Mennonite Education Agency’s board of directors unanimously decided to pursue integration with Mennonite Church USA.
By Mennonite Education Agency staff
ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Education Agency) — After a season of discernment, the five-person Mennonite Education Agency board of directors met January 20, to take formal action, making the unanimous decision to pursue integration with Mennonite Church USA. The next step is the creation of a formal integration plan to present to the MC USA Executive Board for approval.
“I’m pleased with the board’s process of listening, reflecting and sensing God’s Spirit together,” said Nathan Alleman, MEA board chair. “This was neither an easy nor a quick decision, but we are excited for the opportunities to promote Anabaptist-Mennonite education that integration offers.”
MEA was formed in 2002, when the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church merged. Since that time, MEA has served as the education agency of MC USA.
As an agency of MC USA, MEA operates with its own board, budget, mandates, staff, expenses and 501(c)(3) status, while assisting the MC USA Executive Board in carrying out the educational priorities of the denomination.
In June 2024, the MEA board met and approved a proposal to explore integrating MEA into MC USA’s governance and administrative structures. In August 2024, the MC USA Executive Board affirmed this general direction.
An important consideration through this process was how best to steward the resources of MEA. The board concluded that integrating governance and operations functions with MC USA simplified the organization’s structure, allowing for more resources to go toward educational programing.
“Throughout the history of MC USA, leaders recognized that the program structure had many redundancies in both governance and operations,” said Michael Danner, MEA executive director and MC USA associate executive director for Church Vitality. “Recognizing that challenge and resolving it, however, are two different things. At this point in time, it became possible to address structural limitations, in order to better utilize resources and work more cooperatively with MC USA. I’m grateful for church and agency leaders with the courage to risk change.”
The integration plan will address staffing, budgeting, governance, programing and oversight of the MEA educational endowment fund, scholarships, and health insurance programs. Once the plan is approved by MEA and MC USA leaders, it will be shared with partners and donors, with the expectation that integration will be complete by the end of the current MEA fiscal year, June 30.
Mennonite Education Agency, the education agency of Mennonite Church USA, is headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana. MEA partners with Anabaptist-Mennonite educational institutions and programs to fulfill the educational mission of MC USA.
