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EDITORIAL
Developments in a sister denomination

Jim Coggins

Two recent developments in a sister denomination may have some lessons and implications for the Mennonite Brethren Church.

Over the last decade or so, the Mennonite Church and General Conference Mennonite Church merged into what is by far the largest Mennonite denomination in North America. In the process, it was decided to structurally divide the merged denomination into two national bodies – Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA – which carry out the programs while remaining linked in a single denomination. The resulting structure is quite similar to that of the Mennonite Brethren Church after this summer’s restructuring, which abolished our North American structure, leaving the programs to be run by the Canadian and US MB Conferences, which still remain linked in the same Mennonite Brethren denomination.

Mennonite Publishing House

As part of the larger Mennonite merger, Faith and Life Press (book and curriculum publisher for the General Conference Mennonite Church) and Herald Press/Mennonite Publishing House (publisher for the Mennonite Church) merged. About the time of the merger, it was discovered that Mennonite Publishing House was massively in debt. This was especially serious because Mennonite Publishing House has been unquestionably the largest and best of the Mennonite publishing agencies, far larger than our own Mennonite Brethren publisher, Kindred Productions. In fact, many Mennonite Brethren have not only bought books from MPH but also had their books published there. (My own doctoral thesis, John Smyth’s Congregation, was published by MPH.)

MPH’s fundamental problem (similar to problems at Faith and Life Press and Kindred Productions, which had surfaced somewhat earlier and which were far less serious) was that it was expected to operate as both a business and a ministry. It made decisions on what books to publish based on the needs of the denomination, regardless of whether the books would sell. However, while serving the denomination in this way, MPH received no subsidy from the denomination but was expected to break even, if not make a profit. This simply couldn’t be done. MPH has been losing money for more than a decade.

The situation was made worse by accounting irregularities. Let me be clear. There has been no suggestion that any MPH employee personally benefited from the irregularities. Rather, accounting procedures were set up which obscured how deeply MPH was going into debt. Every time MPH published a book, the printing costs were recorded as an expense (which is proper), but the full value of the printed books was recorded as an asset to be included in income (which is not proper) – as if it was guaranteed that all books printed would be sold. In fact, MPH was borrowing money to pay the printing costs until the books were sold, but many of the books were never sold at all. As well, MPH developed a number of “unfunded liabilities”. For instance, MPH committed itself to pay fringe benefits to its retired employees without having any reserve funds to cover this expense; it was expected to be paid out of current profits. As a result, MPH is now $5.1 million in debt, a debt which exceeds all of MPH’s assets.

Rather than allow their agency to go bankrupt, Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA have assumed more direct control of Mennonite Publishing House, have restructured it so that it will stop losing money and have set up a campaign to raise $5.1 million to pay off the debt. At this point, there are hopeful signs that MPH can be turned around, but the situation remains very serious. The situation represents a significant risk to the financial viability of the entire denomination. (At least one denominational headquarters has been put up as collateral to secure the loans for MPH.)

How was the situation allowed to become so serious? Here is where what happened to Mennonite Publishing House can serve as a warning for Mennonite Brethren as they ponder the financial realities of their own agencies and churches. In order to save money, a full financial audit had not been done on MPH since 1989. Moreover, no one – not members of the MPH Board, not members of the Mennonite Church General Board, not delegates to the denominational conventions – seems to have asked the hard financial questions. They trusted the brothers running this agency. The people running the agency were well-meaning people who were devoted to doing ministry even when sufficient finances were not available. Unfortunately, as one man observed, “Good church people are not necessarily good business people.” To ask hard financial questions is not a denial of brotherhood or community, but sometimes its highest expression.

Education

Like the Canadian Mennonite Brethren Conference, Mennonite Church Canada is deeply concerned about the need for pastors and other church leaders, and is therefore taking a hard look at the education system it uses to produce them.

Like the MB Conference a few years ago, Mennonite Church Canada has postsecondary institutions at three levels: a North American seminary based in the US (Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ill.), a college owned at the national level (Canadian Mennonite Bible College in Winnipeg) and colleges owned at the provincial level (Conrad Grebel College in Waterloo, Ont. and Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C.).

Mennonite Church Canada is currently studying a proposal to bring some coordination to its varied education system, putting all of its schools under a national higher education commission, although each would also retain a regional board. Mennonite Brethren historians will recall that Mennonite Brethren considered a similar proposal in 1988–89 and turned it down. Common to both plans was a concern that all the schools be treated equally. When Mennonite Brethren turned down their proposal to make all the schools national ones in 1988, they eventually made all the schools regional instead; that is, the national MB school (MB Bible College, now called Concord College) became a regional Manitoba MB Conference school. Something similar is likely to happen with Mennonite Church Canada – either all of its national and provincial schools will become national schools, or all of its schools will become regional schools. In either case, it is possible that less denominational money will be directed to the current national school (Canadian Mennonite Bible College) and more to the provincial schools (Conrad Grebel College and Columbia Bible College).

This is significant for Mennonite Brethren because we are partners with Mennonite Church Canada in two of these schools. Columbia Bible College is jointly owned – one-third by Mennonite Church B.C. and two-thirds by the B.C. MB Conference. Canadian Mennonite Bible College and Concord College are partners in Canadian Mennonite University. Thus, whatever Mennonite Church Canada decides may well have financial implications for Canadian Mennonite Brethren. Moreover, as Mennonite Church Canada changes its governance structure for its schools, that may have implications for how Mennonite Brethren govern their schools. For instance, if the Mennonite Church Canada proposal goes ahead, Columbia Bible College would involve a partnership between Mennonite Church Canada (a national Mennonite body) and the B.C. MB Conference (a provincial Mennonite Brethren body) – just as Canadian Mennonite University now involves a partnership between Mennonite Church Canada (a national Mennonite body) and the Manitoba MB Conference (a provincial Mennonite Brethren body).

The changes that will be made by Mennonite Church Canada will not necessarily be bad for the Mennonite Brethren Church, or good for that matter, but they may well require some response from us.

This issue features the annual fall reports from Mennonite Brethren secondary and postsecondary schools. The reports, for the most part, show encouraging growth, and some exciting and innovative developments. This is encouraging news for Canadian MB Conference leaders as they pursue their goal of encouraging the development of a new generation of leaders for the MB Church.

 – jc

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Last modified December 2, 2002.

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