Values that set us apart
A reader of this magazine thinks we have got our name backwards. He thinks the name should be Mennonite Canadian. “You are Canadian,” he says emphatically. “You think you are different from other Canadians because you call yourselves Mennonite, but you are not.” The man raises an interesting question. In what ways are we Mennonites…
Meeting on the common ground of God’s love
Do Mennonites believe there is something intrinsically, inherently important about our denominational institutions? If you think not, then you can skip this article and pick up another article instead. I believe that there is something important here—within the pages of Canadian Mennonite, within Mennonite schools, our sending bodies, and our relief and development agencies. I…
Kindred Credit Union offers financial literacy workshops
Recent research shows a “high percentage of people . . . find personal financing incredibly intimidating,” says Frank Chisholm, director of brand and marketing for Kindred Credit Union. Some people feel guilty for starting financial planning too late in life. Others experience barriers when it comes to accessing financial products and services. Throw in a pandemic…
‘Numbers people’ are worth their weight in gold
Every church has a plethora of creative ministries, but a couple roles will show up everywhere. Tallying up deposits and withdrawals, monitoring budgets and submitting forms, the “numbers people”—treasurers and bookkeepers—toil in basement corners and home offices, month in and month out. Without these roles being faithfully administered, a church will be financially unviable, and…
‘Are ethical funds really ethical?’
“I don’t want to support banks,” says Natasha Wiebe, statistician at the University of Alberta and a member of Edmonton First Mennonite Church. “For me, banks are primarily about greed and are heavily invested in mining and fossil fuels.” For her personal banking needs, she has chosen to be part of her local credit union,…
2020 surpluses help regional churches face 2021
Financial giving from Mennonite Church Canada congregations and individuals was stable in 2020 despite pandemic economic uncertainty. By year-end, the regional church bodies and MC Canada had strongly positive financial results, based on better-than-expected revenue and lower-than-expected costs. In planning for 2021, the regional churches acknowledged continued pandemic uncertainty and directed their 2020 surpluses into…
Substance over glitz
While public conversation swirled in July over the details of WE Charity’s speaker fees and all-expenses-paid trips for donors, my church was having a sermon series on Mennonite Central Committee’s 100 years of service in the name Christ. Over several weeks, church members who had volunteered with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Canada and around…
Selling generosity
When I am asked what I do for a living, I often say, “I show people how much fun it is to give their money away.” That elicits a better conversation than if I tell them I manage a registered, charitable, donor-advised foundation. I love what I do. It’s a joy to work with donors…
Steady giving sustains churches through COVID-19
Among the multitude of concerns COVID-19 has caused, the novel coronavirus’s effect on congregational giving has been one of them. What do church finances look like when congregations close their doors and stop passing offering baskets through the aisles on Sunday mornings? It turns out that in many Mennonite congregations across Manitoba, they look just…
Watch: One couple’s generosity journey
“How do we learn about giving if we don’t talk about it?” Lori Guenther Reesor asks in our latest issue, which includes a special focus on money. “Listening to generous people share how they learned to give is a joy I recommend to everyone,” continues Guenther Reesor, who is a speaker, writer and consultant on…
