Can Folks Afford to Join Your Church?

[Signtist]

A continuation of this discussion.

viewtopic.php?p=1679#p1679

The cost of joining a Mennonite church can be high. Some can scarcely afford the change in wardrobe or vehicles and education for their children not to menton the emotional toll. Can we make it easier for folks to join? Should we?

[Judas Maccabeus]

A continuation of this discussion.

viewtopic.php?p=1679#p1679

The cost of joining a Mennonite church can be high. Some can scarcely afford the change in wardrobe or vehicles and education for their children not to menton the emotional toll. Can we make it easier for folks to join? Should we?

In many moderate conservative groups, there are fewer changes needed. No car change for most, wife likely needs to get some clothing. I did not find an emotional toll at all. Most of it was things to get rid of (Ties, TV, wife's jewelry, wedding rings). So if finances are an issue, choose carefully.

How difficult/easy it is to join largely depends on what group you choose. Joining a BMA related group will require a whole lot less adjustment than an horse and buggy old order group.

J.M.

[Wade]

It took a while for us to come to terms with not being able to afford a Mennonite church we were in instruction class with before. I can't say that I acted rightly over the situation but it was a blessing from God showing us that we needed to go elsewhere.
Unfortunately, I wonder how often this happens to people before they even try any Mennonite church?

[Judas Maccabeus]

It took a while for us to come to terms with not being able to afford a Mennonite church we were in instruction class with before. I can't say that I acted rightly over the situation but it was a blessing from God showing us that we needed to go elsewhere.
Unfortunately, I wonder how often this happens to people before they even try any Mennonite church?

Just what kind of church was this? Old order? Eastern?

Seriously, for most of the churches I have had contact with the the cost would likely be minimal. Since my wife needed to get more clothes that would "pass" we must have visited half the thrift stores in Lancaster county.

FYI I am an NMB as well.

J.M.

[Wade]

It took a while for us to come to terms with not being able to afford a Mennonite church we were in instruction class with before. I can't say that I acted rightly over the situation but it was a blessing from God showing us that we needed to go elsewhere.
Unfortunately, I wonder how often this happens to people before they even try any Mennonite church?

Just what kind of church was this? Old order? Eastern?

Seriously, for most of the churches I have had contact with the the cost would likely be minimal. Since my wife needed to get more clothes that would "pass" we must have visited half the thrift stores in Lancaster county.

FYI I am an NMB as well.

J.M.

NWF

This was one experience and I can't speak that others would be like this.

In the places we have lived especially here in BC we can't find anything appropriate for my wife and daughters in stores or thrift stores. And it seems to be getting harder to even find just plain shirts for me and our sons. Mostly we just order things now but our finances are very different now too, that we can afford some things.

[Haystack]

This is a topic that weighs heavily on myself as a young adult. I know a lot of you don't like to hear how bad "kids" these days have it, because trust me I know a lot of you grew up when times were tough, but hear me out here. The ratio of salary has not caught up to the ratio of how much things cost today. Example, lets say back in the day someone made $1.50/hr, cars were around $2.000, houses were about $15,000, etc etc. Today lets say someone makes $10.00/hr, average car price is $25,000, average house price today is $377,700. House prices alone are enough to make a young adult feel hopeless and question how they will ever be able to own a house one day. Now I know some of you will be saying "$377,700 for a house?! Not in my area." Yes that is true, maybe houses are cheaper in your area, but rural houses are becoming a commodity with urbanization and prices are only going to keep rising, it will hit your area soon enough.

I used to live in a small rural farming town. I still live there, but I say used to because my small rural town has doubled (maybe even tripled ) since I was born, all the farmers are getting pushed out, farm land is being replaced with houses and shopping centers, and the cost of living is so high that it's not uncommon to live with your parents until your 30 years old. To rent a tiny room, yes just a room in someones house is about $1,000/month, a 1 br apparent about $2,000, and a house will be about $4-5,000/month. I know people that went to fancy 4 year colleges and are now working minimal wage jobs because they couldn't find a job with their degree. Look at how much the world has changed in the last 20 years, how many more jobs will be lost to technology or outsourcing, how much will it cost to live in 20 more years? If we keep eliminating jobs, and wages don't reflect todays prices, what do we do then?

Lately I've been thinking about communal living and how I think it could be beneficial to plain groups if it's set up in a way that everyone lives on a giant chunk of land together. Each family could build a house of their own and pay into a fund to cover the costs of living there, but everything else would be much like it is today in plain communities. There could be a chunk of land to farm for those interested in farming, dedicated jobs in the community for other tasks such as running stores to sell goods that are produced, and the rest could work outside the community much like they do already. The only difference is we all live close together where we can practice our faith, preserve the land, and thrive together. We could eliminate the need for cars as everything will be on one giant piece of property so we can use other modes of transportation. I have many more ideas as well but this post is getting long..

