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

higher ideals, but rather is a goal, pursued rationally and with calculation as an end in itself. The quest for emotional, psychological and social maturity therefore be- comes normative, Self-expression and self-realization compete with self-sacrifice as a guiding life-ethic.42 Hunter's observation parallels the supermarket-type church, cited earlier, which appeals to constituencies on the 297 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH basis of personal taste. Lost in such churches is the sense of a covenant community demanding obedience, self-denial and sacrifice. They promote the benefits of salvation without its obligations. According to Tony Campolo, People need personal salvation. They need a personal mystic oneness with the resurrected Christ, They need the psychological wholeness and emotional wellbeing that accompanies becoming new persons in Christ, However the God of the Bible not only concerns Himself with es- tablishing a personal saving relationship with His Son but also is committed to social justice for all the people of the world. The biblical Jesus not only is desperate to help lost sinners "find themselves" but also wills to express the righteousness of Heaven in the context of those social in- stitutions wherein we must live our lives.43 The Bible exhorts us to "go forth therefore unto him with- out the camp, bearing his reproach" (Heb. 13:13) and to "run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who . . , endured the cross" (Heb. 12:1,2). When forty-two percent of Mennonite Brethren say they do not believe Christianity means "to follow Jesus in lifeT" then we must stop and take seriously the admonition, "exam- ine yourselves, whether you are in the faith" (2 Con 13:5), Then we know that modernity has left its mark on the Men- nonite Brethren Church. 298 CHAPTER 21 A Call to Commitment STAND FAST IN THE FAITH (1 Cor. l6;13) In his first letter to the Corinthian church nearly two thou- sand years ago (59 A D.) Paul addressed a spiritual crisis not unlike the tensions in today's church near the end of the twentieth century, The Corinthian church struggled for survival in a pagan culture that while ancient, also con- tained elements of what we experience in modernity. In the Corinthian church there was disunity because of the lack of a Christological center. They failed to recognize the relationship of faith as a commitment to be followers of Jesus. There was a need to recognize the divine order related to marriage and the limitations of individual liberty. Some were