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

aphic areas of rapid population growth, cultural diversi- ty and industrial and economic expansion, have experienced significant growth. But the jury is still out on the overall im- pact. The record of numerous and devastating leadership ca- sualties, as well as spiritual and numerical reverses in congre- gations, is cause for cautious assessment and critical review. The Church Growth movement offers insight for mobiliz- ing churches to more effective evangelism and missionary commitment. Its emphasis on numerical growth has provided a healthy corrective to many churches that previously paid lit- tie more than lip service to the Great Commission, However, the potential for authoritarian, autocratic leader- ship, the temptation to neglect spiritual nurture in favor of numbers, and the inclination to rely too heavily on human ef- fort at the expense of the divine, remind us that this move- ment must be continually tested by the discipleship demands of a more comprehensive biblical theology, OBSERVATIONS The commitment to evangelism as an essential responsi- bility of the church continues to be important for Mennonite 257 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH Brethren. Over the years they have wrestled with how to car- ry out this task as they moved from a homogeneous social context to one of pluralistic individualism. The process of ur- banization, which was more rapid with Mennonite Brethren than any other Mennonite group, contributed to a shift in the initiative for evangelism from the local church to the confer- ence.52 The conference boards of evangelism assumed a di- rective role. The decades of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s record strong programs of evangelism. The appointed evan- gelists in the 1960s and the conference evangelism executives in the 1970s and 1980s generated powerful momentum and concern for effective evangelism extending beyond the local congregation. Church planting in new locations became a major concern for Mennonite Brethren. The Canadian Conference grew from eighty-seven congre- gations and 14,185 members in I960 to 125 churches and 17,025 members by 1970 * By the end of the 1970s the con- ference repotted 140 churches with a membership of 21 ,579. 54 The growth continued in the 1980s to a record of 190 church- es with a membership of 27, 277. 55 Contributing to this growthj in addition to faithful evangelism, were population shifts from the prairies and eastern provinces to the West, im- migration from the Orient and South America (including many Mennonites) and rapid industrial and economic develop- ments. Evangelistic outreach to the French-Canadi