Friday, October 20, 2023
Trellis and Vine Summaries for Session Meetings.
The Trellis and the Vine By Colin Marshall and Tony Payne
Chapter One : The trellis and the vine
How trellis work takes over
"Most churches are a mixture of trellis and vine" (p.8). The title of the book is an analogy for Christian ministry. "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... (Vine work)... However... Christian ministries also need some structure and support... (Trellis work)" (p.8).
Both trellis work and vine work are critical and must be done with excellence. But vine work should clearly be the emphasis. Payne says, however, that, for some reason, trellis work "tends to take over from vine work" (p.9). There are several reasons why this might be, but the point is that churches and ministries can become consumed with trellis work when there may actually be very little vine work. Marshall and Payne hope to call ministry leaders to a "ministry mind-shift" that will help solve this imbalance.
The vine and the commission
"Does the commission also apply to our own church, and to each Christian disciple? These famous words are worth a closer look... Sometimes our translations may give the impression that 'go' is the emphasis of the command, but the main verb of the sentence is 'make disciples'... In fact, the participle is probably better translated 'when you go' or 'as you go'... It is a commission that makes disciple-making the normal agenda and priority of every church and ever Christian disciple" (p.11-13).
"To be a disciple is to be called to make new disciples... Thus the goal of Christian ministry is quite simple, and in a sense measurable: are we making and nurturing genuine disciples of Christ?" (p.14).
The book will answer questions and bring clarity so that, in the language of the parable, Christian ministries can fulfill the priority of growing the vine, and trellis work takes it's rightful place.
Chapter Two: Ministry mind-shifts
"We are going to suggest that most Christian churches today need to undertake a radical re-evaluation of what Christian ministry really is... We will be arguing that structures don't grow ministry any more than trellises grow vines, and that most churches need to make a conscious shift - away from erecting and maintaining structures, and towards growing people who are disciple-making disciples of Christ" (p.17).
These are the mind-shifts that need to be made:
1. From running programs to building people
Marshall and Payne suggest as the foundation for "planning" that ministry leaders first focus on the people they have been entrusted with, rather than first focusing on the programs that leaders would like to design. I agree, but would argue that there needs to be a foundational philosophy already in place for how to grow people, even before you have them. I would argue for a combination of philosophical convictions that are timeless and transcendent (standards) and extreme people-focus (context) in the execution of ministry strategy.
Apply this to sport coaching for example. Every coach will have foundational, philosophical convictions about how to develop athletes. A good coach will take those foundational philosophies and then customize a training program for the unique athletes that he/she is working with.
2. From running events to training people
"Churches typically adopt an 'event-based' approach to evangelism..." (p.18). Event-based strategies seem to be the norm for most ministries. Events have pro's and con's: they require lots of work and energy, they are entertainment oriented and even consumeristic in their appeal to attendees, they are centralized which makes them easy to control, but they require people (especially unbelievers) to 'come to us'.
Instead of events, Marshall and Payne suggest focusing on training, "which increases the number and effectiveness of gospel communicators (i.e. people who can speak the good news both in personal conversations and in public settings)" (p.19). The resulting vine work wont fit into neat little structures, but the multiplication of equipped gospel laborers in all the nooks and crannies of the community becomes exponential.
3. From using people to growing people
Ministries are dependent on volunteers who selflessly give their time, but ministries are guilty of exploiting and abusing them. "Instead of using our volunteers, we should consider how we can encourage them and help them grow in the knowledge and love of Christ, because service flows from Christian growth and not growth from service... We need to care for people and help them to flourish and grow in ministry, not squeeze them dry in the interests of keeping our programs running" (p.20).
4. From filling gaps to training new workers
"Gap-filling" is maintenance focused. "So instead of thinking, 'Who can fill this gap in our personnel?', perhaps the question we need to consider is 'What ministry could this member exercise?'... If we begin viewing things in these terms, it will open up new areas of ministry centered on the particular gifts and opportunities of our members" (p.20-21).
5. From solving problems to helping people make progress
Ministries can reach a point where they operate re-actively. They are simply trying to keep up with responses to problems. "The goal is to move people forward in holy living and knowledge of God... If you're mostly reacting to people's problems, you won't have the energy to put into proactive training and growing new work. If you take a problem approach to ministry, people with the most critical needs will dominate your programs, and these needs will wear you out and exhaust you, and reduce the effectiveness of your other ministries (p.22).
