Just before the outbreak of World war 2 Principal George Jeffreys travelled to Stockholm, Sweden and saw the great Pentecostal work which had taken place under the ministry of Pastor Lewi Pethrus in Stockholm. At a future date I will share with you in more detail the points of scripture which Pastor Pethrus believed in. After seeing for himself the benefits of applying God's word in relation to Matthew Chapter 18, verses 15 to 20 George Jeffreys travelled home compelled to change the structure of the Elim movement.
George Jeffreys approached the Executive council and the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance leaders to make some recommendations for some changes to be implemented as to the structure and organisation of Elim. To have a full understanding of these recommendations please read the article written by George Jeffreys in November 1954 entitled Cleaning And Power For All Churches, The Sovereignty Of The Local Church. This can be found at the bottom of the website.
George Jeffreys was not a dictator and did not force his recommendations to be accepted but instead allowed them to be voted on. At this point, I must stress that these recommendations were not a mere whim but changes that Pastor Jeffreys felt would bring the denomination back in line with God’s word. This met with considerable opposition and there was a division in the churches. There was a lot of propaganda as leaflets were printed and distributed throughout the Churches around the country and as no agreement could be reached, George Jeffreys left the Elim movement which he had brought into being and formed ‘The Bible Pattern Church Fellowship.’
You can imagine the heartbreak Pastor Jeffreys felt after starting the Elim Denomination. I have since met with some church leaders who believe in Theocracy and would have forced the issue through if they believed they were being led by God! Pastor Jeffreys did not do this, neither did he compromise himself or his beliefs to retain his position of a very large and successful denomination.
The question I asked myself was which of these Bible Pattern Churches remain today; I discovered some have become part of the Elim Movement again, and several others have become independent churches but have a good relationship with Elim. Some sadly have closed. There have been some name changes, but to the Glory of God the witness and work of God still continues. I hope to use this site to show where these churches are!
If you wish to know about the founder of the Bible Pattern Church log onto
http://georgejeffreysandstephenjeffreys.blogspot.com/
I am glad to say that I have found a couple of websites for churches and I hope to share these with you.
Unfortunately, not all churches these days are blessed to have members of their churches to provide a website. This is one of the main reasons I put this site together. I hoped that I could provide a means to show Church locations, times of services etc. Since writing to several Pastors, I am glad to say that plans are in place for some new church websites to be created and I trust they will allow me to add a link from this website.
I hope to put together pictures and information in a chronological list about these churches so that you may have the opportunity to visit them and discover a little about the history, present events and the future of God's Work in the UK and beyond.
Sadly, it has come to my attention that some churches have now become independent of the Bible Church Fellowship and do not wish to be included in this site! In these cases, I will not be able to provide a link but hope to provide some historical information and articles from past Pattern articles.
Finally May I confirm that the Bible Church Fellowship is not a British -Israel movement and has never been such since it's inception in 1940. It stands uncomisingly for an open Bible for all schools of prophetic truth provided fundamental truths are faithfully maintained.
In my next article, I hope to answer the question “what happened to the Bible Pattern Church Fellowship?” and much more in future articles.
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