Leadership

Over the next six months, Mennonite Church USA congregations will make decisions about their participation in The Corinthian Plan, the new employee benefit plan for pastors and church workers. Our goal is to have 300 congregations signed up by the time we gather for the Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009 in Columbus, Ohio, in July. The enrollment period ends Oct. 1.

This is the only opportunity congregations should expect to have to be part of The Corinthian Plan. This is a decision that will affect congregations, pastors and church workers in the future. It deserves careful and prayerful consideration.

Some people ask why we are only focusing on pastors and other church employees. Shouldn’t we be addressing the needs of all church members that find themselves without health insurance? They argue that this effort is inconsistent with Anabaptist values by providing special privileges for pastors.

First, the mandate of Mennonite Church USA delegates was to focus on pastors, especially those who are not insured. Second, The Corinthian Plan represents an investment in the leadership of our churches. If the leadership and ministry potential of a pastor is strengthened by providing health coverage, it strengthens the whole congregation. We have heard congregants who are without insurance say they want their uninsured pastors to have health coverage because they see how this will strengthen the ministry of their pastor and benefit the whole church.

While we are working to provide health coverage for our pastors, we need to find other ways to address the structural and systemic issues in our health-care system and the high cost of health care and health insurance that affects everyone.

Some people wonder if this effort to provide health insurance for our pastors is a diversion from the larger health-care policy issues facing our country. We believe The Corinthian Plan is creating more awareness of these larger issues and is helping us face the harsh realities of health-care costs and the plight of those without adequate health care. The cost-sharing model in The Corinthian Plan invites us to transcend our narrow self-interest, which is what will need to happen on a much broader scale if we are to address our nation’s health-care issues.

Some are curious about how current national health-care reform proposals may affect The Corinthian Plan. If reforms actually help reign in the increasing cost of health care, it will be good news for everyone. If reform addresses the needs of the uninsured, we will rejoice. But should we wait for the government to act when there are ways we can respond to the specific needs of pastors in our church? Who knows when the government may act and what it may do. In the meantime, many of our pastors are vulnerable, and their ministry is compromised by the lack of health coverage.

The Corinthian Plan is a step toward greater justice, toward healthier pastoral leadership and toward a stronger and more vibrant Mennonite Church USA. It represents an opportunity to forge a new relationship of mutual support among pastors, congregations, conferences and churchwide agencies by together providing health care for pastors and other church workers, including those who serve the church through area conferences and agencies.

In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul challenges the Corinthians to fulfill their pledge to help the church in Jerusalem. Soon we will find out if we were able to fulfill the pledge we made in San José to assist pastors in Mennonite Church USA with limited access to health care.

Much is still needed to bring The Corinthian Plan to reality. Some have said that it will take a miracle to reach the goal of 80 percent of Mennonite Church USA congregations participating in the plan. Join us in praying and working for this miracle.

“You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but overflows with many thanksgivings to God” (2 Corinthians 9:11).

Keith Harder is director for Health-Care Access for Pastors and Church Workers for Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership.