Menfolk: Your church's standards on facial hair?

[steve-in-kville]

Come to think of it, years ago I shaved my head once too. Someone in church lost their hair from chemo, so I shaved my head. I forgot about that. I didn't keep it shaved, just shaved it and let it grow back. No one said anything to me about it that I remember. Or if they did, they must have accepted the reason.

I've known of this happening in Anabaptists circles for the very same reason. I have no problem with it.

[barnhart]

In terms of how one combs their hair, there is no expectation. At least none is coming to my mind at the moment. With the exception shaving the head.

So what if a guy was going bald anyway... still a no go?

When I was a boy a man in our church was balding so he kept his hair shorter and shorter as it progressed. Eventually the two trends met.

[steve-in-kville]

If I was balding I would just do away with it all and shave my head. My hair is thinning out up top (wife reminds me of this) and I've taken to getting "buzz cuts" at the barber to lessen the effects.

[Soloist]

If I was balding I would just do away with it all and shave my head. My hair is thinning out up top (wife reminds me of this) and I've taken to getting "buzz cuts" at the barber to lessen the effects.

Buzz cut is by far the easiest haircut to do yourself and you’d save money pretty fast if you did it yourself

[Sudsy]

Haven't done this in a while. We have some newer members among us, so perhaps we are due for a reboot

What standards, if any, does your church have on facial hair? Beards, mustaches, goatees, etc., feel free to share.

In most conservative Brethren circles, there seems to be various unwritten standards. The Mennonite groups I am aware of... seems it was always a hot topic of sorts. But then, I could be behind the times

In the Mennonite Brethren church I attended, these, what some might call 'holiness standards', were left to be a personal conviction matter between you and God. In the Pentecostal church that I was raised in, I don't recall anything expected of men with regard to facial hair and I don't know of any direct biblical reference that might be used to support a standard for hair on the head for men.

[Soloist]

Written: If a mustache is worn, it must be reasonably trimmed in order not to interfere with the practice of the holy kiss.
Unwritten: If facial hair is worn, anything different than clean shaven, beard without mustache, or beard with mustache, isn't acceptable. So no goatees, no mutton chops, not mustache without a beard.

Wife: I was talking to one of my friends, who married a Honduran native, about this, and was wondering how it works for the guys who can’t really grow much more than a mustache/goatee but still want to have facial hair? I have a half brother, whose dad is from Honduras, and the best he can do is a wimpy little soul patch, and Soloist’s dad can’t grow anything outside of a goatee(I don’t know if his uncles can even manage that). My friend in Honduras said that their culture considers it effeminate not to have facial hair, but most of the men can’t grow more than a mustache, and maybe a few chin whiskers. just wondering if there would be an exception for this. I was told that this might be why pilgrim loosened their mustache standards some years back.

PS I’m posting because it seems like women are allowed to post on this after all

[Soloist]

PS I’m posting because it seems like women are allowed to post on this after all

It’s mostly men posting on the woman’s thread anyway

[Sudsy]

My view is that creating church standards is not biblical and they often involve not just an attempt to be different from the world but also a distinction being made from other Christians in other churches. They have some Phariseeism at their core. And I think they often chase more people away from God then they do draw people to God.

When a person is required to live by standards of a church to be part of that church, then, imo, it interferes with true spiritual growth. I believe our relationship with God through the guidance of the Spirit is to be an on-going development process as the amplified Bible puts it in Romans 12:2 -

And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].

So, imo, within a local church the emphasis should not be in requiring everyone to follow a set of standards to force a certain look and practise of Christianity but rather to pray and encourage one another to pursue being lead by the Holy Spirit which will involve some difference as Christians develop spiritually. Some may look very 'set apart' from the world because they have faithfully follow church standards over the years yet their hearts can be quite distant from what God wants them to become.

I know others here do not agree with this view but there are Anabaptists and others that do or have something similar. I think churches go wrong when they impose a certain unique form of sanctification on all their members and this stifles spiritual development more that it encourages it.

[Soloist]

Sudsy, I would hazard a guess that everyone knows your view on it. Generally speaking, Anabaptists believe in some form of standards.

[Josh]

One of the oddest affectations of the Wesleyan Holiness movement was taking a stance against the beard, which infected Old Order Mennonites and consequently basically everyone plain who is not Amish.

John Holdeman’s major breaks with the old Mennonites (as distinctions between OO, modernist, and fundamentalist did not exist in 1859) was over rumspringa and the beard. He felt the beard was a God-ordained symbol of men just like the Christian woman’s covering.