Dr Paul Allen

When I first became a Christian I was introduced to the priorities of the Christian community . I learned quickly that it was expected of me that I have a daily devotion time, a time reserved for Bible reading and prayer. I was expected to go to church. I was expected to have a kind of piety that was evident by not swearing, not drinking at the pub, not smoking, no dancing and the like.  I had no idea that biblical righteousness went far beyond these things. However, like most new Christians , I learned to emphasize such things . My personal letters and talk took on a new tone. They began to sound like pages from New Testament epistles . I soon learned to use Christian jargon in my everyday speech. I didn't "tell" anybody anything, I "shared" it with them. Every good fortune was a "blessing," and I found I could hardly speak without sprinkling my sentences with spiritual platitudes. We've all done it! Soon, however, I found that there was

With each passing year it seems like life gets busier, making it harder to prioritize priorities. Even church can get crowded out of our schedule. While there are legitimate reasons why we cannot always gather for things like Sunday worship and connect groups, we ought to be cautious here. Often times, we forsake gatherings for not-the-best reasons. In no particular order, here are  a few reasons why we often miss church gatherings   but probably do not need to . “There is no command that says I need to go to church every Sunday.” I have never understood this one. It is either innocently ignorant or intentionally dishonest. I wonder if we would say the same thing about our jobs. “There are no verses that say I need to show up at  7am , like my boss says, so I’m sleeping in.” And the same goes for verses about the Trinity . We know that Scripture’s truth claims are deduced from explicit truth-principles, implicit truth-principles, inferred truth-principles, or i