A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

the Christian life begins with a radical inward renewal. This renewal they defined as conversion or the new birth. 31 This spiritual renewal is effected by a personal faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. The early Brethren emphasized the need for an "experiential faith" in contradistinction to a "memorized faith" {auswendig gelernter Glaube) which they felt was the condition for membership in the Mennonite Church of that day. In the Confession of Faith this distinctive is set forth as follows: Concerning conversion, renewal or the new birth we believe that through the living and powerful Word of God man is awakened from sin. John 1:9. If he is now obedient and does not close his heart against the working of divine grace, he receives repentance unto life, to see his sin, repent of it, confess and forsake it; and in recognition of the holy and just judgment of God through prayer seeks refuge in Christ as the only Savior from the guilt of sin and the lust thereof, and receives through faith in Him forgiveness of sins, justification, and the witness and sealing of the Holy Spirit that he is a child of God and heir of life eternal. 32 From this description of "conversion" it is obvious that the brethren had a comprehensive concept of man's salvation experience. The brethren apparently were more interested in the new life of the individual than in the experience that had brought it about. In this connection it is perhaps significant, that only one account of a conversion-story of an early church leader has been preserved in the records — that of elder Abraham Schellenberg. The "dated" conversion became a distinctive of Mennonite Brethren in later years. The need for conversion, for spiritual renewal, received primary emphasis in Mennonite Brethren preaching. David Gerhard Duerksen (1850-1910) was one of the greatest preachers the M.B. Church has produced. His one hundred extant sermons represent a mature expression of second-generation Mennonite Brethren theology. Ac- cording to a study made by A. J. Klassen, twenty-eight of these ser- mons are related to the subjects of the new birth, sin and salvation." For Duerksen the new birth was a complete conversion from the old life to a new life in Christ. He believed that God transformed the total person: his mind, his will, and his emotion. "In Duerksen's theology, regeneration is central. He describes the 'look to Jesus' as the 'most necessary look.'" 3,1 The form of this distinctive in M.B. theology has been preserved to the present day. However, something seems to have happened to the content in the experience of third and fourth generation Mennonite 370 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH Brethren. As the conversion experience is duplicated at younger and still younger ages, a subtle change takes place in the meaning of the concept. 36 Conversion for a six-year-old obviously does not have the same meaning as for the man of thirty-six. In hi