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

e. In the years following the Second World War the Mennonite Brethren experienced in less than two decades a cultural transition that in earlier history took several genera- tions. The older ethnic and cultural glue lost its adhesive power as the Mennonite Brethren struggled with a new pluralism. Typical of such sudden shifts, they experienced a sense of trauma and disintegration. With one foot still in the narrow stream of past traditions, and the other in the mainstream of North American pluralism, they groped for ways to adjust their theological practices to the new reality. Old values seemed obsolete, and new but untested alternatives beck- oned. Particularly alluring were the methods gaining prominence among the many evangelical para-church organizations that burst on the scene in the years following the Second World Wan Though not entirely consistent with their view of soteri- 246 MENNONTTE BRETHREN EVANGELISM ology and ecclesiology, the Mennonite Brethren adopted strategies promoted by various fundamentalist/evangelical para-church organizations. This looking to external agencies to provide new methods of evangelism was part of an honest effort to transcend cultur- al barriers, extend the gospel, and see sinners saved and added to the church. But in their search for new ways to pro- claim the glories of God the Mennonite Brethren occasionally lost sight of the distinction between message and method. Mennonite Brethren Evangelism In the Context of Change From the 1950s onward, the conference records are laden with attempts to enlarge the verbal proclamation of the gospel. In 1954 the conference created a Board of Evangelism for Canada and the United States with a two-fold assignment: to "set apart" ministers who would be available to the church- es to help with outreach; and to initiate evangelistic ministries outside the regular organized church program to reach the unsaved with the gospel. In May 1962 the U.S. Board of Evangelism adopted the fol- lowing program to focus existing efforts and extend outreach: 1. Aid to churches and pastors in planning more vital cru- sades where intensive Biblical preaching awakens the con- sciences of the sinners. 2. Emphasis and training in visitation evangelism to reach the heretofore unreached. 3. The organization and establishment of churches in areas where the several District Conferences are not reaching in some of the great population areas. Plans for a decade should be laid with care and deliberation. 4. A careful re-thinking of conventional methods of evange- lism with an updating of methodol