The Trellis and the Vine

Ministry is messy. Scores of books argue to the contrary, but ministry is still messy. Its messy getting involved in people's lives. It gets messy when the Bible rocks your world and you must change. Ministry is messy.

That's why ministers need practical help from time to time. But even looking for help is messy. Speakers abound but true biblical guides are a precious few.

The message of a wonderful new book entitled The Trellis and the Vine is that ministry is supposed to be messy. Nevertheless there is an goal and a method to the madness. The central argument of the book is that Christianity is not a spectator religion. Rather it is a religion of disciples committed to making disciples. With that in mind, this is not a book about ministry structures. Instead it is a book about the nature and essence of Christian work.

It begins by arguing that the our goal in the church must be making disciples, if we are to follow the pattern of the Bible. The problem is that churches tend toward institutionalism. That is, we can become so preoccupied with structures and programs that we miss the essence of our call. The essence of our call is to prayerfully speak the word into the lives of people in order to reach them for Christ and mature them in Christ. Consequently, disciples need training, which means that large amounts of time and energy must be devoted to training disciples so that they may become those who train disciples.

This was a refreshing read. It is a rare book about the work of the church that does not try to impress the reader with stories of remarkable numercial growth. It is a subtle work that calls us to the joyful gravity of the normal--biblically speaking--Christian life. I plan to use it as a valuable tool in training our people.

The Subtle Effect of Traditions

In a wonderful book entitled The Trellis and the Vine, authors Colin Marshall and Tony Payne explain the subtle danger of our "church" traditions. They write:

"We are all captive to our traditions and influenced by them more than we realize. And the effect of tradition and long practice is not always that some terrible error becomes entrenched; more often it is that our focus shifts away from our main task and agenda, which is disciple making. We become so used to doing things one way (often for good reason at first) that important elements are neglected and forgotten, to our cost. We become imbalanced, and then wonder why we go in circles (p. 15)."