Agreeing that national church structures need improvement, the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board is forming a working group for organizational change.

The board met Aug. 22-25 in Greensboro, N.C., site of the denomination’s 2025 convention.

“Since 2006, leaders within MC USA have experienced the limitations of the current agency structure and funding model,” Michael Danner, associate executive director, told Anabaptist World in response to questions after the meeting.

“They have engaged various potential solutions that did not have traction. Now, MC USA is smaller. That new reality makes the current agency structure more burdensome and less efficient, with a heavy emphasis on governance over coordinated ministry efforts.”

The work on organizational change continues a process that began at the 2017 Future Church Summit in Orlando, Fla., executive director Glen Guyton told AW.

“We are reimagining our structures, relationships and connections to more effectively witness to God’s shalom in the next two to three decades,” he said.

The working group will include members from MC USA agencies and conferences and experts in organizational development, finance and missiology.

“I think of it as reimagining the systems that bind us together and foster our relationships,” moderator Jon Carlson said, according to an MC USA release. “It feels good to have momentum in a positive direction for an important and probably overdue conversation.”

At the meeting, Guyton highlighted demographic shifts and cultural and social changes impacting the broader church, including those that have led to a departure from congregational life.

“Visionary, joyful, positive leadership is needed during this time, and I’m thankful for the work that the Executive Board is doing to help move us in that direction,” he said, according to the MC USA release.

Guyton reported that the 2027 convention will be held in Cincinnati and that the title of the MC USA building in Elkhart, Ind., was transferred from Mennonite Mission Network to MC USA on July 31. He said the title transfer completed a plan that had always been in place.

The board affirmed a process to integrate Mennonite Education Agency into the denomination’s ministry structure. Currently an independent agency, MEA would be redefined as a department.

This “would allow more resources to flow toward direct ministry,” said Danner, MEA’s executive director. “MEA would no longer need its own governance board, accounting/bookkeeping staff and administrative and communications staff.”

Removing MEA as a middleman would facilitate direct relationships between partner schools and MC USA, Danner told AW.

“Mennonite Schools Council is an independent organization that partners with the church,” he said. “We expect those relationships to continue in the ways that make sense for both the church and the schools.”

If both the MC USA and MEA boards approve, staff integration could begin in January.

The Executive Board performed a review of MMN. During a discussion about how the mission agency can help care for the soul of the church, MMN board chair Randall Justice said: “We talk about the Good News, but . . . are we living into the goodness of that news from an enthusiasm standpoint? . . . That’s what I think the soul of our church needs.”