What is MBMSI anyway, and why should we care?

MBMS International is the international Mennonite Brethren missions agency. It has been the primary Mennonite Brethren mission agency for over a century and is by far the largest agency in the MB Conference, with an annual core budget of $7 million and long-term workers in over 30 countries.

In spite of this, it amazes me the extent to which MBMSI remains unknown to much of the Canadian Mennonite Brethren constituency. Perhaps one of the most significant problems is that we think we know this mission agency of ours, when in fact a lot of what we “know” is not true at all. In this editorial, I hope to correct some common misunderstandings about MBMSI.

1. Funding

The most common misunderstanding is the assumption that MBMSI is funded by the Canadian MB Conference “norm” of $79 per member which MB congregations are asked to contribute to the Canadian Conference. The amount of money that MBMSI gets from the Canadian Conference norm is zero. Nothing. Instead, MBMSI raises all of its funds directly. It does not have a per-member “norm” that it asks MB congregations to contribute, but the money it needs to raise to support its core programs amounts to about $125 per member. Personally, I think that at least the MBMSI Board expenses, and perhaps its Canadian administration costs, should be funded by the Canadian Conference norm, but that is another question. The fact remains that MBMSI has no guaranteed funding and must raise whatever it needs every year.

2. National workers

Another misunderstanding that I commonly hear is that “national workers” do a better job for less money than “foreign missionaries” and that therefore we should give our money to agencies which support national workers rather than MBMSI. The fact is that the majority of the long-term workers MBMSI supports are national workers. Moreover, MBMSI has also started sending foreign missionaries from countries other than Canada and the United States. For instance, there are Japanese missionaries in Thailand and Colombian missionaries in Peru. Furthermore, the North American missionaries that MBMSI sends out work primarily in two areas. Some work at training nationals to do the work. Others do evangelistic work, but they are working primarily in pioneer countries such as Thailand (.5% Protestant Christians) where the national church needs help in evangelizing the country.

3. Here and there

Another misunderstanding I hear repeatedly is based on the observation that “the mission field is coming to us.” Since so many non-Christians are coming to Canada from other countries, the argument goes, we should shift our priorities from financing overseas missions through MBMSI to financing ethnic church plants in our own communities through provincial church extension boards. What this overlooks is that MBMSI funds many of these North American ethnic church plants through grants to provincial church extension boards, and that reducing donations to MBMSI has actually reduced funding to ethnic church planting in our own communities.

4. Direct involvement

Another misunderstanding is that since churches and individuals now want to personally support a missionary or mission work and also want some say in how the money is spent, they feel they should organize their own mission work and bypass MBMSI. The fact is that MBMSI is increasingly shifting from running its own missions program to facilitating the missions programs of local churches. Local churches may now discern where to send missionaries, recruit missionaries from their own ranks and provide the funding; MBMSI assists these efforts by providing expertise and administrative assistance. While MBMSI’s “core budget” (the program planned and supported by MBMSI) is about $7 million, another $3–$4 million a year is currently funneled through MBMSI to support other projects and missionaries outside the MBMSI core budget.

5. Volunteers

Many churches and individuals now want to be directly involved in mission work rather than just sending money, and they think that this kind of volunteer work does not fit into a “professional” mission agency such as MBMSI. In fact, the vast majority of North Americans going out under MBMSI are just such volunteers. Disciple Making International (formerly called Church Partnership Evangelism) sends hundreds of volunteers overseas each year to witness door to door with national workers for two-to-three-week periods. Youth Mission International, another branch of MBMSI, sends out high school and college-age young people to minister for periods from a few days to a year. Many of these trips are joint efforts with a local church or Bible college. MBMSI also has programs to send seniors as volunteer missionaries for periods up to several years and to send pastors on short trips to encourage full-time missionaries.

6. Narrow

Another argument I often hear is that the Kingdom of God is far broader than a single denomination and that we ought to support nondenominational missions rather than the narrow focus of MBMSI. Frankly, I find MBMSI to have a broader vision than many nondenominational mission agencies. MBMSI often cooperates with agencies such as Wycliffe Bible Translators in making joint missionary appointments. Moreover, when a member of a Mennonite Brethren church goes out as a missionary with some other agency, MBMSI offers to sign an agreement with the other agency and then designate that person a “mission associate”, making MBMSI’s prayer, administrative and other services available to that person at minimal cost. I don’t know of many nondenominational mission agencies that would be as generous to missionaries sent out by a denominational mission such as MBMSI.

To my mind, MBMS International is a misunderstood treasure. As MB churches and members, we need to open our minds a bit and recognize what MBMSI does and can do to work with us in building the Kingdom of God.