When we speak of the sufficiency of Scripture, we mean that the Word of God provides all that we need to know in order to be saved, to be sanctified, to worship, and to organise and operate the church of God (2 Timothy 3.16-17).
   Historically, Baptists, Independents, and Brethren have been notably keen to take account of the last part of this definition, believing that there is a ‘pattern’ church in the New Testament, the apostles having consciously left an authoritative blueprint for churches to the end of the age.
   It is true that the pattern church of the New Testament has never been popular with denominations that reflect the very earliest stage of the Reformation, such as Lutherans and Anglicans, who inherit their clerical and liturgical systems (cleaned up doctrinally) from the Church of Rome. They took the view that Christians may devise for themselves church organisation, methods and manner of worship, limiting the sufficiency of Scripture to salvation and sanctification. (Evangelical Anglicans still hold this limited view.)
   Most evangelicals, however, until recently, believed they should seek to identify and follow the New ­Testament prescription for the church. But times change, and now we hear the voices of those who know better than the Lord, and who abandon the sufficiency  of Scripture and its authority on church matters.
   They tell us we should be ‘doing church’ (their term) differently, and reorganising everything to suit the culture of the world. The wheel of the church is to be re-invented. Congregations will never look the same. There is, they insist, no pattern church set out in the Bible.
   The Saviour said, ‘The scripture cannot be broken,’ but today’s ‘reformers’ think the traditional church found in the New Testament is out-of-date and unsuitable for the present age. They favour innovations that bring the world into the church in many ways.

Confessions Uphold the Pattern

   We have heard it said that the Westminster and Baptist Confessions of Faith veer away from the concept of a pattern church, because they say (1.6) – ‘there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and the government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word…’
   Both Confessions, however, go on in later chapters to uphold New Testament directions about worship, the Sabbath, church structure, membership, officers, with their qualifications and appointment, the centrality of preaching, church discipline, and the ordinances.
   Also, it is obvious from the known teaching and practice of the pastors and churches at the time of these Confessions that they firmly believed that the New Testament laid down the general rules for church life, and that these were crucial. The matters that were to be regulated by the accepted practice of society and common sense were practical matters such as how we are to account for money or implement voting.
   A recent evangelical systematic theology defines the sufficiency of Scripture in a most inadequate and anaemic way thus, ‘Scripture…contains all the words of God we need for salvation, for trusting him perfectly, and for obeying him perfectly.’ It is, of course, a non-definition, omitting any workable guidance on the scope of Scripture’s authority, and avoiding all reference to the ordering of the church. Such a definition comfortably accommodates the modern drift from practical commitment to the Bible.

1. A Representative Church Provided

Here is the first of a series of famous and pivotal commands given through the apostle Paul, saying, in effect, that his policy for church order and practice is an inspired pattern to be implemented:–
   ‘Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers [imitators] of me’ (1 Corinthians 4.16).
   Just in case we should think that the apostle is only asking that we copy his godly behaviour, he proceeds to say (verse 17):
   ‘For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.’
   Paul’s example in Acts, and the directives in his epistles, show how we should go about things, the way we should behave, our methods, our worship, manner of government, appointment of office bearers, and every other significant matter. Writing under inspiration, the apostle sets himself forward as the one to be imitated in church matters. Our English word ‘mimic’ comes straight from the Greek translated ‘be ye followers of me’.
   We should mimic the apostle. He effectively tells us that God has appointed him to lay down a pattern, so that all his recorded acts would provide the model for church life and activity throughout the ages.
   We note that Paul does not say this in just one passage, but in four. There is very definitely a norm or standard for the church in the Bible, and we must humbly seek it out and apply it.