Muddy River Media

Well, after four years of struggling to convince the Canadian government that Muddy River Media should be granted Charity status, we finally have won our battle. In a way I feel like the persistent widow found in Luke 8:1-8 who would not give up but kept pestering the local judge for justice.

To sum up the entire process... basically the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) told us we don't fit into the box for what a typical religious charity in Canada looks like, so they rejected our application. They listed some areas of concern of our ministry model. We would address their concerns and defend our ministry model only to receive additional rejections with new concerns.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to soon realize nothing we said or did was going to satisfy their formula for what a religious non-profit might look like in this day and age.

After two years of this we received our final rejection and were informed our case was being handed over to an impartial adjudicator who would examine both sides.

This was a good thing because it was the first time during the entire process we felt somebody at CRA was actually listening to us rather than making a snap decision based on an outdated understanding of religion and society. The adjudicator (whose name, by the way, was Edit... which we took as a good sign since an important part of what we do is edit video) spent a lot of time asking questions, researching the validity and importance of media usage in churches, as well as reviewed impact statements from hundreds of ministries we've helped around the world.

After all that, her recommendation would be for CRA to reverse their rejection decision and accept our original application. She also worked with us to help tweak some aspects of our website and reword our ministry's Memorandum of Association so it would remain true to our mission but use language the CRA would better understand.

Amidst this process we asked our local Member of Parliament, Peter Stoffer, to help us in any way possible. Mr. Stoffer was very kind, interested, and went out of his way to advocate for us in Ottawa. For this we are deeply appreciative.

After all that... plus A LOT of prayers from many people, the CRA has recently informed us they are reversing their original decision to reject our application. We should be receiving the paperwork in the next few weeks which will make us an official Canadian Charity.

Why is that a good thing? Well, for us it means we can now issue tax deductible receipts to individual financial donors. For the past four years we have not been able to do that. We were told by CRA that if our application were to be accepted through this process, the effective date of registry would date back to our original application. This means our past donors will be able to receive receipts for the past few years which they can either carry forward to next year's tax return, or request a reassessment of their previous returns.

That is great news!

Another positive that comes out of this is that our persistence has forced CRA to reevaluate the current wording of the Federal Laws governing religious non-profits. They are woefully out of date and have no language which understands or allows for how ministry is done in this modern internet era.

As an example, I was told by the Adjudicator that if our ministry was based on me preaching, teaching, and leading prayer meetings, it would have been easy to get accepted. But since I am not doing anything religious other than creating and giving away religious media, they don't consider that a ministry.

I confirmed with her that there are registered Charities in Canada who's sole purpose is to build church buildings for ministries... they are carpenters, contractors, electricians, etc. who are not preaching or teaching but swinging a hammer, painting a wall, doing plumbing. They are not the end user of their efforts, but are building a resource for a ministry to use. They are doing nothing intrinsically religious and are accepted while I am creating religious themed media and am rejected. I said this is unfair because CRA is holding me to a different standard than other ministries.

The reason I was given for this seeming equity was there is specific language in the Federal guidelines to accommodate a non-profit that builds churches. This is a type of ministry that has been a part of society for generations and is understood and accepted by the government. However the government has no language to allow for understanding and accepting ministries in this modern society of media and the internet. Muddy River Media has set a precedent and is forcing CRA to view modern religious charities in a new way, which is a good thing for future ministries.

For those of you who have been praying for Muddy River Media through this process, we thank you so very much. We hope you will continue to pray for us as we continue to create and give away resources to churches all over the world.