Gather: Loving Your Church as You Celebrate Christ Together

by Tony Merida

How to make the most of and give the most to your church’s Sunday gatherings.

Why do we meet on Sundays?

Now that technology allows us to access services remotely, many see little need to meet face to face every week. Others think that because we have a personal relationship with Jesus as Christians, church is an optional add-on. For some, they know deep down that there is a reason why gathering on Sundays is important, but they are weary and don’t feel excited about it. So what is the purpose of corporate worship, and what is our role in it?

In this book, Tony Merida highlights how in-person Sunday gatherings are central to God’s plans and to our faith and joy. He reminds believers of their privileges as citizens of heaven, members of God’s family, and stones in God’s temple.

Readers will see how each part of a church service (preaching, praying, singing, baptism, Lord’s Supper, and building each other up in conversations) are ways to enjoy and share God’s grace, and are therefore essential for spiritual endurance. You’ll also be reminded that your presence in corporate worship matters because you have a part to play in encouraging your brothers and sisters and spurring them to love and good

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

Read this book to renew your understanding and enjoyment of going to church and to be excited by the ways in which your presence can encourage others.

Genres: Church, Christian, Christian Non Fiction, Christian Living

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2023

About the author

Tony Merida is the founding pastor of Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, NC. Tony is the author of Faithful Preaching, co-author of Orphanology, and serves as a general editor and as contributor to the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series (B&H Publishing Group) along with David Platt and Danny Akin. He is married to Kimberly, with whom he has five adopted children.

Reviews

[Lena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m loving this series! This book was an excellent overview of the importance of corporate worship for the growth and edification of believers in Jesus Christ.

Merida’s outline is Scripture-filled, clear & succinct. A must read for new believers, believers struggling to remain faithful in participating weekly (or more) in a local church and seasoned believers who need a quick refresher of the beauty of Sunday gatherings for the body of Christ.

[Taliah Kendrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

(3) “Here is a daily mission for all of us: be alert to the burdens of others and seek to ease their burdens in biblical, thoughtful ways.”

What a lovely book on the local church! You will see the beauty of belonging to a local church, what gathering looks like, as well as what it looks like when we are scattered. It’s a must read!

[Ellie Mouer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very readable (especially with other people at your local church body 🙂) and made to be applied. I enjoyed this encouragement to engage more holistically in church each week- both the why and some practical ways how! Loved how the final chapter closed the book by saying what we hear and learn at church is meant for how we live our lives the rest of the week.

[Amber Thiessen · Rating 5 out of 5]

{Full review here: https://www.amberthiessen.com/post/th...}

In this book, the goal is to emphasize the importance and privilege of corporate worship, and to explore how Christians can engage in it for their own benefit, the benefit of unbelievers, and the glory of Christ.

In eight concise chapters, the author highlights key themes of local church gatherings, including encouragement, preaching, singing, praying, celebrating, and evangelism. Often, we overlook the significance of each aspect of Christian community, but this resource brings these topics to light and helps us reflect on our role. Each chapter concludes with Action Steps, offering practical ways to respond to the biblical truths presented, aiming to challenge and equip you to love and serve your church well.

This is an outstanding series on the local church, and I highly recommend it! It's great for small groups and leadership teams to identify areas of growth and to strengthen our communities for the glory of God.

If you're struggling with returning to church or need biblical encouragement on why and how we gather, this resource is for you. Through practical insights and a solid biblical foundation, this series not only addresses the importance of gathering but also inspires a deeper love for the local church. Whether you're looking to reignite your commitment or foster a sense of belonging, this resource will equip you to engage meaningfully with your church community.

*A big thanks to the Good Book Company for the complimentary copy of the book and the opportunity to post an honest review!

[Apollos Michio · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Gather, pastor Tony Merida (from Imago Dei Church in North Carolina) encourages christians to gather physically in their churches with their brothers and sisters to worship God, instead of giving up meeting one another for worship. ⛪️

He covers some biblical reasons as to why we should not give up on such gatherings: so that we can stir up one another, hear God’s word, sing and pray together, celebrate the gospel via the ordinances (such as through communion and baptism), reach outsiders, and learn to live our lives directing others to Christ. ✝️

Overall, the thesis of the book is clear, and I’m glad that reading this made me reflect on my own current beliefs on churchgoing. I remember reading John Piper’s The Pleasures of God a few years back and pondering on his sentiment that stuck with me: “Real life is physical”. 🫂

Yes, we can stream worship services online now. In that case, do I still need to go to church? If you have this question in your mind, this book might very well be your answer! 🧑‍💻

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Has the church lost her meaning? In Gather, Tony Merida teaches about loving your church as you celebrate Christ together.

