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Executive Board reports


The Executive Board, with ten recommendations, many of them major, dominated the Canadian Conference convention agenda. Prominent among them were recommendations to accept three Memoranda of Understanding negotiated with the US MB Conference on how the two national Conferences would take responsibility for the last three ministries of the General (North American) MB Conference, which is disbanding.

MOU: Board of Resource Ministries

According to the first Memorandum of Understanding, the Board of Resource Ministries/Kindred Productions (the MB book publisher) will become a Canadian Conference agency, with the US Conference using and selling its products and giving a small subsidy ($7500 US a year) for the first five years. The agency comes to the Canadian Conference with no operating debt and with virtually no assets (its inventory of books balanced by printing debts owed to the Canadian Conference).

The Memorandum was approved with little discussion except for some expressions of concern that MB books and curricula are not being used widely enough in MB churches. It is hoped that a new system of appointing sales representatives to sell Kindred materials in local churches on a commission basis will improve this and also help Kindred avoid incurring operating losses in the future.

MOU: Historical Commission

The Historical Commission has been a General MB Conference agency for the past 33 years, administered by one of the General Conference boards. It operates an archives in Fresno, Calif., separate but cooperating with another US Conference archives in Hillsboro, Kan. and with the Canadian Conference archives in Winnipeg. It also encourages the preservation and study of MB history. Under the Memorandum of Understanding, it will now be a separate Commission, directly responsible to the Canadian and US MB Conferences and receiving an annual subsidy of $15,000 US from each Conference. The Memorandum was approved without discussion.

In his report to the convention, Historical Commission director Paul Toews noted that while evangelicals often only preach part of the gospel (personal transformation) and mainline churches often only preach part of the gospel (social transformation), Mennonites and Mennonite Brethren hold both parts of the gospel together.

MOU: MB Biblical Seminary

This Memorandum would make MB Biblical Seminary (formerly operated by the General MB Conference) an agency jointly operated by the Canadian and US Conferences. The Conferences would jointly fund a central organization, and the national Conferences would be responsible for funding and operating the teaching centres in their countries (currently the main campus in Fresno, Calif., the campus which is part of the ACTS consortium in Langley, B.C. and a “developing” campus in Winnipeg).

This Memorandum generated considerable discussion. There seemed to be general acceptance of the new structure, but considerable concern was expressed over the funding arrangements, since they envision a massive funding cut to the Seminary by the Canadian Conference. Currently the Canadian Conference has been giving a guaranteed annual subsidy of $464,000, the Canadian Conference pays $35,000 a year to support an MBBS fundraiser in Canada, and the Seminary raises about $400,000 a year in additional money in Canada. Under the new proposal, the Canadian Conference would give no money to the Seminary directly but would ask local churches to pay a $15 per member per year norm to support the Seminary, and the Seminary would still be free to raise additional money in Canada.

All of the money raised in Canada, by the norm and by other fundraising, would go first to the Canadian regional centres (it currently costs about $300,000 to operate the Langley campus and about $37,000 to operate the Winnipeg campus), then to a matching grant for tuition program (which was discussed later) and then to the Seminary’s central administration (the cost of this was not mentioned at this convention but had earlier been estimated by Canadian Conference leaders to be $125,000 and by the Seminary to be considerably more). If any of the Canadian money was left over, it could then be used to fund the Fresno campus.

The new norm could raise up to $510,000 a year ($15 X 34,000 members), but delegates pointed out that currently churches are giving only about two-thirds of the Canadian Conference norm and that many churches will give nothing since they have already established their budgets for this year and have not included any money for a Seminary norm. Concern was expressed that there might not be enough money raised to fund the central administration and that the Seminary could die, like a tree with healthy branches but a rotten trunk.

The Canadian Conference leadership responded that the Canadian Conference norm is being reduced by $13 this year, so churches should have some leftover money to contribute to the Seminary norm; that none of the other Canadian Conference boards has guaranteed funding; and that the new system will force the Seminary to relate more closely to the local churches. Moderator Jascha Boge ruled that the Memorandum of Understanding could not be amended, but that the budget could be changed when the Canadian Conference budget was discussed later.

Various suggestions were made – for the Canadian Conference to guarantee the $15 norm to the Seminary and for the Seminary norm to be increased from $15 to $20 or $22. (The US Conference asks its churches to contribute a norm of $22US to the Seminary.) However, in the end, no one made a formal motion to amend either the Memorandum or later the recommendation on the Seminary norm. The Memorandum passed easily, but with some opposed.

