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

an province of Quebec was an additional spur to Mennonite Brethren growth in Canada. With an equal degree of commitment to evangelism, the numerical growth of U.S. churches was somewhat less. In I960 there were seventy-six Mennonite Brethren congrega- tions in the U.S. with a membership of 11,709- In 1990, 30 years later, there were 119 churches with a membership of 16,794.* Amid three decades of accelerated evangelistic activity Mennonite Brethren have not been spared from the trend of 258 MENNQNTTE BRETHREN EVANGEUSM accommodating the message of the gospel to a culture that is open to the benefits of salvation but does not want to lake up the cross and follow me." Contemporary evangelicalism generally, has experienced a softening of those elements of traditional Protestant belief that today's society finds unpalat- able. While the doctrinal core has remained unchanged, the message and methods of evangelism have accommodated to make it culturally more acceptable. Social science describes this accommodation as accultura- tion under the pressure of modernity. Most Christian move- ments that have opened themselves to engage the world-and Mennonite Brethren are no exception-find themselves in the tension of compromising the message of the gospel to make it more acceptable. These observations bring to memory the words of William Booth, a powerful evangelist of his day and founder of the Salvation Army, who is said to have expressed the concern that a day may come when there will be a preaching of religion without the Holy Spirit, a Christianity without Christ, a forgiveness without repentance, a salvation without regeneration and a heaven without a hell. These are sobering issues for Mennonite Brethren at the close of the twentieth century. How they grapple with crucial questions of the method and message of evangelism in the face of the continuing pressure of modernity will determine to what degree they will be a New Testament people-in the world, but not of the worldr-in the twenty-first century. 259 CHAPTER 19 Missions in the Context of Change [he words of Emil Bmnner, "The church exists by mission as fire exists by burning,"1 apply well to Mennonite Brethren, The Mennonite Brethren J L Church was born in the fire of mission and for 130 years it has retained this focus. A loss of missionary zeal would spell gradual but certain extinction. The call to mission is central to those who profess to fol- low Jesus. The mission mandate cannot be detached from the recognition of his lordship: "All power is given unto me in heaven