Gathering is a Gift

After a foreword by David Platt, Merida gives a clear and succinct summary of the beauty and importance of the local church gathering. At just under 150 pages, it is crucial entry in the “Love Your Church” series by The Good Book Company and Acts 29.

The book begins by stating that gathering is a gift. While the truths in this book are timeless, Merida writes with the background of the pandemic in mind, where meeting via Zoom and livestreaming worship services have become normal experiences. Merida is quick to say that this should not be the case, as God calls us to be an embodied community of believers.

Preaching and Singing

Preaching takes a primary spot in church gatherings. All are called actively listen to, engage with, and respond to God’s word. Merida gives excellent action steps to show that preaching is not just the role of the preacher: (1) Prioritize the word read and preached, (2) listen to the sermon with your Bible open, (3) consider some practical ways to stay engaged in the sermon, (4) listen for the good of others, (5) listen with a view to putting truth into practice, and (6) listen to worship. The book is filled with these types of practical examples.

Merida also gives excellent illustrations throughout. In Chapter 4, he writes in regards to singing: “Our aim should not be to produce a concert but rather a group of family members singing cherished songs with their arms around each other, or the feel of old friends at the pub singing local songs that they grew up with, or Boston Red Sox fans every eigth inning or England soccer fans before and after a game singing “Sweet Caroline” at the top of their lungs.”

Celebrate the Gospel

I was most challenged in Chapter 6, where Merida calls us to gather to celebrate the Gospel in the ordinances. I was reminded that baptism is an act of obedience, and a public profession of faith. On a specific Sunday, I saw how God had given me the opportunity to encourage others to be baptized — and I did not waste the opportunity. I remembered my own baptism, and I was moved to worship as I remembered God’s faithfulness throughout the years.

In a world that wants to become more entrenched in the digital realm, this book is a call to remember the role of local, practical, physical community. See your spiritual life strengthened as the local church is championed with Christ.

I received a media copy of Gather and this is my honest review.

[Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Achei o livro excelente, o autor aborda de maneira prática como ser um membro de igreja de maneira a glorificar a Deus, não sendo apenas um consumidor mas sim um servo. Recomendo a leitura.

[Josh Olds · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Love Your Church series is a new series from The Good Book Company and Acts 29 focusing on creating flourishing local church congregations. The Acts 29 network is currently headed by Matt Chandler, but has its roots with Mark Driscoll and the Mars Hill complex of churches. Acts 29 is Reformed Calvinistic, conservative evangelical, and been (rightfully, in my opinion) accused of toxic and authoritarian leadership. Thus, any material coming from or endorsed by Acts 29 has to be seen through that lens. The theological background and perspective I can respect, even if I do not agree. The leadership abuses I cannot respect, no matter their theological background.

Within the three Love Your Church books (Welcome by Jen Oshman, Gather by Tony Merida, and Belong by Barnabas Piper), there is much objectionable material. But then again, there simply isn’t that much material. The books are bland and superficial. They are generic and perfunctory. They are well-designed, well-packaged, and read like something you’d encounter during a membership class at an Acts 29 church.

In Welcome, Jen Oshman writes about “loving your church by making space for everyone.” The book’s highlight is how it talks about the Gospels message being a radical welcome to individuals of all ethnicities and class backgrounds, men or women. However, the book lacks specifics of what this means and gives the overall impression that the welcoming is an invitation to assimilation rather than the development of multicultural worship.

Belong, written by Barnabas Piper, is about “loving your church by reflecting Christ to one another.” Of the three books, I found this one most compelling because of Piper’s personal story of being the child of a prominent pastor (his dad is John Piper), yet feeling disconnected from church until finding a home as an adult at Immanuel Church in Nashville. The book is about finding and developing community, but the advice is both generic and leading. Action questions throughout the texts read “Do you have a checklist for what you’re looking for in a church? Does it reflect ‘healthy church culture.’” He dismisses being hurt by a church as “rare” and says that healing can only be found in a different church. The book gives stock, generic advice that is good superficially but could be toxic contextually.

