Colin Marshall (2)

Far too many churches get it all wrong. Their existence stems from an full calendar of social events and purposeless groups that do little to embody Christ's mandate to make disciples of all nations. They are busy, just with the wrong things.

In The Trellis and the Vine, Colin Marshall and Tony Payne put forth a model of ministry that is absolutely obsessed with the disciple-making process. Their thoughts waft like a breath of fresh air over the stale ecclesiological landscape. They show more constantly remind the reader that ministry is not about programs; it's about people.

A commitment to disciple others will require relationships. "The relational nature of training means that the best training will often occur by osmosis rather than formal instruction" (76). Furthermore, this commitment will require church leaders to focus on multiplication of their efforts through others. "By far the best way to build a congregation full of disciple-making disciples is to assemble and train a band of co-workers to labour alongside you" (116).

While I whole-heartedly agree with almost everything Marshall and Payne say, I wish they had said more about the "people worth watching." People worth watching are individuals that pastors observe, test, and recruit into vocational ministry. These individuals are affirmed through an external call from the church. My issue stems from the fact that Marshall and Payne seem to deny a sense of internal call of the Lord upon the individual. They write, "We shouldn't sit back and wait for people to 'fell called' to gospel work, any more than we should sit back and wait for people to become disciples of Christ in the first place. We should be proactive in seeking, challenging, and testing suitable people to be set apart for gospel work" (134). They conclude, "If these people are also godly servants of Christ who long for his kingdom, then why not headhunt them for a life of 'recognized gospel ministry'?" (140). This line of thinking is certainly controversial and needs more explanation.

Despite the issue over the internal call, The Trellis and the Vine is an amazing book that pastors, church leaders, and astute laymen need to read and digest. It can be a game-changer for churches who have lost the vision to build disciple-making disciples! show less

Summary: This book is a call to ministry as a personal, disciple-making activity rather than a series of programs. Every Christian is a vital part of this task, and the church exists to create, train, and enable them.

Pros: It is well-conceived. The authors work through basic ideas and logically build upon them. It is practical. Real life examples and achievable goals and guidance are everywhere in the book. It properly calls pastors to be disciple-makers not corporation managers. It show more recognizes that all of the body is essential, not just the pastors.

Cons: It can be a bit idealistic. It undervalues the role of consistent, expository preaching in the disciple-making process. By elevating the role of training in the church's services, it overlooks the role of worship.

Evaluation: This is a very helpful work that properly focuses the pastor and the church upon the growth of people, not institutions. Churches are measured by spiritual growth, nothing else. I appreciate the philosophical underpinnings of the practical suggestions. show less

The metaphor is simple: the vine is the work of disciple-making and Christian growth; the trellis is the structure (programming, events, etc.) that allow for continued growth. Marshall and Payne call the church to return to its founding charge: make disciples. This commission wasn’t just for the apostles, nor is it merely directed towards today’s “professional” clergy. Through the ministry of Word (opening the scriptures) and Spirit (praying for God’s supernatural work), all show more believers are a part of the disciple-making process (outreach, follow-up, growth, training). In short, Marshall and Payne remind us that as the church we are all disciple-making disciples. This mindset shift, however, requires that church leaders (elders, teachers, ministers) see themselves as trainers, raising up other vine-workers. Pastors must see training as an essential element of their ministries (2 Tim. 2:2), and must understand ministry as people-centered rather than program-centered. Marshall and Payne are not arguing that trelliswork is bad. Rather, it is both good and necessary. However, the contemporary church has focused on structure and programming to the detriment of our actual call. A- show less

The Trellis and The Vine is a book that the student executive of CU have been reading through in our meetings this year. Firstly let me explain the metaphor of the title.
To quote from the book, “the Vine is the Spirit-empowered word, spreading and growing throughout the world, bringing people out of the kingdom of darkness into the light-filled kingdom of God‟s beloved Son, and then bearing fruit in their lives as they grow in the knowledge and love of God. The vine is Jesus, and as we show more are grafted into him, we bear fruit.” (pg 37)
Therefore vine work is the work of watering and planting and helping people to grow in Christ. It is personal and requires much prayer, dependence on God, and requires us opening our mouths – speaking the word!
The trellis is essential to all Christian groups in some basic form as this gives us our administration and organisation. However trellises can become very complex and they have a tendency to take over from the vine work. We are always looking to maintain and improve our trellis and it‟s easier to do trellis work because it‟s less personally threatening. I would say I naturally am one of these people who slip into „trellis work‟ rather than vine work – there is a lot of it around – and I let it take over my time and energy.
However, to be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker so we are all actually vine-workers, not just some of us! In Matthew 28 Jesus says to his disciples “as you go, make disciples of every nation.” Jesus doesn‟t have two sorts of disciples: those who abandon their lives to his service and those who don‟t. The call to discipleship is the same for ALL. Unfortunately we often think in two categories. As this book says “We go to church, where we sing a few songs, try to concentrate on the prayers and hear a sermon. We chat to people afterwards, and then go home for a normal week of work or study or whatever it is we do, in time to come again next week. We might read our Bible and pray during the week. We may even attend a small group – or CU. But would someone outside say: “Look: there is someone who has abandoned his life to Jesus Christ and his mission?” Disciple-making and nurturing should be the life of every Christian disciple and every church. It is a change of mindset (a catchphrase in the book) from simply erecting and maintaining structures to the work of evangelism and assisting other Christians grow in holiness.
Something which really stood out to me in this book is the global view of the church and the work of the Gospel. There is a whole network of vine workers across the world and we shouldn‟t be trying to just hang onto those who are „ours‟ but look to share around in God‟s work.
The Trellis and The Vine emphasises a people-centred, Word-based approach to ministry. There are opportunities for ALL Christians to get involved with vine-work and the book suggests ideas in different contexts to think about. The Trellis and The Vine also emphasises a training approach for vine-workers. This is not just training in skills but in sound doctrine and godly living. There are details of how this could look like on a local level with the people already in our congregations and particularly through the MTS way of ministry apprenticeships.
I‟d say this is definitely worth a read - I‟m a big fan and have given away about 4 copies myself so far since reading it. There‟s lots of good details I haven‟t been able to highlight today. I‟d also recommend reading it with others and there is actually a discussion guide on the publisher website. Even if you don‟t read this book (at least for a while), I hope you‟ve been challenged by the main idea of trellis work vs vine work and whether you, like me, have been forced to thinking about whether you are serving God as the disciple-making and disciple-growing disciple! show less