Mennonite Church Canada is changing, and its transformation could instruct other denominations. Declining donations were deemed to be a trend rather than an aberration, and something had to be done.

A Nov. 28 news release announced that five staff were let go — one in seven, with the potential for more — and that a new structure will move the center of ministry from its relatively lofty denominational perch to lower conference and congregational levels. The actions followed the recommendations of a Future Directions Task Force after a two-year study.

Is Mennonite Church USA headed in a similar direction?

“We have not yet experienced such a precipitous decline in giving,” said MC USA executive director Ervin Stutzman by email Dec. 4 while attending meetings with MC Canada executive director Willard Metzger and conference ministers. “We expect to keep much of our current structure as we engage in planning for the future.”

Stutzman said staff and programs have been reviewed nearly every year he has been executive director, and staff and budget have been significantly reduced since 2010. He said staff members intend to reassess budget and staffing by mid-January, after reviewing end-of-2015 giving reports.

As portions of MC USA crumble away at an increasing pace, there is potential for the core that remains to move past doctrinal divisions and be revitalized around action and mission.

The 2001-02 merger that created the denomination included a split along the U.S.-Canadian border. More recently, Mennonite Central Committee has made similar divisions. Legal realities limit certain connections from directly grafting together again, but the time may be right for U.S. and Canadian Mennonites to downsize some redundancies.

In the Mennonite Brethren realm, a binational approach to church planting is being investigated. The U.S. conference is looking to use the Canadians’ much larger C2C Network staff and experience, rather than duplicating resources, and possibly merging with missions efforts.

It is difficult to pinpoint how much overlap exists across the border that marks the 49th parallel. Does each body need its own youth convention or assembly? Do electronic database records — perhaps stored on a far-flung and foreign computer server farm — need to be physically administered in two nations? Could churches that essentially share a Confession of Faith also share, for example, graphic designers?

Layoffs are painful, but something can also be said for sharing expertise no matter which way a servant spells the word “neighbour.”

Taking a cue from the Canadian philosopher Red Green, “I’m pulling for you. We’re all in this together.”