Gather, the final Love Your Church book is written by Tony Merida. Tony is a VP with Acts 29 and the author of a book called Love Your Church. His focus in on “loving your church as you celebrate Christ together,” which appears to be all about the importance of corporate worship—but not just corporate worship, in-person on-Sunday church service. Merida obliquely criticizes churches that did not meet in-person during the COVID pandemic, stating that the early church didn’t allow persecution to keep them from meeting. Merida also pinpoints the sermon as the critical point of the Sunday gathering, elevating himself and his role in the service. Look, I’m a pastor and I love to preach, but I think the centrality of everyone focusing on one person as the overwhelming part of the time commitment to gathering is what has led to pastor-centered, rather than Christ-centered churches. Again, like the other books, there’s nothing superficially objectionable in the text—it’s the context that matters. It’s limp and lifeless advice that will appeal to people already following that advice and nobody else.

In the end, the Love Your Church series of books has all the passion of having been written by ChatGPT with a superficial banality that seems more about restoring the system of consumeristic evangelicalism than it does actually creating spiritually-flourishing individuals. Their advice isn’t always bad, but generically good advice stuck into rigid systems can become bad or limiting. The brevity of the books means that the authors do no arguing of their position, they simply assert it. They give no evidence that their position leads to flourishing, they just assume it. They engage with no other models of church, they just dismiss them. All of that gets wrapped within unengaging, uninteresting, and uncompelling writing. It’s unfortunately disappointing.

[Krystal Chico · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ out of 5 ⭐️.

Gather by Tony Merida is part of the Love Your Church series by the Good Book Company and the Acts 29 Network. This book focuses on seeing our weekly church gatherings as a way to honor and celebrate Christ together congregationally.

First, I absolutely adored Merida’s intentional incorporation of Scripture into his writing. Many chapters went through specific Scriptural passages verse by verse and delved into the application of the passage into our lives. Scripture forms the primary foundation of the concepts shared in this book, which is such a beautiful reminder that any wisdom we have is not achieved on our own, but entirely God’s will and doing.

With that being said, Gather is a bit more of a deep dive on the importance of corporate worship. Welcome (the first book I read in the series) felt more practical in its application. While Gather is a bit less practical in application, the deep dive Merida does in regard to the importance of corporate worship would be a beneficial reminder to any believer. I would especially recommend the discourse in this book to someone struggling to see the importance of the church and lacking clarity in its significance. In our increasingly individualistic culture in the U.S., it can be easy to pursue faith individually and neglect the importance of gathering with fellow believers. Witnessing the historical and practical significance of gathering as a church revived such a joy in my heart for the church and for God’s purpose for the church. I appreciate how meticulously the author approached the subject at hand.

The book is short. It is only 139 pages, including the Bibliography. However, despite its length, it approaches the concept of gathering as a church in a wise, detailed way. Personally, to me, the book got a bit repetitive at times. Due to that, I think it could have been slightly shorter. But, that’s just my personal opinion. Overall, the content was still great, even if it felt repetitive at times. Additionally, this book has a section for Small Group Discussion as well as access to a free small group kit. While I read this book individually, I can see the benefit of reading this book in a small group setting or as a church community.

My favorite chapter is Chapter 5, which focused on the concept of praying together as a church. I appreciated the acknowledgement on the importance of praying both individually and corporately. I loved the historical analysis of vivid examples of the church in prayer together. It encouraged my heart and set forth such a beautiful example of the importance of praying together as a group, not just individually. Merida reminds the audience that “prayer gives everyone an opportunity to engage in mission. It is right to think of prayer being preparation for our mission, but it is also central to the work of mission.”

Overall, it’s a solid book. In this book series, I would say this is more instructive in its purpose. Therefore, the majority of the book focuses more on the historical concept of gathering and the benefits seen from it. The application portion is more limited in this book compared to Welcome and mostly reserved to the “Action Steps” at the end of the chapters. However, the overall material is still edifying. I would rate this more as a 3.5 ⭐️ than a 3 ⭐️.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, pastor Tony Merida explains why corporate worship is so important for the Christian life. He writes about why embodied gathering is essential for the church, and goes through different elements of the service to explore each one in turn. He quotes from Scripture passages that highlight the importance of each element of the service (singing, preaching, experiencing the sacraments, etc.), and shares basic action steps for Christians to be more intentional in engaging at church.

