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

of church as covenant community and of church discipline. Involvement in mission that de- mands sacrifice will decrease because of growing afflu- ence and enjoyment of the good life. Many churches that are not growing will be closed. 3.3 There will be numerical church growth in some re- gions. This growth may result in increased cultural and ethnic diversity in the churches. The growth will be mis- sional and will move churches in the direction of commu- nity churches. These churches will tend to be more main- stream evangelical rather than Anabaptist-Mennonite Brethren. 3.4 Church/Conference polity may move toward more 214 WRESTLING WITH MODERNITY authoritarian/presbyterian models on the local church lev- el and more radical Congregationalism at the conference level. The clergy/laity distinction will accelerate. There will be more emphasis on authority roles and less on ser- vant roles. 3.5 The gulf between institutional leadership and the lo- cal church may widen. The latter will be concerned pri- marily with local agenda, while the former will promote larger conference concerns. 3.6 The church population will continue to age. The church will need to think more and more of ministries to aging persons. 3.7 There will be an intensification of personal piety in the churches.21 These statements point to outside influences that threaten the Mennonite Brethren Church. But not all of the blame for increasing fragmentation and loss of consensual identity can be laid at the feet of external pressures. A looming question is why these influences so radically affected the basic biblical understanding and application to which Mennonite Brethren had been so deeply committed. Issues of modernity pose urgent questions to Mennonite Brethren as they approach the twenty-first century. Is Calvin Redekop correct that a cultural milieu is needed to house the values of faith? Is it sociologically correct that membership in any group depends upon the ideological cohesiveness of the group, the commitment of the individuals to the core values and purposes (theology) of the group?22 Was John A. Toews correct when he wrote, "Our present identity crisis is largely the result of our exposure to vevery wind of doctrine' from various theological schools of thought. Our problem is per- haps not so much one of exposure to various theological views, as our indiscriminate acceptance of them."23 Does Re- dekop adequately explain the crusade to change the Menno- 215 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH nite Brethren name when he writes: "The reform of a degen- erate Christian tradition (e