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

urement of long tenure, however, does not rest only in number of years served but in the lasting impact of such min- istry on the church's inner growth and outward witness. The Way Before Us It is unrealistic to expect Mennonite Brethren to go back and re institute the models of years ago. The point of praising earlier models of leadership is not to reach for the ashes of the past, but to the fire that raised a dynamic renewal through 235 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH a small minority people. These were people who first and foremost wanted to lodge their identity in Christ and wanted to serve him faithfully. The assignment of the ministry, then, is not to do the work for the church, but to equip the church so that they can more genuinely be the people of God. In today's complex culture, unlike earlier generations of Mennonite Brethren, we need various levels of trained-and paid-leadership. But what has not changed from earlier times is the ui^ent need for the church to cultivate and call out the gifts of its members. Sparking and directing this task falls on the pastor in particular. The pastor is responsible for encour- aging the exercise of gifts within the congregation. The fail- ure in recent decades to call and develop local leadership rests largely with paid (pastoral) leadership who neglected to guide the church in this important concern. Programs of "discipling" are popular among many pastors today. Unfortunately, "discipling" sometimes means following the pastor, rather than following Jesus in costly obedience. Paul Hiebert describes the impact of such leaders as short- lived: They have great ministries, but when they pass from the scene there are no leaders to step into their shoes because they have trained followers not leaders. It is gratifying to train followers. They are an apprecia- tive audience that makes us feel important. They imitate our ways. They do not challenge our thinking or go be- yond our teaching. It is easy to train followers. We decide what they should learn' and how they should learn it. We encourage them to raise questions and we give the answers. We teach them to follow our directives and to guess our mind. There is an immediate success in training followers. We can mobilize many to build our program. This approach 236 HOW SHALL WE THEN BE LED? is also efficient. But its success is short-range. When we depart we leave sheep but not shepherds,25 CONCLUSION A crisis in leadership has beset Mennonite Brethren in a time of "breakneck changes" unprecedented in human histo- ry. An agri