Churches often start a program or expand their facilities with evangelistic intentions; believing that the new structures will help with sharing the gospel with the community. New ministry methods come into fashion as congregations around the country jump into the fad hoping it will be the key to helping their struggling churches. As is often the case, time passes and the church becomes more focused on maintaining the structure than on seeing the gospel grow in its people. The church’s attention becomes finding people to fill in the holes in the ministry or channeling funds to a struggling program. Too often it becomes more about the program than it does about the people.
This is where Colin Marshall and Tony Payne bring in the parable that is the center of their book The Trellis and the Vine. The vine is a metaphor for the gospel and the work it does in people’s lives. “The basic work of any Christian ministry is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of God’s Spirit, and to see people converted, changed and grow to maturity in that gospel.” (pg. 8) The trellis represents the basic church structures that support the important vine work; buildings, committees, programs, finances, etc. The trouble, say the authors, is that trellis work tends to take over vine work. Many people are involved in maintaining the trellis, while the actual gospel work falls to a few. Marshall and Payne suggest that trellis work gets more attention because it isn’t as personal and threatening, and its ‘success’ more visibly measurable. Vine work requires much prayer and personal vulnerability; causing many people to seek more comfortable tasks. Whatever the reason for the out-of-balance focus, churches and pastors too often find themselves consumed with trellis work and have little time left for actual vine work. Our churches need to examine themselves and determine where our priorities lie: “Our goal is not to make church members or members of our institution, but genuine disciples of Jesus…Or to return to our parable – our goal is to grow the vine, not the trellis.” (pg. 14)
In The Trellis and the Vine, Marshall and Payne suggest a new perspective on ministry that will “change everything.” They say, “Structures don’t grow ministry any more than trellises grow vines, and…most churches need to make a conscious shift – away from erecting and maintaining structure, and towards growing people who are disciple-making disciples of Christ.” (pg. 17) Here they suggest a few directions to take that mind-shift:
· From running programs to building people
· From running events to training people
· From using people to growing people
· From filling gaps to training new workers
· From solving problems to helping people make progress
· From clinging to ordained ministry to developing team leadership
· From focusing on church polity to forging ministry partnerships
· From relying on training institutions to establishing local training
· From focusing on immediate pressures to aiming for long-term expansion
· From engaging in management to engaging in ministry
· From seeking church growth to desiring gospel growth
The emphasis shifts from programs and structures to people: “This is what the growing vine really is: it is individual, born-again believers, grafted into Christ by his word and Spirit, and drawn into mutually edifying fellowship with one another.” (pg. 38) The book then turns from outlining the metaphor to creating a vision for vine work; focusing our attention on the people God has brought into the church and developing godly character that will help them utilize the gifts that God has blessed each individual with. In a word, the rest of the book is about training. That’s what New Testament gospel growth was about; training new believers to teach and grow others into godly maturity.
Every believer needs to be involved in vine work. There aren’t two classes of disciples – those who abandon their lives to Christ’s service and those who don’t. Every believer is called to radical discipleship and disciple making. This, however, doesn’t mean that every believer is called to be a street evangelist: “While all Christians can and should be trained as vine-workers, not all will be gifted to minister in exactly the same way or to the same extent.” (pg. 85) But every believer must be involved in helping another believer to grow in Christian maturity which will help them better reach out to the people around them; in their homes, workplaces, streets, and extended families. The training emphasizes character, rather than skills, which will help disciples live as vine workers throughout their lives and not just in a particular situation. “Training Christians to be vine-workers does not simply mean the impartation of certain skills and abilities. Christian discipleship is about sound doctrine and a godly life, and so to train or equip someone to minister to others means training and equipping them with godliness and right thinking, not just with a set of skills.” (pg. 86)
The point of The Trellis and the Vine is to move us away from the mindset that when we see a need we must start a new program and then find the people to fill it. The book says we should pour our efforts into the people we have. We need to invest our lives into personal, mentoring/training relationships between mature disciples and future harvest workers to model and impart biblical attitudes and behaviors; not simply add another class or curriculum that we think is relevant to the current trends. A church must focus on training people in godly character who then turn around and begin training the next groups of people in godly character. Soon, every member is a minister and not everyone is dependent upon a few people to do the vine work because the vine is growing throughout the congregation. This can happen in a variety of trellis structures, but when a trellis no longer becomes helpful to the vine we don’t feel the need to protect the trellis when a different one would better help vine growth.
