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

discerning the spir- its of the age wanes and batde consciousness weakens. The conference pastoral letters were sent to all pastors and congregational moderators with the request that they be presented to the local congregations for prayerful study, A subsequent inquiry as to the congregations' response revealed that most local churches had not even been informed of the issues, much less prayerfully considered them.2** In the early 1980s the Board of Reference and Counsel of the Pacific District Conference presented to its delegates a document tided, "Are We Being Squeezed into the World's Mold?" It addressed the deterring effects of individualism and other worldly influences on the inner life of the local church and conference,21 Some delegates felt there was too much other urgent business to allow time to discuss the document, The clarion call of the spiritual guardians of the conference-the Board of Reference and Counsel-was then re- ferred for discussion to the local churches. Again, later fol- low-up inquiries found no evidence that the document had ever been brought to the attention of local churches. It had essentially died on the conference floor, The referral simply became the means to prevent serious consideration of spiritu- al dangers facing the church. These two examples of avoidance are symptomatic of grave dangers facing the Mennonite Brethren Church. Many 291 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH churches are not prepared to deal with serious issues in open confrontation, and the Mennonite Brethren Church is no ex- ception. Preoccupied by the need to show numerical growth, ministers and leaders are reluctant to "rock the boat-" Ques- tions of "Who are we?" and "What does it mean to be the church?"-questions of being-are overshadowed by the prag- matic need to gain acceptance from a generation intent on self-fulfillment. The prophetic voices of sociologists and the- ologians who speak to the implications of social/religious pragmatism seem to receive only a marginal hearing. When pragmatism reigns, religion is reduced to a spiritu- al supermarket. Everyone can find an evangelical organiza- tion to suit his or her tastes. Evangelicalism has lost the au- thority to shape cultures and institutions. Religious pluralism in a culture of relativity provides the liberty for people to sat- isfy their religious instincts on their own terms. According to The Barna Report: What Americans Believe 1991, sixty-two percent of Americans claim to have made a personal commit- ment to Christ, but sixty-four percent of them say the term "born again" does not apply to t