Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift That Changes Everything. Matthias Media, 2009.
Referenced in: Strategies for Church Renewal: Diagnostic/Prescriptive – Disciple-Making
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This volume may not be as familiar to many readers, and is mainly available through its Australian publisher, Matthias Media. Nevertheless, it receives rave reviews from prominent conservative evangelicals. Mark Dever goes so far as saying, “This is the best book I’ve read on the nature of church ministry.”
Colin (Col) Marshall and Tony Payne use the analogy of the trellis and the vine to discuss the work of disciple-making in churches. The vine represents the essential mission of the church.
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. That’s the work of planting, watering, fertilizing and tending the vine. (8)
The trellis consists of all the support mechanisms that help the vine (mission) to flourish.
All Christian churches, fellowships or ministries have some kind of trellis that gives shape and support to the work. As the ministry grows, the trellis also needs attention. Management, finances, infrastructure, organization, governance – these all become more important and more complex as the vine grows. In this sense, good trellis workers are invaluable, and all growing ministries need them. (8)
The problem? The tendency is for trellis work to take over vine work. This is for a variety of reasons. Trellis work is easier. “Which is easier: to have a business meeting about the state of the carpet, or to have a difficult personal meeting where you need to rebuke a friend about his sinful behavior?” (9) Trellis work may also be more impressive, more tangible and visible. “We can point to something tangible – a committee, and event, a program, a budget, and infrastructure – and say that we have achieved something.” (10) The result over this misplaced emphasis is an institutional view of Christian ministry where many people are busy doing many things, most of which have to do with the trellis and little with the vine.
This book describes the proper relationship between the trellis and the vine, addressing questions such as:
- What is the vine for?
- How does the vine grow?
- How does the vine relate to my church?
- What is vine work and what is trellis work, and how can we tell the difference?
- What part do different people play in growing the vine?
- How can we get more people involved in the work?
- What is the right relationship between the trellis and the vine? (14)
There is much to commend in the authors’ treatment of these questions. The best of the book appears in chapters 2 and 12, which cover the basic ideas. First is the “Ministry Mind Shifts.”
- 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
They set forth the following propositions:
- Our goal is to make disciples
- Churches tend towards institutionalism as sparks fly upwards
- The heart of disciple-making is prayerful teaching
- The goal of all ministry – not just one-to-one work – is to nurture disciples
- To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker
- Disciple-makers need to be trained and equipped in conviction, character and competence
- There is only one class of disciples, regardless of different roles or responsibilities
- The Great Commission, and its disciple-making imperative, needs to drive fresh thinking about our Sunday meetings and the place of training in congregational life
- Training almost always starts small and grows by multiplying workers 10. We need to challenge and recruit the next generation of pastors, teachers and evangelists
They suggest six steps for “Making a Start.”
- Set the agenda on Sundays
- Work closely with your elders or parish council
- Start building a new team of co-workers
- Work out with you co-workers how disciple-making is going to grow in your context
- Run some training programs
- Keep an eye out for ‘people worth watching’
This is a fresh perspective on helping church leaders elevate a disciple-making focus on their ministries.
From the Publisher
All Christian ministry is a mixture of trellis and vine.
There is vine work: the prayerful preaching and teaching of the word of God to see people converted and grow to maturity as disciples of Christ. Vine work is the Great Commission.
And there is trellis work: creating and maintaining the physical and organizational structures and programs that support vine work and its growth.
What’s the state of the trellis and the vine in your part of the world? Has trellis work taken over, as it has a habit of doing? Is the vine work being done by very few (perhaps only the pastor and only on Sundays)? And is the vine starting to wilt as a result?
The image of the trellis and the vine raises all the fundamental questions of Christian ministry:
- What is the vine for?
- How does the vine grow?
- How does the vine relate to my church?
- What is vine work and what is trellis work, and how can we tell the difference?
- What part do different people play in growing the vine?
- How can we get more people involved in vine work?
In The Trellis and the Vine, Colin Marshall and Tony Payne answer these urgent questions afresh. They dig back into the Bible’s view of Christian ministry, and argue that a major mind-shift is required if we are to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ, and see the vine flourish again.
Editorial Reviews
What Col and Tony have described here is exactly what I’ve been trying to do in my own life and in our congregation for years. According to this book, Christians are to be disciple-making disciples and pastors are to be trainers. Superb! This book sets out a crucial shift that is needed in the mindset of many pastors. The authors have carefully listened to the Bible. And they’ve worked on this book. The result is a book that is well-written and well- illustrated, but even more, a book that is full of biblical wisdom and practical advice. This is the best book I’ve read on the nature of church ministry. – Mark Dever, Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington DC, USA
For over twenty years, I have seen the ideas in this excellent book developed, tested and improved in the active ministry of the gospel. They are the kind of counter-intuitive ideas that, once encountered and embraced, make you wonder why you did not always think this way. – Phillip D. Jensen, Dean, St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, Australia
If I could put only one new book into the hands of every person preparing for ministry today, The Trellis and the Vine would be it. Marshall and Payne leverage decades of experience in one of the world’s great cities with the hope of stimulating gospel growth around the globe. This book will also refresh every pastor who has ever asked, “What in the world am I supposed to be doing?” I came away energized, strengthened in my core calling and better prepared to bear fruit for Christ. In fact, it’s so good that I want every leader and pastoral intern in our church to read it! – David Helm, Pastor, Holy Trinity Church, Chicago, Illinois, USA
God makes ministers in the midst of his church. It is in the context of the faithful local church that ministers are best taught, shaped and equipped. The Trellis and the Vine is a superb guide to preparing pastors and ministers for Christ’s church. It comes from a ministry so deeply committed to the recovery of biblical truth and the cause of the gospel. The wisdom in this little book is invaluable. My advice: Keep a good stack on hand at all times, and put this book to good use. – R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
There is no need greater (in the happy resurgence of robust, gospel-centred churches in the English-speaking world) than for us to think biblically and wisely about how we live and minister together in our congregations. All manner of folk are offering us their opinions as to how we ought to do this in this reforming era (in which some, if not many, rightly see the weaknesses of the ministry and methodology of the last fifty years, but whose prescriptions for remedy fall short of the standards of Scripture and wisdom). Yes, let’s rethink what we are to do and be together as the church, but let’s do it biblically, and with the wisdom of biblical discernment and pastoral experience. So I announce with joy that I have new conversation partners as I am asking myself, under the authority of God and Scripture, questions about the structure and ministry of my congregation: “Why are we doing what we are doing? Are we focusing on the right things? Is the gospel central? Are we making disciples? Has ‘administry’ trumped ministry? Is our corporate life and mission biblically shaped?” And more. As I ask these things, I am so deeply helped and heartened and humbled and corrected by the fidelity and wisdom of Colin Marshall and Tony Payne’s profound little book that I can’t but commend it to you. – Ligon Duncan, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi, USA (Past Moderator, General Assembly, Presbyterian Church in America).
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