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2008-04-01 issue:

Executive Board wants radical changes for Mennonite Church USA structures

Calls for one system of communication, funding, one integrated board; feedback from delegates at San José, constituency leaders is cited as reason.

by Marathana Prothro

Print Article

In a meeting March 16-17 with the executive directors and board chairs of Mennonite Education Agency, Mennonite Mission Network, MMA and Mennonite Publishing Network (Mennonite Church USA’s churchwide agencies), the moderator and moderator-elect of Mennonite Church USA shared the Executive Board’s vision for a reformed and unified churchwide organization.

Moderator Sharon Waltner of Parker, S.D., and moderator-elect Ed Diller of Cincinnati, Ohio, expressed the board’s concerns to the group, which also included Mennonite Church USA executive director Jim Schrag and associate executive director Ron Byler. At its Feb.
8-9 meeting in San Antonio, Texas, the Executive Board (EB) said the denomination’s vision and call “is not adequately supported by our present relationships, behaviors and organization.”



Sharon Waltner

To support the vision of Mennonite Church USA, the EB is calling for a unified churchwide communication and identity system and a simple, cohesive funding system.

The EB is also suggesting that an additional person be added to the Executive Leadership staff with the goal of assisting the executive director to ensure churchwide ministries practice good stewardship by reducing duplication and increasing organizational effectiveness at meeting congregational needs.

Finally, the EB believes the unity of purpose needed to adequately support the vision requires the development of one integrated board of directors for the denomination that would replace the individual boards for each agency.

“Too often, we appear scattered organizationally and motivated by narrow purposes and segmented missions that do not equip our members and congregations for ministry,” Waltner said. “Our future depends on our ability to grasp new relationships and behaviors that support community, equip our members and offer a clear, focused, unified identity and witness for Christ in the world.”

Waltner said the EB came to these conclusions in two closed sessions without staff present at its San Antonio meeting (see Feb. 19, page 22). The board agreed it was important to share and discuss this direction first with agency executives and board chairs before public discussion.

Area conference and constituency group leaders will be invited into the conversation when the Constituency Leaders Council (CLC) meets March 31-April 2 in Mt. Pleasant, Pa.
The EB agreed at its September 2007 meeting—its first of the biennium—in Newton, Kan., to lift up Vision: Healing and Hope and its missional church priorities as a framework for future board direction. The board said it would lead the church in responding to the Church Member Profile findings and evaluate churchwide systems by how effectively they supported congregations.

Also at its September meeting, the EB agreed it would accept its leadership position and authority in Mennonite Church USA. Waltner and Diller said this guiding principle was stirred by delegate responses at San José 2007 calling for the EB to take a more prominent role in vision and leadership for the whole of the denomination.

Waltner and Diller said the denomination’s six-year review, delegate table group responses from San José 2007, feedback from CLC, a 2006 CLC task force report, a 2005 funding study and the Church Member Profile 2006 all indicate a need for improving the ability of churchwide ministries to function effectively, to relate to each other and support area conferences and congregations as they seek to join God’s work in the world.



Ed Diller

Waltner said that while the Executive Board has stated its desired outcomes, it wants to engage the other parts of the church in developing a plan for how to achieve them. She said the board wants the best thinking from across the church on how best to reorganize the denomination and its agencies in a way that best meets congregational needs.

One churchwide communication and identity system: The EB sees redundancy—such as multiple news services, uncoordinated congregational mailings and competing organizational identities—in the area of communication as a hindrance to the denomination’s combined capacity to enable Mennonite Church USA congregations and members to strengthen their witness. At present, each of the agencies and Executive Leadership coordinates some joint communication, though the majority of each staff’s work is separate from the work of other staff. To remedy the duplication, the EB calls for one churchwide communication and identity system headed by and in the denominational center.

Area conferences will need to help shape and participate in a new churchwide communication system. The board wants the system to include The Mennonite so that all communication from church entities to congregations and their members are integrated.

A simple and unified funding system: Mennonite Church USA has multiple funding systems that are complicated and lead to what appears to be competition among agencies, colleges, area conferences and related groups for funds. Each agency is responsible for raising its own funds independent of the others. Executive Leadership does not actively raise funds from individuals but relies on contributions from area conferences and agencies.

A funding study of Mennonite Church USA household giving completed in 2005 by Advancement Associates indicated that Mennonite Church USA is a small denomination with too many organizations competing with each other for the same funds.

For board members, this raises a concern about whether existing church structures are sustainable—or relevant—for the future of the denomination.

The board calls for a simple, unified funding system that respects designations from donors while providing funding where it’s most needed in the denomination. The funding system, like the communication system, will be headed by and in the denominational center.

One integrated board of directors: At present, each agency and The Mennonite has its own board of directors that are responsible to the EB, which acts on behalf of the Delegate Assembly, the denomination’s decision-making body, when it is not in session.

The EB is calling for an integrated board of directors for the agencies, Executive Leadership and The Mennonite that would make space for meaningful, connective voices from agencies and conferences. The shape of a new integrated board will be the subject of discussion between now and the all-boards meeting June 19-21 in Columbus, Ohio, Waltner said.

Next steps: After the CLC joins the conversation at its March 31-April 2 meeting in Mt. Pleasant, Pa., the EB’s Executive Committee will meet to evaluate the discussions with agencies and conferences. The committee also will prepare for discussion with other churchwide boards June 19-21. Boards participating in that meeting include the Executive Board, Mennonite Education Agency, Mennonite Mission Network, MMA, Mennonite Publishing Network and The Mennonite. This meeting was set more than a year ago and will be the first gathering of all Mennonite Church USA boards of directors since its inception in 2001. Immediately following the all-boards meeting in Columbus, the EB will have time to evaluate next steps. Those steps will be reported as they are discerned.

Diller shared his optimism about the future: “The strength of our vision, supported by clearer identity and stronger behaviors of community might surprise us in its capacity to invite increased support for all parts of our mission.”—Marathana Prothro for Mennonite Church USA

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