6. From clinging to ordained ministry to developing team leadership
Ordination is important, but an individual does not need to be ordained to be a significant contributor to the health and growth of the church and the flock. Holding too tightly to the profile of the ordained minister as the only individual capable of "real" ministry can unfortunately eliminate people from meaningful service. Everyone is called to serve the body in some way.
Rather, a focus on training emphasizes team ministry. Anyone and everyone can be a part of a team that is trained to do ministry. If the focus of the pastor is on training, he is able to exponentially multiply himself.
7. From focusing on church polity (a particular form or system of government) to forging ministry partnerships
Government structures in the church are necessary, but rigid structures can sometimes choke out meaningful growth, training and mobilization of people. Is a church or organization structure-centric or people-centric?
8. From relying on training institutions to establishing local training
This is not a rejection of the value and importance of seminary or formal theological training. "But a college cannot be expected to provide total training in the character, conviction and skill that is required for ministers and co-workers. Much of this ought to be done through training 'on the job' in church life" (p.24). Leaders should perhaps consider an integrated approach to training that involves both formal or external training into their regular training and growing of people.
9. From focusing on immediate pressures to aiming for long-term expansion
The urgent often crowds out the important. "We know that training leaders will help to maintain and expand our ministries, but it takes all our energies just to keep the wheels turning. However, if we take our focus off our immediate pressures and aim for long-term expansion, the pressures we face will become less immediate and may eventually disappear" (p.25).
10. From engaging in management to engaging in ministry
"Ministers do need to be responsible managers of the resources entrusted to them, and therefore they will always have a certain amount of administration to do. But the trap for them is that they become so caught up in the management exercise, they weaken the ministry of teaching and training" (p.25). A focus on training empowers others so that efforts can by multiplied in both management and ministry needs.
11. From seeking church growth to desiring gospel growth
"We must be exporters of trained people instead of hoarders of trained people" (p.25). Pastors and leaders must shift their mentality from growing their kingdom, to growing the Kingdom.
"Let us try to illustrate what these mind-shifts mean in practice with just one nitty-gritty example..." (p.26). The authors give an example of an interaction between a pastor and church member where the member asks about how to get involved. The main point is that pastors and church leaders must shift their mindset to the training and empowering of people, rather than the development of maintenance of programs. "If the real work of God is people work - the prayerful speaking of His word by one person to another - then the jobs are never all taken. The opportunities for Christians to minister to others are limitless" (p.27). The pastor/ministry leader is positioned to train people in this work.
How can we at Hope CCC practically pursue these objectives?
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CHAPTER THREE : WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOD DOING?
In our small and myopic ministry context we can often feel as though there are seasons of dryness and stagnation, discouragement and inactivity. We wonder what God is up to and where the growth is, or why we're not "growing". But a look back on the history of redemption reveals similar seasons of inactivity and despair. What is God doing?
Hope emerges from the silence. It is captured in 1 Peter 1 where Christ is the fulfillment of prophecy, the long-expected salvation, and the message of hope for the world. "A breathtaking picture emerges from this extraordinary little paragraph in 1 Peter. In fulfillment of His ancient plans, God has brought salvation by sending His Christ to pass through suffering to glory. He is now announcing this momentous news to the world by His Holy Spirit working though human evangelists, and by this method He is saving people, bringing them to new birth, and granting them an eternal, unshakable, incorruptible inheritance in His eternal kingdom" (p.35).
"This is what God is now doing in the world: Spirit-backed gospel preaching leading to the salvation of souls... And by it, He is gathering a new Christ-centered people as His very own; a quiet, steadily growing profusion of leaves on the great vine of His kingdom" (p.35).
"Throughout the world, the gospel is spreading, propagating, budding, flowering, bearing fruit. People hear it and by God's mercy respond and are saved. But it doesn't stop there. Once the gospel is planted in someone's life and takes root, it keeps growing in them. Their lives bear fruit... so that they walk in a manner worthy of their calling, fully pleasing to the Father, bearing fruit in every good work" (p.37).
The focus in not on numerical growth, or especially structural growth. The focus is on gospel growth "as it is spoken and re-spoken under the power of the Spirit" (p.37).
There are three important consequences resulting from this view of God's purposes in the world:
We must "say goodbye to our small and self-oriented ambitions, and... abandon ourselves to the cause of Christ and His gospel.. Is there anything more vital to be doing in our world?" (p.38).
