How do you grow a church? What is Christian ministry fundamentally about? What is the pastor’s job? And what about the members’? These are the kinds of questions that Marshall and Payne answer in their book, “The Trellis and the Vine”.
The authors use the metaphor of the vine and its trellis to help us understand ministry in the church. Vine work corresponds to proclaiming the gospel of Christ in the power of the Spirit, seeing people converted, transformed and growing in maturity. This is the essence of Christian ministry: making disciples. However, for the vine to grow in a stable and sustainable way, it needs a trellis. This trellis is the structure that supports Christian ministry: a building, finances, teams of volunteers, etc. The key lesson of this metaphor is that the trellis exists for the vine, not vine for the trellis.
Marshall and Payne’s observation is that, in many churches, the work of the vine is neglected while the majority of resources (material and human) are directed towards the trellis. The problem with this is that if you don’t pay enough attention to the vine, it will eventually die out. As a result, many churches are unfruitful in their training of authentic disciples of Christ. So what can we do about it? According to the authors, we need a radical change of mindset in the way we think about ministry.
We end up using people to grow structures instead of using structures to grow people.
The most important thing is to refocus our efforts on people rather than structures (chapter 2). Thus, Payne and Marshall place a strong emphasis on growing and training people at all levels and developing teamwork. Conversely, focusing on structures leads to focusing on the growth of the structure. We end up using people to grow structures instead of using structures to grow people. This approach ends up missing the point of God’s work in the world.
For this vision centred on people instead of structures corresponds to God’s work in the world: to gather and transform people into his kingdom by means of the proclamation of the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit (chapter 3). Thus, the work of the vine corresponds to prayerfully bringing the truth of God’s word to another person. Everything else is trellis work.
Every Christian has the privilege and responsibility of being involved in vine work.
So the vine work is what really matters. But is it reserved for pastors or specialists? Based on the significance of the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost and various texts from the epistles (notably Eph. 4), the authors show that every Christian has the privilege and responsibility of being involved in vine work (chap. 4). We are all called and equipped to participate in God’s work of gathering and transforming people into Christ’s kingdom.
Marshall and Payne go on to show the variety of contexts in which Christians can exercise this ministry of the vineyard, of prayerfully sharing the truth of God’s Word with others. This can be done ‘at any time, in any way, to anyone’ (53). So the ministry of the word through which the church grows is not reserved for the pastor. It is for every Christian!
This means that it is essential to train Christians so that they can both grow themselves as disciples and grow in their ability to speak the truth of God’s Word to others (chapter 6). Basing themselves on New Testament texts, the authors show that this type of training involves prayer, teaching, practical instruction, and modelling. The aim of training is growth in three areas:
- Conviction: knowledge of God and understanding of the Word
- Character: a godly character
- Competency: the ability to bring the truth of God’s Word to others in various ways, in an attitude of prayer (78)
This is a rich vision of training. It follows that training cannot be limited to a 6-session discipleship programme, although such programmes are very useful! It necessitates a real investment from the church as a whole.
Training enables every Christian to be involved in the growth of the gospel (Col. 1.6), which comprises 4 stages:
Sowing (evangelism) => Follow-up (post-conversion) => Growth => Training (85)
Of course, training in the broader sense is part of each stage after conversion. But ‘training’ in this diagram refers to intentional training designed to equip the Christian to participate in sowing, in the following-up new Christians, and in the growing of more mature Christians. It is training focused on being equipped to help others grow. This diagram enables us to roughly place different individuals in the stage that corresponds to them in order to best assess their needs and help them move to the next stage.
According to this paradigm, the pastor’s role is fundamentally to train others (cf. Eph. 4.12). This is why Sunday sermons are necessary but not sufficient (chap. 8). The pastor must be involved in the interpersonal ministry of the Word in the service of the four stages of gospel growth. The most strategic way to do this is to equip believers for this ministry in order to multiply strengths and not to do everything himself (chap. 9). The pastor must train co-workers among the members of his church for the multiplication of the growth of the gospel. Some of these co-workers may enter full-time pastoral ministry, but most will simply remain members of the church. The following chapters provide very concrete and practical guidance on choosing and training co-workers.
Evaluation
“The Trellis and the Vine” is a very important book to get a clear vision of church growth, of Word ministry for all believers and more specifically of the role of pastors. Its major strength is that it carefully builds this vision on the Word of God. What emerges is a clear vision, ultimately fairly simple, and necessary for every church that wants to focus its resources on what really matters. It is also an exciting vision because it involves every believer in God’s work of gathering and transforming people into his kingdom.
This book is also very practical. It is packed with concrete examples and evaluation questions. It gives a picture of what that vision might look like on the ground, and gives concrete pointers for putting it into practice. Although written in and for a specific context, it contains key principles that transcend cultures. In addition, the authors recognise that implementing this vision will look different in different contexts.
In short, this is a must-read book to put in the hands of any involved member of a church, especially elders and pastors.
Marshall, Colin, and Tony Payne. The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift That Changes Everything. Sydney, NSW: Matthias Media, 2021.
Thoughtful – thank you!