My mother made most of my clothes growing up, and also made things as difficult as sport coats and dress slacks for Daddy. I did my best to follow in her footsteps, but am not nearly the seamstress she is. I do, however, remember buying patterns and making maternity clothes for myself and baby clothes for the boys. Lucky for them, they received a lot of gifts so I didn’t have to do that very long! Then my sewing machine died and everyone got off easy instead of having to wear my crooked seams and gathered sleeves—which weren’t supposed to be gathered.
One thing I remember well was that if I didn’t follow the pattern, nothing turned out right. The seams didn’t match, the zippers didn’t fit in where they were supposed to, and forget about making the stripes and plaids meet—it was simply impossible.
A lot of people follow patterns—architects, electricians, plumbers, masons. If they don’t follow the blueprints (patterns) their customers are very unhappy. So what is the big deal about needing to follow a pattern in the church? Why does every generation think it’s not only impossible but unnecessary? Maybe because we haven’t told them why we follow the pattern, maybe because we don’t know why either.
So we get questions like these: Is it really necessary to follow the examples set in the New Testament? How do we know which examples to follow? A lot of people go haywire and forget common sense, throwing out ridiculous scenarios to try to circumvent the need to do what God has plainly shown us He wants to be done.
So for the next few days we will examine a few things about patterns in the church, things I bet you never knew were there. But they aren’t really that difficult to see if you have the mind to see them instead of one that wants to see what it wants to do instead. Set aside your preconceived notions, and your ill-conceived ones too, and join me for the next three days.
Hold the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 2Tim 1:13
Dene Ward
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