The Trellis and the Vine definitely presents a “ministry mind-shift” that is beneficial reading for anyone who is discussing church structure and ministry vision. The book presents a gospel focused training perspective that desires to see the vine grow throughout the world. It is a bold vision and challenge for disciples to evaluate their current preferences and traditions and invest in personal, and often vulnerable, relationships to see the gospel grow in the lives of the people around them.
This is where Colin Marshall and Tony Payne bring in the parable that is the center of their book The Trellis and the Vine. The vine is a metaphor for the gospel and the work it does in people’s lives. “The basic work of any Christian ministry is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of God’s Spirit, and to see people converted, changed and grow to maturity in that gospel.” (pg. 8) The trellis represents the basic church structures that support the important vine work; buildings, committees, programs, finances, etc. The trouble, say the authors, is that trellis work tends to take over vine work. Many people are involved in maintaining the trellis, while the actual gospel work falls to a few. Marshall and Payne suggest that trellis work gets more attention because it isn’t as personal and threatening, and its ‘success’ more visibly measurable. Vine work requires much prayer and personal vulnerability; causing many people to seek more comfortable tasks. Whatever the reason for the out-of-balance focus, churches and pastors too often find themselves consumed with trellis work and have little time left for actual vine work. Our churches need to examine themselves and determine where our priorities lie: “Our goal is not to make church members or members of our institution, but genuine disciples of Jesus…Or to return to our parable – our goal is to grow the vine, not the trellis.” (pg. 14)
In The Trellis and the Vine, Marshall and Payne suggest a new perspective on ministry that will “change everything.” They say, “Structures don’t grow ministry any more than trellises grow vines, and…most churches need to make a conscious shift – away from erecting and maintaining structure, and towards growing people who are disciple-making disciples of Christ.” (pg. 17) Here they suggest a few directions to take that mind-shift:
· From running programs to building people
· From running events to training people
· From using people to growing people
· From filling gaps to training new workers
· From solving problems to helping people make progress
· From clinging to ordained ministry to developing team leadership
· From focusing on church polity to forging ministry partnerships
· From relying on training institutions to establishing local training
· From focusing on immediate pressures to aiming for long-term expansion
· From engaging in management to engaging in ministry
· From seeking church growth to desiring gospel growth
The emphasis shifts from programs and structures to people: “This is what the growing vine really is: it is individual, born-again believers, grafted into Christ by his word and Spirit, and drawn into mutually edifying fellowship with one another.” (pg. 38) The book then turns from outlining the metaphor to creating a vision for vine work; focusing our attention on the people God has brought into the church and developing godly character that will help them utilize the gifts that God has blessed each individual with. In a word, the rest of the book is about training. That’s what New Testament gospel growth was about; training new believers to teach and grow others into godly maturity.
Every believer needs to be involved in vine work. There aren’t two classes of disciples – those who abandon their lives to Christ’s service and those who don’t. Every believer is called to radical discipleship and disciple making. This, however, doesn’t mean that every believer is called to be a street evangelist: “While all Christians can and should be trained as vine-workers, not all will be gifted to minister in exactly the same way or to the same extent.” (pg. 85) But every believer must be involved in helping another believer to grow in Christian maturity which will help them better reach out to the people around them; in their homes, workplaces, streets, and extended families. The training emphasizes character, rather than skills, which will help disciples live as vine workers throughout their lives and not just in a particular situation. “Training Christians to be vine-workers does not simply mean the impartation of certain skills and abilities. Christian discipleship is about sound doctrine and a godly life, and so to train or equip someone to minister to others means training and equipping them with godliness and right thinking, not just with a set of skills.” (pg. 86)
The point of The Trellis and the Vine is to move us away from the mindset that when we see a need we must start a new program and then find the people to fill it. The book says we should pour our efforts into the people we have. We need to invest our lives into personal, mentoring/training relationships between mature disciples and future harvest workers to model and impart biblical attitudes and behaviors; not simply add another class or curriculum that we think is relevant to the current trends. A church must focus on training people in godly character who then turn around and begin training the next groups of people in godly character. Soon, every member is a minister and not everyone is dependent upon a few people to do the vine work because the vine is growing throughout the congregation. This can happen in a variety of trellis structures, but when a trellis no longer becomes helpful to the vine we don’t feel the need to protect the trellis when a different one would better help vine growth.
The Trellis and the Vine definitely presents a “ministry mind-shift” that is beneficial reading for anyone who is discussing church structure and ministry vision. The book presents a gospel focused training perspective that desires to see the vine grow throughout the world. It is a bold vision and challenge for disciples to evaluate their current preferences and traditions and invest in personal, and often vulnerable, relationships to see the gospel grow in the lives of the people around them.
