31 Days: How Does It Work?

All Beachy/Mennonite churches hold to the basic statements of belief that I just laid out. The way it works out in a practical sense is, each church takes these beliefs and decides how they will apply them to their lives. Traditionally, every Beachy/Mennonite church has a list of standards (rules) written up which their members agree to uphold as a way of putting their beliefs to practice and upholding a sense of unity in the church.

These standards vary widely from church to church. Some spell out explicit details about how members must dress, restrictions on the types of vehicles their members drive, and so forth. Some churches hold standards that are very detailed, some that are more generalized.

Having a list of "rules" is viewed by many as a safer way to: 1) Keep a church from straying away from it's beliefs. 2) Keep a group of people unified. 3) Provide a safe environment to raise families.

As I mentioned at the beginning, the church I grew up in chose to do things a little differently...