A pastoral letter to the Mennonite Brethren congregations in Canada and the United States

Christian love and greetings to all of you. I pray you are experiencing the joy of the Lord as your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

When the Executive Committee was appointed at Fresno '95 to lead our binational General Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, it also was given a mandate for change. Alongside a deep commitment to the core values of our Mennonite Brethren peoplehood is the belief that we need to thoroughly review our binational ministries so we can, where necessary, adjust our approaches and structures to better serve our God.

We heard a call to shift our corporate emphasis in four areas:

  • 1. From churches serving the denominational structures to the denominational structures serving and empowering the local churches.
  • 2. From overlap in the management of our ministries to leaner facilitation.
  • 3. From conventions that are centred on business to conventions which emphasize worship, inspiration, learning and networking.
  • 4. From convention-centred management of our ministries to the empowerment of boards discerned by the churches, provinces/districts or nations for more efficient and effective management.

    In this context, the Executive Council organized a forum in which to evaluate our situation. These advisory meetings were held at ECCO Retreat Center near Fresno, Calif., Sept. 24-26. It was our goal to gather from across our constituency 35 representatives who would help us think about strategy rather than programs. We attempted to gather a demographic cross-section of our constituency: geographic location, age, gender and ethnicity. We did relatively well with the first two criteria; we regret we did poorly with the last two. Larry Nickel, a Mennonite Brethren who is executive director of Mennonite Health Services, served well as our facilitator.

    During our meeting, we reaffirmed our unswerving commitment to what we consider to be Mennonite Brethren core values:

  • authentic personal faith;
  • doctrinal agreement;
  • mission/evangelism;
  • discipleship/leadership training.

    Our fundamental options regarding our current structures are to: (1) leave them as they are; (2) make small adjustments or (3) make significant changes. Our group agreed that significant changes are needed. Individual and collective voices within the constituency have called for change and several of our binational ministries--such as MB Missions/Services, MB Biblical Seminary and the Board of Trustees--are already anticipating change.

    To better visualize potential changes, we formed seven working groups. Each group developed its own model for change. These models, then, were distilled into three primary models, all of which provided for the option of getting together in larger meetings for the purposes of worship, education, learning and networking. One model would place the district/provincial conferences at the core of our life together. The other two models placed the respective national conferences at the core, with one model featuring a partial separation of ministries between the United States and Canada while the other envisioned a complete separation of ministries.

    Whatever structural model is adopted, the group agreed the result must link local congregations more closely to ministry, factor in internationalization, continue our global ministries, retain theological/seminary education, provide a means to deal with theological/doctrinal matters, and ensure that congregations continue to meet corporately--at national or binational levels--for worship and inspiration.

    The ECCO group strongly agreed that the management of current binational ministries should be shifted either to the provinces/districts, national conferences or an appropriately representative board that is empowered by the constituency to make decisions. This would dissolve the need for the current binational conference structure.

    The group also agreed it is imperative that we thoroughly review the impact these or other emerging models would have for current ministries. We would also need to thoroughly test and process the viability of these changes with district/provincial and national conferences and with local congregations to determine whether it is appropriate for the Executive Council to prepare a recommendation for Ontario '97, the next scheduled gathering of the General Conference.

    Finally, we also reminded ourselves that these kinds of structural changes do not resolve all the challenges facing Mennonite Brethren in the United States and Canada. They certainly do not change our individual and corporate spiritual condition.

    Following our ECCO meeting, the General MB Conference Council of Boards met in Fresno to discuss these matters. That group affirmed the importance of carrying the evaluation process forward appropriately. We plan to do this in the next several months in a variety of ways. As always, we would be pleased to hear from constituents directly. Comments can be directed to me at 8709 W. Marco Polo Rd., Peoria, AZ 85382, USA.

    The General MB Conference Executive Council cares passionately about the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. We love the Mennonite Brethren family of congregations. Though we are committed to respond to the need for change in the way we order our life together, we have not chosen a preferred outcome.

    Pray that the Lord of the church would be pleased with our process and our eventual decisions.

    Ed Boschman,
    General MB Conference Moderator

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