When U.S. and Canadian Mennonite Brethren leaders gather in October, they will have a unique opportunity for collaboration.
The annual CanAm meetings allow USMB leaders and their Canadian counterparts to share challenges, learn from each other and spend time in prayer.
For USMB National Director Aaron Box, CanAm offers partnership.
“When you’re leading a group of churches, you’re often in uncharted territory,” Box says. “There typically aren’t seminary classes on how to chair a leadership board or be a national director. This is one of the few places where you can spend time with somebody who does the same thing you do who’s a part of our larger family.”
Looking back
CanAm is one way U.S. and Canadian MB leaders connect now that the national conferences they lead are distinct from one another.
North American Mennonite Brethren previously worked together as part of the General Conference of MB Churches, a binational entity organized into four regional districts around 1900. However, in 1954, the U.S. and Canada reorganized into the U.S. Conference of MB Churches (USMB) and the Canadian Conference of MB Churches (CCMBC) but retained the General Conference to oversee some ministry aspects.
Then, in 2000, U.S. and Canadian Mennonite Brethren voted to give General Conference ministries to the national conferences, though the two continued to partner as owners of MB Biblical Seminary for a time, as well as the MB global mission agency Multiply, and the MB Historical Commission.
Staying connected
Today, CanAm provides collaboration for U.S. and Canadian MB leaders.
“The goal is to keep our two families connected,” Box says. “Not just because we co-own (Multiply and the Historical Commission), but we want to have a platform to continue to work together.”
The CanAm guest list includes the U.S. and Canadian national directors, the USMB leadership board chair and CCMBC moderator, the U.S. Board of Faith and Life chair and the CCMBC National Faith and Life director, the Multiply general director and board chair, and the chair of the MB Historical Commission.
Box attended his first CanAm in Colorado in November 2024, where the group discussed structure, faith and life, conventions, funding models, board meeting frequency and more.
“You get to pick each other’s brains and learn from what’s worked and not worked,” Box says. “I walked away deeply encouraged.”
Walking in unity
This year, the group will meet in October, though USMB Leadership Board chair Dave Thiessen says details are still being finalized. He expects participants to discuss jointly held ministries, hear updates and spend time in prayer, he says.
Box requests prayer for the meeting.
“I’d invite our family to be praying for the leaders of our two countries,” he says. “(In) places like John 17, it’s obvious that Jesus cares very much about our unity, and we want to walk with and encourage each other.”
Janae Rempel Shafer is the Christian Leader associate editor and joined the CL staff in 2017. Shafer is an award-winning writer, receiving multiple awards from the Kansas Press Association and Evangelical Press Association. A Tabor graduate with a degree in communications and religious studies, she and her husband, Austin, attend Ridgepoint Church in Wichita, Kansas.
