Dr Paul Allen

Your academic life was all yours, from elementary to middle and high school to higher education. You read. You studied. You took quizzes, tests, and exams on your own. You did projects and wrote papers. You received your scores, marks, and grades. But occasionally, you were required to participate in a group project. Yes, you remember those. The group project is two or three or more of your classmates joining you to assemble a project for your teacher or professor.  Each member did a piece of the whole to submit it. You had to agree on everything from the topic to the content to how you would present it. And then, you all received the same letter grade, regardless of who did what or how much. Of all the things you were supposed to learn by doing the group project, you probably knew that you never wanted to do a group project again. They just rarely work well. Either you had to do most of the work yourself, or a “weak link” dragged down your grade. Who came up with this form of academic

23 additional reasons, in no particular order, why gathering for corporate worship as a New Testament local church is loving. 1. Gathered worship witnesses to the living God (John 4:24). In our day, the idea of being a “witness” conjures up the picture of an individual Christian evangelizing an unregenerate friend over coffee. That certainly is good and true. But God’s people also are a powerful witness when we gather for worship. Wherever an NT church gathers, whether rural towns or cities, that church declares one of the most foundational and essential truths in the universe; the existence and majesty of the living God. Though they might disagree with your beliefs, your unregenerate neighbour understands that you leave on Sundays to go worship this Being; this eternal and uncreated Creator who is our God. This is loving because he is the purpose and end for all humanity. 2. Gathered worship declares that the fullness of human existence is not merely physical and material (cf. Matt 4: