but I didn't sit on the men's side of the sanctuary.

During the week, plain shirts, no flashy colors or patterns.

[kscarle]

thank you for the reply...but If you will please answer a couple more, this is important to my husband because he is considering us visiting one of there churches this Sunday and we know little to nothing about them. Yes we are IFB but there are reasons we will not be at church this Sunday (see the post Church at the Lake?) My DH doesn't know what a Mennonite suit is; He asks if they wear ties or if they wear a suit jacket (I suppose he meant like a sports coat). Do the women and men sit together?

My husband shaves his head so hair length shouldn't be an issue and he wears long sleeve button shirts and pants on regular days. Again I know this is an odd question for me to be asking about but my husband reads the post (probably more than me sometimes) and ask me to do this.

[anabean]

At the Mennonite Church I attend, the men wear a "mennonite suit". The suit has no collar and all the men button the top shirt. Almost no conservative mennonite man will wear a tie...no men in my church wear ties as we see it a useless decorative ornament. The men at our churches have clean-cut beards and short hair. Men do sit on one side and the ladies on the other. (For us, this is because we are a church family and not a church of families) The brothers are with their brothers and the sisters are with their sisters. I hope you enjoy your experience and I hope they treat you with Jesus' love.

-Anabean

[George]

Hey Brother Anabean, it is good to see you among us again. I have missed your presence.

In Christ,
George

[nivek]

Hi. We have been visiting a couple of Mennonite churches lately. I would say they will likely be very accepting of you on your initial visits even if you are dressed different than is their custom. As long as you are modest, I would imagine that is their only expectation for new visitors. And, the style of dress does vary by church.

But, to answer the question, we have definitely not seen ties worn. Beards of some sort usually are. At the churches we have been to, suspenders are not, but these are somewhat more liberal Mennonite churches. My basic comment here would be that the churches we have been too definitely have less distinctive attire for the men than the women.

Enjoy your visit! I know we have enjoyed our visits to the Mennonite churches "near" us, if you can call 2.5 hours "near" We definitely feel the Lord leading us to the Anabaptist way of thinking and living.

Brother Kevin

[nivek]

And the men and women do typically sit on separate sides.

Brother Kevin

[allglorytogod]

I know we have enjoyed our visits to the Mennonite churches "near" us, if you can call 2.5 hours "near"

Now that's a loooong drive

[SisterNancy]

since I am not Mennonite I will not reply as if I have the knowledge you are seeking but, as a person who has visited Mennonite churches I will tell you my experience. If you have a phone number for them you can call and ask what that particular church is like. I have had some conversation with a very conservative church and as brother Kevin said they will accept you as you are if you are a visitor. Just dress respectively. ie: modest. maybe if your husband has black dress pants and a white dress shirt(button down). and you wear a modest skirt and top. We went to a more "liberal" Mennonite church and we were the modest ones. so, it depends on the church really.

[Brother Ben]

We have been to different groups of Mennonite churches also. One experience, I will relate, is the "black bumper" church near us. They drive cars and have electric, but the cars can't be newer than a couple of years old and they have to be painted black, (no chrome.) The men and women sit on opposite sides and the men are very uniform in dress. Dark slacks, a solid shirt, and black or dark blue suspenders. They wear a black hat at all times, except when they are in the house, or in the church. If it is cool, they will will wear a strait collar (Mennonite) jacket.

We really appreciate the brethren there. We also like the Acapella singing.

[allglorytogod]

One experience, I will relate, is the "black bumper" church near us.

I have seen these ' black bumper ' cars ... the cars are also black in color ... somedays I'll drive past the large mennonite store and see lots of these cars parked out front.

I have never gone to one of their churches ... I think it would be most interesting

[kscarle]

Although we really were interested in going, we did not, instead we went to two churches, both of which we chose so we did not have to answer alot of questions, we should have gone to the Mennonite church in the morning service though, it was suppose to be an independent baptist church, but it was VERY liberal and the pastor actually tried to explained why pants really weren't a mans clothing. For the evening service we drove all the way down to midville Ga. and went to a church where they may have been a dozen of us, but the preacher they had in was an old saint of God and preached on heaven...As I recall I can only recollect two sermons that I have ever heard on that, it turned out that I had met his wife before.

[allglorytogod]

it was VERY liberal and the pastor actually tried to explained why pants really weren't a mans clothing.

It's funny ... well, not really ... but I didn't really understand the pants issue until I came here and read the posts explaining it really well about the ' breeches ' ... after learning, I shortly thereafter changed over to wearing skirts full time ... I'm thankful for the explanation I got here at HCB ...

[SisterNancy]

you had me thinking about visiting this other more conservative Mennonite church but, every time I see some of their woman around they are very unfriendly. Honestly, I am afraid to go there. At the hospital early this week there was a woman there with two daughters. we both had head coverings on I said hello and she just snubbed me. oh well. guess I got my answer then. lol we will stick with the brethren crowd for now.

yet that said I know another conservative church further away that has invited us to visit and would welcome us. they are just to far.