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Mennonite Men is excited to announce it will be leading and co-leading three workshops at Follow Jesus 2025 this July in Greensboro, NC.  We hope to see many of you at this gathering of Mennonite Church USA and some of our workshops in particular. 

One of the workshops will focus on rites of passage for boys from an Anabaptist perspective.  You might be asking yourself, "what are 'rites of passage'?"  Many have asked this question before.  Come to the workshop to discuss and explore!  Essentially, 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 Men recognizes that this topic is of interest for a wide range of parents, families, and boys, and that there is not a goal of a singular approach to offering rites of passage that works for everyone.  In particular what might be unique about an Anabaptist approach?  Perhaps you have ideas.

This growing interest in rites of passage for boys has led the JoinMen committee and the full board of Mennonite Men to discuss and create an online survey about boys rites of passage.  Below is a link to this online survey. We hope many will participate in the survey.  Preliminary survey results will be shared during our workshop at Follow Jesus 2025.  The more responses we get the better.  Anyone is welcome to fill out the survey, and we also hope that many men will complete the survey. 

Find the survey here

See you in Greensboro! 

Jon Zirkle, Co-Director of Mennonite Men