A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

erence as the work of missions and evangelism. The report on foreign missions to the Centennial Conference in 1960 gives eloquent expression to this conviction: Missions is an integral part of the Mennonite Brethren Church. It is incorporated in our concept of the Christian life. Missions is a natural expression of a Christian duty and privilege. This was so from the beginning of the movement. . . . This emphasis upon missions has never ceased, and numerous members have volunteered for foreign and home mission services, while others have contributed of their means to make the work possible. 45 This missionary concern has been a Mennonite Brethren distinctive from the inception of the church. In examining the missionary activities of the Mennonites in Russia, Gerhard Lohrenz found that mission work among the native population was carried on primarily by the Mennonite Brethren. According to Lohrenz, "many of the old church joined the new Mennonite movement because they shared the rising vision for evangelism. . . ." 46 A survey of conference periodicals, yearbooks and other literature leads one to the conclusion that no other subject has received as much attention among Mennonite Brethren as missions and evangelism. It has been a major factor in maintaining a spirit of unity in the far-flung constituency of the Mennonite Brethren. Moreover, the "foreign missions program of the Mennonite Brethren Church has been used of God to keep the brotherhood spiritually dynamic, evangelical and evangelistic." 41 In the past (and in some churches in the present) this evangelistic emphasis has not always been properly related to social concerns. Mennonite Brethren have occasionally been charged with being indifferent to the material needs of men. They were interested, critics have said, in saving souls, not in saving people. Although that indictment may at times have been applicable to some individuals and to certain churches, it cannot be generalized on the 374 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH basis of available records. Through the years Mennonite Brethren have been involved in ministries of relief and general welfare. Increasingly the view that the church must minister to the total needs of man has won acceptance in the brotherhood as a whole. The merger of the boards of "missions" and "welfare" in 1966 symbolically expressed this integrated approach of the Mennonite Brethren witness. In fact, the simultaneous emphasis on both, evangelism and social concern, has been described as one of the primary distinctives of the Mennonite Brethren Church. 48 7. Christ-centered Eschatology With many Christians through the ages Mennonite Brethren hold to the faith of Christ's second coming as the blessed hope of the church. The certainty of Christ's return for the early Brethren was firmly established in the teachings of Scripture. "We believe and confess, that the Lord Jesus, our King, in like manner