Leadership Matching Grant

The Executive Board also presented a proposal to help MB students prepare for ministry. Qualified students would pay only one-quarter of their tuition, their local church would pay one-quarter, and the Canadian Conference would pay half. Only students in the fourth year of an undergraduate program at a Canadian MB school and students at MB Biblical Seminary will be eligible.

There was considerable affirmation for the program. Some delegates wanted to remove the restrictions in the program, suggesting that the grants should also be given to part-time students, perhaps to students whose churches wouldn’t pay their quarter, to students who weren’t able to do ministry in their home churches and to students at non-MB schools. However, others argued for the importance of supporting MB schools and preserving MB theology.

The recommendation passed easily. For students attending MB Biblical Seminary, the Canadian Conference portion of the matching grant will come from the $15 Seminary norm that churches are asked to contribute. For students attending other MB schools, the matching grant (an annual cost of up to $75,000) will come from the general Canadian Conference budget. (Conference treasurer John Wiebe later suggested the $75,000 might instead be covered by private fundraising.)

Board of Discipleship Ministries

The other Executive Board proposal which stimulated major discussion was the proposal to create a Board of Discipleship Ministries by merging the Board of Communications, the Board of Christian Education Ministries, the church resourcing component of the Board of Evangelism and the former General MB Conference Board of Resource Ministries. The design team of Doug Heidebrecht, John Neufeld and Geoff Neufeld said the new Board would be efficient, flexible, creative and responsive, with staff working together cooperatively in teams. Unlike other Canadian Conference boards, which have some members elected at provincial Conference conventions, this Board would be entirely elected at the Canadian Conference convention.

The discussion included strong affirmations of the new direction, but also concerns. Ron Geddert of Abbotsford worried that the new structure might limit the ability of the MB Herald to be a “free press”. John Unger of Winnipeg was concerned that important aspects of the publications, such as the publication of family news, were not included in the “equipping and resourcing” focus of the new Board. Roger Thiessen of Orillia, Ont. expressed the hope that “something new” would be done with the Herald because there is “a significant level of discontent”. In response to John Unger, Herald editor Jim Coggins said that family items, baptisms and much else might be cut from the Herald, not because of a change in philosophy but because of the very large cuts to the Herald budget. John Redekop of Abbotsford expressed concern that the change was being rushed through without due constitutional process and that there was no need for haste due to financial reasons. He pointed out that instead of cutting the overall Conference budget, once the Seminary funding was included, the Conference is actually increasing the amount of money that it is asking from the churches.

In the end, the recommendation passed easily, with some opposed.

Details

A number of follow-up recommendations were passed without comment, such as recommendations to disband the Boards of Communications and Christian Education Ministries. Also passed was a recommendation to change the Canadian Conference constitution to agree with the structural changes already approved. It was implied that this would allow the Conference to make the changes now even though they will be in violation of the constitution until the constitution is changed. Because the changes have been so major, it is expected that the process will involve rewriting the constitution rather than amending it. The new constitution will be presented for approval at the next Canadian Conference convention, in Ontario, July 8–10, 2004.

 – jc

Expedited business

If youth are defined as moving fast, then the Canadian Conference business sessions were youth-oriented. Boards reported creatively using a variety of videos, power point presentations and visual aids. Delegates were rarely bored. Yet, with only two mornings and an afternoon scheduled for the Canadian convention, and with considerable time taken up with presentations, celebrations and other photo opportunities, the business was at times tightly scheduled, if not rushed, especially considering that there were major proposals on the agenda. The business was expedited, with proposals approved more quickly and with less process than in the past. This was partly by design and partly because of time constraints toward the end of the convention. The financial statements for the past biennium were reported on seven scant pages, and the budget for the next biennium on one. The list of nominees for Conference boards in delegate packets included only one nominee for every vacancy, the nominees were never introduced, and when the nominating committee asked delegates to fill in the ballot affirming each name individually, assistant moderator Ralph Gliege instead asked delegates to simply accept the whole list by standing. Since the nominating committee consists of the Conference secretary and the provincial moderators (all members of the Executive Board), this seems to be the culmination of a trend building over the last several years to the point that Conference boards are now virtually self-perpetuating. In a flurry at the end of the convention, moderator Jascha Boge rushed through five recommendations in about a minute (including the reappointment of executive director Dave Wiebe by applause). Even more bizarre was the declaration that two recommendations – the appointment of Stewardship Ministries representatives Ross Hardy and Henry Neufeld – had been approved by the applause given them during the Board of Management report some time earlier. The delegation was not intimidated by the tight schedule and insisted on discussing some items at length. They succeeded in throwing the convention schedule behind, but in the end did not succeed in changing much. Every proposal presented passed without amendment.

 

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Last modified December 17, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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