"The growth God is looking for in our world is growth in people. He is working through His word and Spirit to draw people into His kingdom, to see them born again as new creations, and to see them mature and bear fruit as servants of Christ" (p.38). The only growth that matters is the growth of believers... "individual, born-again believers, grafted into Christ by His word and Spirit, and drawn into mutually edifying fellowship with one another" (p.38).
"This people-growth happens only through the power of God's Spirit as He applies His word to people's hearts. That's the way that people are converted, and that's the way people grow in maturity in Christ" (p.39). This can happen anywhere.
"However, despite the almost limitless number of contexts in which it might happen, what happens is the same: a Christian brings a truth from God's word to someone else, praying that God would make that word bear fruit through the inward working of His Spirit. That's vine work. Everything else is trellis" (p.39).
CHAPTER FOUR : IS EVERY CHRISTIAN A VINE-WORKER?
The "simple but profound proposition" put forth by Marshall and Payne in the first three chapter is: "that the work God is doing in the world now, in these last days between the first and second coming of Christ, is to gather people into His kingdom through the prayerful proclamation of the gospel. God is growing His vine through His word and Spirit" (p.41). All Christians should agree with this proposition, although they might use more, less or different words to articulate it.
The next and very important question is then: Who does the vine work?
Is the gospel work of proclamation and prayer reserved for the "professional" - full-time pastors and ministry leaders? Or is it a job for every Christian to participate in, or is vine growth the primary job of the saints, while APEST's do the equipping according to Ephesians 4?
"The call to discipleship is the same for all" (p.42). There are no classes or castes in Christendom. "The Great Commission, in other words, is not just for the Eleven. It's the basic agenda for all disciples. To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker" (p.43).
There might appear to be a contrast in calling and sacrifice between the majority of western Christians and that of the foreign missionary who has forsaken the luxuries of life in America to go to an unreached, third-world people group. Not all Christians will be full-time pastors or ministry workers. Ministry is not reserved for those who are "full-time". If you are a follower of Christ, you are in full-time ministry.
"Speaking God's word for the growth of the vine is the work not of the few but of the many" (p.44)
Speaking the word to one another
Ephesians 4 provides help. Whether it's the "foundational word ministers" (APEST) who have special leadership responsibilities in the church, or the saints, "we see that it doesn't make an enormous difference in our investigation. Paul goes on to say that the goal of all ministry (whoever is doing it) is the building of the body of Christ to unified, doctrinally sound maturity. We are not to be tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine: 'Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love' (Ephesians 4:15-16)" (p.45).
There are numerous examples in Scripture of the truth-speaking word ministry among all believers.
"Simply by virtue of being a disciple of Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit of the new covenant, all Christians have the privilege, joy and responsibility of being involved in the work God is doing in our world, the 'work of the Lord". And the fundamental way we do this is by speaking the truth of God to other people in dependence on the Holy Spirit" (p.49).
Is every Christian a missionary? (...YES!)
In the early church, Christians faced heavy persecution and the threat of death. But that did not stop the spread of the Gospel. Paul is the key example, and he calls his fellow believers to imitate him and to take up their commission as ambassadors for Christ. "Although the mission responsibilities and activities of the Corinthians would have differed from Paul's, their orientation in life was to be the same. Their whole aim was to be the glory of God in the salvation of others. The Christian without a missionary heart is an anomaly... We have to conclude that a Christian with no passion for the lost is in serious need of self-examination and repentance" (p.52).
"The New Testament envisages that all Christian disciples will be prayerful speakers of God's word, in a multitude of different ways and contexts. In each context, the message is essentially the same" (p.53). This can and does happen anywhere and everywhere. Marshall and Payne give 10 examples of the infinite "ways in which any Christian might 'speak the truth in love' to someone else in the name of Christ, and thus participate in God's great work in the world" (p.54). Marshall and Payne also provide an example matrix on page 56 of "Home, Congregation, Community" and "One to one, Small Group, Large Group" to further map out all the ways in which this could be carried out.
Imagine a web of relationships where the simple act of speaking the Gospel truth to one another in love is happening everywhere. So simple, and so glorious, and so essential.
"However, if we pause to reflect on the implications of this vision of vine work by every Christian, many of our most cherished assumptions about church, ministry, evangelism and congregational life are called into question" (p.57). For starters, everyone is a vine worker, not just the "professional, full-time ministers". "The pastors and elders certainly take the lead in vine work (in prayer and proclamation), and are responsible for guarding and teaching the word and maintaining the gold standard of sound doctrine. But one of the effects of this work is to equip and release the members to do vine work themselves" (p.58).
Gospel vine work is the responsibility of all Christians.
