ETEM’s new location provides additional income

École de Théologie Évangélique de Montréal (ETEM) celebrated its 30th anniversary this fall in a new facility that is better suited to the fulfillment of its mandate while resolving some funding pressures.

For many years the school rented space in a Mennonite Brethren church in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent. The arrangement worked well, but as the school’s collaboration with the University of Montreal increased, the need was felt to relocate closer to that campus. The new building is located within two blocks of the university, in the midst of student housing, and is easily accessible by subway.

The decision to purchase a building rather than rent was also strategic for financial reasons.

ETEM director Eric Wingender on a pile of library boxes during the school’s move.

“Christian education is not one of those glamourous frontline ministries for which it is easy to fundraise. Our newsletters are not filled with stories of dramatic conversions,” said Eric Wingender, the school’s director. Although ETEM has received substantial support from the MB conference, “many dependent ministries have been encouraged to seek out other means of support.”

Other MB schools have replaced their national funding by being “adopted” by their provincial districts. In Quebec, however, the less than a dozen Mennonite churches are still in missionary development mode and are not in a position to do the same for ETEM.

“Even the larger secular educational institutions cannot survive on fees alone, and things are even worse in the Christian sector,” Wingender said, explaining that he had opportunity to visit evangelical schools in French Europe where the financial situation is also dire. “We wanted a sustainable, replicable business model that would allow us to continue to minister to the larger Christian community in Quebec, even though it cannot offer substantial financial support in return.”

Wingender and the ETEM management team prepared a proposal that involved purchasing a commercial building where they occupy part of the space while renting out the balance to generate funds. The monthly rental income offsets expenses and the gradual repayment of the mortgage will create an endowment for the future.

The purchase down payment was raised in part from the sale of a property the school still owned adjacent to one of its previous locations. Gifts in kind and special funds helped renovate and furnish the top floor of the three-story building. ETEM’s 30 full-time students returned in September to larger and better-equipped classes, a comfortable lounge, and an impressive library space with a wall of glass that overlooks one of the city’s most scenic parks.

The school will continue to offer modular courses on flexible schedules, accessible to even more part-time students at its new location. ETEM is broadly mission-minded and 90 percent of its students come from other denominations.

Wingender, the school’s only full-time staff member, said financial improvements have also allowed the school to increase its stipends to its many part-time teachers.

The move is not the only adjustment ETEM has undertaken. Wingender said there is an ongoing call for seminaries to be more attuned to the daily realities and needs of the church communities they serve.

“As bright, thinking, articulate young people, [our students] study and work and live in a postmodern world that is speaking loudly and boldly about spiritual issues,” he said. “As I visit colleagues, friends, and supporters in other parts of the country, I discover that for many of them these postmodern issues are still just theory. There seems to be enough remnant Christian culture in many other parts of Canada that believers can simply exist in its protected safety. There is no such luxury here in Quebec.”

The challenge for Wingender and his team is to help current church leaders respond to the changes, while preparing a new generation of leaders that will be able to help the church thrive in the new context.

—Joel Coppieters