Missionary Martyr on Revealed Patterns for Church Life

“The pivot point hangs on whether or not God has revealed a universal pattern for the church in the New Testament. If He has not, then anything will do so long as it works.  But I am convinced that nothing so dear to the heart of Christ as His Bride should be left without explicit instructions as to her corporate conduct. I am further convinced that the 20th century has in no way simulated this pattern in its method of  ‘churching’ a community... it is incumbent upon me, if God has a pattern for the church, to find and establish that pattern, at all costs.” 
--Jim Elliot

Elizabeth Elliot, Shadow of The Almighty:  Life and Testimony of Jim Elliot (San Francisco, CA:  Harper & Row, 1989), 138-139.