An Article taken fron John Edward Cooper’s blogsite
The local Bible Pattern church that I was familiar with was in Shaw Road,
South Shore,
Blackpool. Its pastor was the quite elderly, Scottish, Pastor Girvan. It seems there were quite strong bonds of fellowship between them and us at the
Full Gospel Church,
Fleetwood, for from time to time their young people would visit our church; and I can remember going to a Saturday-evening meeting there, or more than one.
The Bible-Pattern Church Fellowship was founded in 1939 by George Jeffreys (1889–1962), a Welsh minister who, together with his brother Stephen Jeffreys, in 1915 had founded the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance, one of the first Pentecostal organisations in Britain.
Differences of opinion regarding church governance eventually led Jeffreys to withdraw from what later came to be called the Elim Pentecostal Church and form the first Bible-Pattern Church Fellowship in Nottingham in 1939. A number of other local churches were subsequently founded in various parts of Britain.
Bible-Pattern churches were also Pentecostal in terms of their doctrine and style of worship, believing (in common with other evangelical churches), in repentance from sin and salvation through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as described in the Bible, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and maintaining that God had given spiritual gifts to the church which members should seek to experience, such as speaking in tongues, prophecy and healing.
Theologically, it can be seen as an offshoot of the Elim Pentecostal Church and, in terms of doctrine was similar, except for its espousal of the doctrines of British Israelism. It was for some time popular in the 1940s and 1950s, attracting many adherents to an annual Convention in London's Westminster Central Hall.
With greatful thanks to Mr John Edward Cooper
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