By Marathana Prothro
Mennonite Church USA

Moderator Sharon Waltner of Parker, S.D., and moderator-elect Ed Diller of Cincinnati, Ohio, shared the vision for a unified organization in a meeting March 16-17 with the executive directors and board chairs of MC USA’s churchwide agencies: Mennonite Education Agency, Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite Mutual Aid and Mennonite Publishing Network.

“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.”

At its Feb. 8-9 meeting in San Antonio, Texas, the Executive Board had stated that the denomination’s vision and call “is not adequately supported by our present relationships, behaviors and organization.”

The Executive Board sees redundancy in communication, such as multiple news services, uncoordinated congregational mailings and competing organizational identities. Each of the agencies and Executive Leadership coordinates some communication, though the majority of each staff’s work is separate.

To remedy the duplication, the Executive Board is calling for one churchwide communication system that is headed by and in the denominational center.

Currently, MC USA also has multiple funding systems, causing what appears to be competition among agencies, colleges, area conferences and related groups for funds. As the system currently operates, 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 to support its ministries.

A funding study of MC USA household giving completed in 2005 by Advancement Associates indicated that MC USA has too many organizations competing for the same funds.

The board calls for a unified funding system that respects designations from donors while providing funding where it is most needed in the denomination. The funding system would also be headed by and in the denominational center.

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

The Executive Board is calling for an integrated board of directors for the agencies, Executive Leadership and The Mennonite.

Waltner said the Executive Board came to these conclusions in two closed sessions without staff present at its San Antonio meeting. 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 meets March 31-April 2 in Mount Pleasant, Pa.

“An increasing number of congregations and area conferences are calling for integrated churchwide communications and funding practices that bring clarity to their connection to other parts of MC USA and support the whole denomination,” Diller said. “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.”

Waltner and Diller said the denomination’s six-year review, delegate table group responses from San José 2007, feedback from the CLC, a 2006 CLC task force report, a 2005 funding study and the Church Member Profile 2006 all indicated a need for churchwide ministries to improve in functioning effectively, relating to each other and supporting area conferences and congregations.

Area conferences will be needed 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 will be integrated.

After the CLC meeting in Mount Pleasant, Pa., the Executive Board’s executive committee will meet to evaluate the discussions with agencies and conferences.

All churchwide boards will meet June 19-21 in Columbus, Ohio. It will be the first gathering of all MC USA boards since the denomination’s inception in 2001.