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

giving guidance to the future. 1- A call to renewal and ethical faithfulness; to affirm that to be the people of God is more than "to accept Christ as Savior;" and to see the church as a sub-culture with a lifestyle distinct from the world. 2. A call to confessional integrity, to see the Confession of Faith as a key to understanding biblical revelation and as a covenant commitment to which all pastors and teachers serv- ing in Mennonite Brethren churches and schools subscribe. 3. A call to missionary engagement and a renewed com- mitment to "the mandate of every Christian and every congre- gation to proclaim the message of Christ through example of life and message at home and around the world/17 The vision statement, the pastoral letters and the many study conference calls for the Mennonite Brethren to "contend for the faith" have also been echoed in the denominational periodicalsHiie Mennonite Brethren Herald and The Christian Leader. Many voices have spoken there, John Redekop has frequently provided important pointers related to the faith pil- grimage of the Mennonite Brethren,18 Katie Funk Wiebe, with a deep love for the church, has written unceasingly on issues vital to Mennonite Brethren,1* Other figures-Marvin Hein, Wado Hiebert, Elmer Martens, the late F.C. Peters-have also been prophetic voices in the pages of Mennonite Brethren pe- riodicals. They are part of the biblical injunction for Menno- nite Brethren to "contend for the faith." WRESTLING AGAINST PRINOPAIITIES AND POWEKS In 1975 while traveling from Vienna to Frankfurt I shared a train compartment with a U.S, army general. Out of curiosi- ty I asked him about the purpose of his assignment in Eu- rope, thirty years after the close of the wan With some irrita- tion he responded, "You seem to be a man very ignorant of the Russian military danger." T asked: "What then is your as- signment while waiting in the face of such danger?" With in- 290 FAITH IN TENSION creasing irritation he responded: "The most difficult assign- ment I have is to keep the troops battle conscious while we are waiting/ The general left the train in Munich while I con- tinued on to Frankfort. The general had given me the topic for my message that same evening, "The battle consciousness of the apostolic church, Acts 4:23-31-" The intense effort of contending for the faith has not made Mennonite Brethren immune to the pluralism that per- vades North American life. Relativity, accommodation and pragmatism work together to dull the edge of spiritual dis- cernment. As a consequence, vigilance in