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

in order to be a missionary sending church.22 Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s intense effort to generate a sense of responsibility for outreach is evident in the records of the various evangelism boards and the Evange- lism Commission. The spiritual struggle for effective outreach was evident in periodic reviews undertaken by the Board of Evangelism. The summary of a gathering on August 15, 1971 reflected some of the agony of this struggle: 1. "Evangelism in real practice is failing in the Mennonite Brethren Conference. This indicates the leadership has failed. We must share the blame in our Board." 2. "We need a sound theology of evangelism. When simple biblicism characterized us we could arouse action more easily. It is still possible, but we cannot sustain a movement." 3. "We have not offered a workable and relevantly structured program for training nor a program of evangelism with a wide base." 4. "The cutting edge of our evangelism is dulled through provincialism and diluted with social concern." 5. "We need a theology of evangelism that is Bible-based rather than experience oriented." 6. "Is our name Mennonite Brethren a hindrance because it suggests ethnic characteristics?"23 Special attention was given in conference reports to the Crusades for Evangelism led by Rudy Boschman, a Canadian 249 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH evangelist, with a team of singers and personal workers. Ja- cob J, Toews's institutes for personal visitation and evangelism and his lecture series on "A Happy Family with a Purpose" and "Group Dynamics" (Fellowship Evangelism) gained an enthusiastic reception in the churches. The revival crusades of Henry Schmidt received strong endorsement and parallel con- ference acceptance of the need for greater spiritual prepara- tion in the churches in order to achieve greater and lasting re- suits." On August 21, 1974 another Ad Hoc Evangelism Commit- tee meeting was convened as a follow-up to Lausanne 74, the world evangelization congress. The decision was reached to host regional evangelism seminars to prepare the evangelism leaders from the churches and the pastors for greater effec- tiveness. The goals for the seminars were fourfold: (a) to dis- cover an ongoing vision of evangelism; (b) to equip evange- lism leaders to train others; (c) to acquaint the leadership with resources on evangelism; (d) to develop an evangelism with local churches. Henry Schmidt and J J. Toews were assigned to assume major responsibility for the implementation of the seminars.*5 The Evangelism Commission strongly endorsed the pro- jected prog