A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

ness through Jesus Christ2* Scripture taught them that humanity is saved by grace through faith in Christ, Those who repent of their sin and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord receive forgiveness. By the power of the Holy Spirit they are born again and become the children of God. Saving faith in Men- nonite Brethren understanding involves a surrender of the will to Christ, a complete trust in him and an obedience to his Word in faithful discipleship. Bom-again believers confirm their commitment to disci- pleship by baptism, "buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4), An Interdependent Fellowship For Mennonite Brethren, the issue of congregational struc- ture, or ecclesiology, is inseparable from the new birth. New creatures form a new kind of body, a body composed only of those who share the same spiritual (not ethnic) birthright. The church, the body of Christ, is not a mere organization or an association but an interdependent fellowship, a covenant community (1 Cor. 12)* Every member is to be con- cerned with the welfare of fellow members. Through teach- ing, encouragement, counseling and, where necessary, re- buke, the church promotes constructive discipline. Members whose walk is contrary to the teachings of Scripture are sub- ject to loving and redemptive discipline. Local congregations, meanwhile, are members of a larger fellowship, Mennonite Brethren Conference, in which the same principles apply. 202 IDENTITY AMID DIVERSITY The ministers and leaders of the church are recognized as a gift from God, emerging from within the body (Eph. 4:11- 16). Their assignment is to equip fellow members for faithful life and ministry. Mennonite Brethren historically favored a plurality of leadership-in contrast to a hierarchy with a single pastor at the top of the pyramid. This traditional form of leadership has frequently been in tension with the trend to- ward individualism in North American culture. In the World but not of the World The words of Jesus in John 17:14-1 5-HThey are not of the world even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the eviT-is basic to the Mennonite Brethren understanding of the church. The cry of the founders was that we cannot claim to be the church of Christ and live in sin like the people of the world. This does not mean a separa- tion from the people of the world, but from t