Searching for the Pattern: A Summary Essay
In 2022, I was invited to speak at the Teacher’s Conference for the International Churches of Christ. It was joy to attend, and I shared some wonderful times with brothers and sisters from among those congregations.
The essay that arose from that opportunity is entitled “Searching for the Pattern.” I am making it available here. It was first published in τέλειός/Teleios: A Journal to Promote Holistic Christian Spirituality 3, no. 1 (Winter 2023): 73-89. This is the link: https://johnmarkhicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Hicks-ICOC-2022-Speech.pdf
I am grateful for both the opportunity to speak and publish this paper in the journal.
ChatGPT generated:
John Mark Hicks critiques the traditional “search for the pattern” approach to Scripture—one that treats the Bible as a blueprint and requires churches to conform strictly to commands, examples, and inferred practices—especially as historically embraced by the Churches of Christ and the ICOC. He contrasts that with a more theological, narrative-based hermeneutic: instead of reproducing a static blueprint, we are invited into the dynamic pattern of God’s activity in Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and called to embody the gospel. Hicks illustrates this with Paul’s appeal in 2 Corinthians 8–9, where generosity is not commanded as ritual but arises from participating in God’s grace, modeled after God’s self-giving in Christ and informed by Israel’s history. True obedience, then, flows from being shaped by the gospel’s story, not by copying first-century practices.
Five discussion questions:
How does Hicks’s distinction between a blueprint hermeneutic and a narrative-theological approach challenge traditional Restorationist views of church practice?
In what ways might reading Scripture as “embodying the drama of divine activity” change how a congregation approaches worship, leadership, or community life?
How does Paul’s use of grace (Greek: charis) in 2 Corinthians 8–9 illustrate Hicks’s proposed hermeneutical model?
What are potential strengths and weaknesses of interpreting commands and examples in Scripture as context-bound rather than universally binding?
Can the “narrative pattern” hermeneutic be misused or lead to arbitrary interpretations? If so, how might a community guard against that?
The paper serves as a summary (of sorts) of my book entitled Searching for the Pattern: My Journey in Understanding the Bible.