The overall purpose of the Entrance [Gathering] is not only to begin the service of worship, but to help us, as the people of God, be formed into a distinct community of worshiping people. We need time to collect ourselves, to settle down inwardly, to be reminded of who God is, who we are, and why we have gathered. . . . The result of the [Gathering] is a readiness to hear the Word of the Lord.
-Robert Webber, Worship Is a Verb: Celebrating God’s Mighty Deeds of Salvation, Second Edition (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Pub., 1996), 142.