Executive Summary
Dave Hubert Submission To
MCC New Wine New Wineskins Process 
 

• MCC’s theological base is biblical and Anabaptist. MCC is rooted in the “genius of the Mennonite peoplehood.”
• MCC’s contributions are many and these include relief and development, peace and social justice. Other agencies and initiatives have been modeled on MCC, and many people trained by MCC have made leadership contributions to other NGOs.
• Over the years, MCC has built up a significant resource base. These resources include an identifiable brand, a large stock of credibility with service recipients, other faith communities and governments; the ability to raise a lot of funding, and a large base of congregational and alumni support.
• MCC has a highly centralized administrative and control structure, and, over the years, has become quite bureaucratized. Changing the boundaries and gatekeepers that have become entrenched could infuse MCC with much energy, creativity and dedication if MCC becomes, “A Christian Resource for Meeting Human Needs” that  supports the visions and goals of individual Mennonites and Mennonite congregations in North America. Real life examples are provided.
• Peace is a signature issue for MCC, but MCC could do much more to provide leadership if it consciously and deliberately chose to became more proactive. There are many ideas and peace initiatives that could, and likely would, come forward from the constituency if MCC indicated that such initiatives would be welcomed and supported by MCC. MCC could and should become one of the leading non-state peace organizations in the world, and MCC Canada could and should have a vital role in this.
• MCC has over 16,000 alumni and this is a huge resource that is vastly underutilized. These alumni are among MCC’s most dedicated and committed supporters, but this dedication and commitment, in many cases, lies fallow. Some MCCers leave MCC disillusioned, and besides this being a tragedy, it is a lost opportunity to MCC to improve itself by benefiting from the experience and idealism these folks brought with them to MCC. This would involve MCC asking why they left disillusioned. MCC should communicate more effectively with its alumni and try to incorporate changes that would address the underlying causes of disillusionment of former staffers.
• Several new directions are suggested. These suggestions rest on the understanding that “Die Stillen im Lande” model has outlived its usefulness. MCC must become more proactive.
  • Who owns MCC? Does MCC belong to the offices in Akron and Winnipeg or does it belong to the Mennonite churches, first in North America, and then in the global village?
  • By keying on its mandate to build the Kingdom of God instead of protecting institutional boundaries, MCC will become more supportive of  initiatives and potential new directions that emanate from within the Mennonite peoplehood. MCC should do more theological reflection.
  • More use could be made of the educational institutions and the professional capacity within the Mennonite community to do the R&D and provide expertise that could continue to give MCC much needed energy and direction as it moves into the future, and could provide much help to needy people whom MCC serves.
  • There must be more sharing between Akron and Winnipeg. This will get at least some program closer to people. We recommend that all programming for the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East be assigned to Winnipeg.
  • MCC has, or could have, the capacity to address many of the underlying issues that necessitate the continuing need for the relief and development  in the two thirds world. This includes helping build civil society structures in the developing world. This would require much higher levels of mutual accountability between people here and people there.
  • Mennonites in Canada annually contribute over $17,000,000 to MCC for overseas development work. It is widely acknowledged that this development work contributes to peace and  international security. Concurrently, these same Mennonites pay over $88,000,000 to the Government of Canada to support the Canadian Armed Forces. The $17,000,000 donated to MCC does much more to build international peace and security than does the $88,000,000 spent on soldiers and guns. In fact, the soldiers and guns often create the need for more relief and development work. Mennonites and MCC should approach the Government of Canada with the “Daniel” argument to seek to reallocate this $88,000,000 to build international peace and security in ways MCC has demonstrated to be effective. MCC has the credibility, the connections and access to expertise to do this. What is lacking is vision and will, and the fear of appearing to be naively idealistic in trying to pursue redemptive and life giving alternatives.
  • MCC should adopt the motto, “For the healing of the earth: for the healing of the nations” and build the story around this motto to animate a new generation of Mennonite constituency support for MCC.      

 
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