Gather: Loving Your Church as You Celebrate Christ Together is part of the new Love Your Church series. Each book is by a different author and covers a core concept about investing in the local church. They are fairly basic in scope, and are best for Christians who have not thought deeply before about the role of the local church or their importance to its mission. People who have already studied and thought about the church a great deal won't find anything new here, although they may find the books encouraging. This series is very basic, and doesn't delve into more complicated issues facing the church today. The books are also primarily relevant for people in Reformed evangelical congregations, and do not include examples of other ways of doing church that would give this series a broader scope.

There is nothing particularly special or striking about Gather, and I didn't find the contemporary elements related to the pandemic helpful. It's very brief, encouraging people to reconnect with church without dealing with any of the emotional and relational fallout of COVID-19. Merida does mention in passing that some people can't attend church regularly because of health issues, which I appreciated, but he includes this as a caveat without engaging with any ideas for how the local church could encourage or help members who are not able to appear during weekly gatherings. I wish he had spent time sharing wisdom for special scenarios like this, instead of just summarizing the general order of service.

Overall, this book was fine, but unless someone is reading this book with a church group anyway, I would recommend that they read the author's previous book on the same subject instead. Love Your Church: 8 Great Things about Being a Church Member covers the same topics while also addressing some more complicated issues, including how to recognize narcissist leaders. (As a side note, Gather is published in association with Acts 29, an organization that has attempted to clean house after its own issues with a narcissistic leader and associated cover-ups.) Although this isn't a bad book by any means, it doesn't have enough unique elements to stand out.

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Adam Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first foray into this new series from TGBC, encouraging people to celebrate the privileges of being part of a local church.

This volume is all about the purposes of gathering - to stir one another up, to hear God's Word, to sing together, to pray together, to celebrate the ordinances, to reach outsiders, and to scatter. Each chapter outlines the Bible's teaching, and then has a handful of specific "action steps" to put this teaching into practice. There are discussion questions at the end as well.

The book as a whole is clear and accessible to the average book-reading church member. It is encouraging and gently challenging. It is not ground-breaking, but brings together several helpful strands.

A big part of the book is showing that the gathering is not all about me - it's about Jesus, of course. But it's also about others. And I need to be mindful of them when I meet. "We need one another to persevere in hope" (32).

There are a few shortcomings, of which I'll mention two. One: the author doesn't adequately address the question of those who legitimately cannot gather, either temporarily or permanently. This seems surprising after our COVID-19 experiences. Secondly, the chapter on "hearing God's Word" focuses almost exclusively on preaching, neglecting the reading is Scripture itself. I think this is probably a general shortcoming in Western evangelicalism.

But generally, a helpful read, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

[T.K. CHAPMAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! Chapters cover various elements that we experience together at church, such as praying together, singing together, observing sacraments together. Chapters are short, well organized, and end with some possible action steps. There are study guide questions for each chapter in the back of the book. This would make an excellent group study.
I'm pretty sure the author falls into the Reformed Baptist camp, but is upfront about his credo-Baptist views and treats the opposing view fairly.

[Matthew Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a short, accessible book that every Christian should read. Especially those who hear the voice in their head saying “the Church is nice to have, not a necessity”.

Rooted in the practices of the early church, we see what a local buddy of believers should look like, and that’s what Merida outlined in this book.

[Elise Gilmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always appreciate Tony's voice and insights. This book held many important reminders of why gathering together as a church is important and why the things we do when we gather together are important.

Perfect for a small group or church book club or for a believer who wants to love their church gathering more.

[Adam Kareus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short introduction to the corporate gathering of God's people. It is a great work laying out the value and necessity of the local church.

[Joy Conkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good biblical advice about why we gather as God's people. Some chapters were very challenging. Generally it reinforced basic principles behind why we gather.

[Justin Genus · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10. Good resource for new church members. Merida catches elements of the Sunday gathering that are oft-ignored. Writing is so-so. Action steps and discussion questions are very useful.

[Naomi Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, easy read. But a wonderful exhortation on the importance of being part of a Christian community in the local church. We cannot be lone ranger Christians; God designed us to live life together.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second read of this series. Convicting and practical. On to the next!

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

simple yet compelling, chock full of good reminders

[Whitney Dziurawiec · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this with church small group. it's fine lol

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing style: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Engagement: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Content: 🌟🌟🌟
Purpose: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Value: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Overall: 3.8/5

[Jónatas Rafael Lopes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livro simples com muita simplicidade.
Vale a pena a leitura