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

Careful planning should precede the meeting and the delegation should also include leading brethren who are not ordained. Several steps might be observed in the planning of these meetings. 1. Reference and Counsel might decide on the issues to be discussed. Care should be taken to avoid overloading a pro- gram so that insignificant time is left for discussion. There should be discussion in depth. 2. Brethren should be invited to write introductory papers. Two papers on each subject. 3. Two brethren who have read these introductory papers in advance should write a short response as a basis for discus- sion. 4. Study group participants should break up into smaller units for preliminary discussions but final conclusions should come from the entire group, 5. One brother should summarize and from this should come a communique to the churches for study. Unless we 284 FAITH IN TENSION also initiate discussion at the local level we would again pro- duce the effect of a handed down pronouncement, 6. At the next General Conference some of the statements could be accepted as speaking the mind of the brotherhood* The strength and usefulness of this approach will depend largely on our openness to each other and to the leadership of the Spirit of God. We also feel that we have not deviated from one another to the extent that we could not find some common solution. What we need are love, humility, honesty and insight. We have in our brotherhood the potential for all four of these ingredients/* Revision of the Confession of Faith In 1963 the General Conference felt it was time to revise the 1902 Confession of Faith. The process called for the par- ticipation of all ministers and local congregations in this first revision in Mennonite Brethren history. The directives issued to guide the revision process underline the relative role of a confession in the wider Mennonite Brethren effort of contend- ing for the faith. REGARDING A REVISED CONFESSION OF FAITH We recommend the following directives and guidelines for use in the review and revision of our Confession of Faith to be referred to the incoming Board of Reference and Counsel for implementation. 1. Hie Confession of Faith shall be prefaced by a statement describing the aims, purposes, and uses of such a document. The following is a suggested preface: The Mennonite Brethren Church has throughout its history emphasized biblical authority in all matters of faith and prac- tice. This emphasis while exalting the centrality of Scripture also counsels caution in the use of any extra-b