[gcdonner]

This is a topic that weighs heavily on myself as a young adult. I know a lot of you don't like to hear how bad "kids" these days have it, because trust me I know a lot of you grew up when times were tough, but hear me out here. The ratio of salary has not caught up to the ratio of how much things cost today. Example, lets say back in the day someone made $1.50/hr, cars were around $2.000, houses were about $15,000, etc etc. Today lets say someone makes $10.00/hr, average car price is $25,000, average house price today is $377,700. House prices alone are enough to make a young adult feel hopeless and question how they will ever be able to own a house one day. Now I know some of you will be saying "$377,700 for a house?! Not in my area." Yes that is true, maybe houses are cheaper in your area, but rural houses are becoming a commodity with urbanization and prices are only going to keep rising, it will hit your area soon enough.

WOW! You have expensive tastes. I have never owned a new car or a new house. Our most expensive house over the years was about $90,000 and our most expensive car we just bought was $7500. For most of our life a $1000 car was out of our price range. Have you considered that you are setting your sights too high for a young person starting out? Thrift goes a long way. We have lived under the poverty level more than once and most of that time still had a home of our own and a suitable vehicle. BTW, down here in MN you can start at $14 per hour at Aldies...

[Haystack]

This is a topic that weighs heavily on myself as a young adult. I know a lot of you don't like to hear how bad "kids" these days have it, because trust me I know a lot of you grew up when times were tough, but hear me out here. The ratio of salary has not caught up to the ratio of how much things cost today. Example, lets say back in the day someone made $1.50/hr, cars were around $2.000, houses were about $15,000, etc etc. Today lets say someone makes $10.00/hr, average car price is $25,000, average house price today is $377,700. House prices alone are enough to make a young adult feel hopeless and question how they will ever be able to own a house one day. Now I know some of you will be saying "$377,700 for a house?! Not in my area." Yes that is true, maybe houses are cheaper in your area, but rural houses are becoming a commodity with urbanization and prices are only going to keep rising, it will hit your area soon enough.

WOW! You have expensive tastes. I have never owned a new car or a new house. Our most expensive house over the years was about $90,000 and our most expensive car we just bought was $7500. For most of our life a $1000 car was out of our price range. Have you considered that you are setting your sights too high for a young person starting out? Thrift goes a long way. We have lived under the poverty level more than once and most of that time still had a home of our own and a suitable vehicle. BTW, down here in MN you can start at $14 per hour at Aldies...

My averages were national averages based off of Google, not necessarily my idea of living. I drive a 30 year old car and most of my clothes are used. I think there's too many different types of Anabaptist with different backgrounds to see eye to eye. For me traditional farming is important to me so obviously land is my main concern. Unless your family has a farm to pass down to you then you're out of luck now adays if that's what you want to do.

[gcdonner]

This is a topic that weighs heavily on myself as a young adult. I know a lot of you don't like to hear how bad "kids" these days have it, because trust me I know a lot of you grew up when times were tough, but hear me out here. The ratio of salary has not caught up to the ratio of how much things cost today. Example, lets say back in the day someone made $1.50/hr, cars were around $2.000, houses were about $15,000, etc etc. Today lets say someone makes $10.00/hr, average car price is $25,000, average house price today is $377,700. House prices alone are enough to make a young adult feel hopeless and question how they will ever be able to own a house one day. Now I know some of you will be saying "$377,700 for a house?! Not in my area." Yes that is true, maybe houses are cheaper in your area, but rural houses are becoming a commodity with urbanization and prices are only going to keep rising, it will hit your area soon enough.

WOW! You have expensive tastes. I have never owned a new car or a new house. Our most expensive house over the years was about $90,000 and our most expensive car we just bought was $7500. For most of our life a $1000 car was out of our price range. Have you considered that you are setting your sights too high for a young person starting out? Thrift goes a long way. We have lived under the poverty level more than once and most of that time still had a home of our own and a suitable vehicle. BTW, down here in MN you can start at $14 per hour at Aldies...

My averages were national averages based off of Google, not necessarily my idea of living. I drive a 30 year old car and most of my clothes are used. I think there's too many different types of Anabaptist with different backgrounds to see eye to eye. For me traditional farming is important to me so obviously land is my main concern. Unless your family has a farm to pass down to you then you're out of luck now adays if that's what you want to do.

You have it right on the farming thing, and not just the land but all the equipment that is needed to do modern farming. Farm land back in PA where we moved from was very expensive and most of it got bought up by Mennonite families who passed it on to sons, like you said. You'd have to be a millionaire to buy there, but there are still places in the West where you can start small and do homesteading on a budget and even further north or down into the Ozarks. It's there if you are willing to look for it and work for it. Pray about it and if it is God's will, he will make a way. You might start out on someone else's farm as a hand, but getting your foot in the door and networking can open doors for a worker.

[Haystack]

I've side tracked another topic yet again

Something more topic related; cars. I understand why some Churches only use black cars, but black cars have a different meaning in society today while white is the new basic or plain car color. If they said white, grey and black cars, well then that would be a decent compromise, but narrowing it down to one color that is a popular and high class car color seems to go against the reason of having black cars in the first place. Maybe those Churches should go back to using horse and buggy?