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

radi- tions must be consciously integrated into our understanding of the New Testament Church and of Christian discipleship,"3 In 1987 missiologist Peter Hamm maintained that "Canadi- an Mennonite Brethren are presently undergoing a crisis of identity,"* an assessment that applied equally well to the Men- nonite Brethren Church in the United States, Sociologist Calvin Redekopt meanwhile, suggested that the identity problem could be traced back to the initial Mennonite Brethren with- drawal from the larger Mennonite church in Russia,* When the early Mennonite Brethren rejected their former theological tradi- tion (ethos) they needed to replace it with another. Their new emphasis on biblical teaching and righteous living needed to be based in a supporting social and cultural milieu. But since the old sub-culture had been rejected a new sub-culture had to be substituted; but sub-cultures are not created overnight, so the . . . Mennonite Brethren have been searching for a sub-culture on which to base their 'reformed' beliefs and world view, and have found it in the fundamentalist and evangelical 'ethnicity* in American Christianity.6 325 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH Mennonite Brethren would perhaps consider Redekop's analysis too inclusive, however it may well be part of the an- swer to the questions posed by Mennonite Brethren Confer- ence leadership in 1990: "What does it mean to be Mennonite Brethren people? What does it mean to be a Mennonite Brethren Church? What are the bonds that hold us together?"7 Does our identity in fact rest with North American evan- gelicalism? If so, what are the perils of such an alignment? A probing article in Christianity Today, evangelicalism's leading journal, recently suggested that this faith phenomenon may be in danger of being suffocated by its own success, a success due in no small measure to its absorption of versions of the gospel that do not give offence.8 "Evangelicals have abandoned... earlier definitions of worldliness that involve avoiding externals," say authors Nathan Hatch and Michael Hamilton. "Still, they have been less successful in defining how the spirit of Christ might differ from that of success-oriented, upwardly mobile American ma- terialism."9 Hatch and Hamilton conclude with searching questions: To what extent have the idols of this age [pleasure, wealth, professional status and physical appearance] worked themselves into evangelical affection? To what extent has the goal of evangelical spirituality become self-fulfillment rather than self-denial, less a quest to know God and more a means to achieve