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The ministry mind-shift that changes everything is the audacious subtitle which Col Marshall and Tony Payne chose for their 2009 book The Trellis and The Vine. I don't know how other readers reacted to it, but it made me sit up and take notice. It also led me to wonder if they would be able to substantiate their promise.

The story begins with Col telling us about his beautiful, carefully preserved trellis with no vine, and his luxuriant jasmine vine, covering a rather ramshackle, disappearing structure that may once have looked like a trellis.

Throughout the book, the authors develop their theme that churches can be like the two trellises in his garden. Some of them are quite beautiful trellises, but there is no vine to be seen. Others have growth, without any structure, which is still necessary if the vine is to stay alive and grow.

As expected, it wasn't hard to describe the problems that many churches face. All too often we are busy with structures, but we aren't growing Christ's church: just running meetings, keeping the building in good order, collecting and distributing money and doing the many things that are thought to be essential parts of running a church in the twenty first century.

We may also be looking after people by visiting those who are sick or suffering, conducting weddings and funerals and getting the congregation involved in church meetings and small group, but Marshall and Payne point out that this is not our main function, which they say should be making genuine disciple-making disciples of Jesus.

In their view, training people to train others is growing the vine; everything else is trellis-work. Getting people to attend meetings and to be involved in small groups may be creating a useful structure on which the vine will grow, or it may be something which takes over and actually prevents us from growing the vine. We can be so busy doing good things, such as helping in crises, that we are crowded out from doing the essential thing, which is making disciple-makers.

Having described the problems with telling accuracy, they spend the rest of the book outlining their model which they have developed for identifying, recruiting and training co-workers. This has been a key part of their Ministry Training Strategy, in which new Christian workers are apprenticed for two years, before progressing to theological college for formal, academic training.

The case for training people to be disciple-makers is argued persuasively and many valuable suggestions are made for how churches can change from being (in Peter Bolt's words) in maintenance mode to being mission-minded. Marshall and Payne challenge us that if we are serious about building Christ's kingdom, we must be willing to change and even dismantle structures so that we can do the most important thing of all, which is making disciple-makers.

Have they lived up to their cheeky promise, or is this just another book that is being foisted on us, as the way to do Christian ministry? Is it going to turn out to be yet another short-lived fad?

Christian leaders from Chile, South Africa, England, the United States and Australia have written glowing endorsements of the book, which is the distillation of a view of Christian ministry which has been used by Phillip Jensen, dean of St Andrews' Anglican Cathedral, Sydney and Colin Marshall over the past 25 years.

The Ministry Training Strategy has been tested and incorporated into churches in Australia, Canada, Britain, France, the Republic of Ireland, Singapore, New Zealand, Taiwan, Chile and South Africa. (See page 143)

Reading this book is confronting, but necessary. It is a superb book for everyone interested in serving Christ whole-heartedly. There would be few Christians and who would not benefit from reading it and changing practices so that their focus shifts to building Christ's kingdom through making disciple-makers.

[Note] This review was transferred from our old online store which did not give ratings. But this new store requires ratings. So in order to transfer them we have tried to give a rating which reflects the content of the review. So you may prefer to ignore the rating and just read the review.
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I have to confess that I became increasingly frustrated as I read this book. Frustrated because I wished I had read it when I was starting out in pastoral ministry 30 years ago and also because what is advocated here is so glaringly obvious and biblical that I wondered why I hadn't seen it more clearly myself.

The basic premise of the book is that 'our goal is not to grow churches but to make disciples'. However, such is the traditional model of church and pastoral ministry that we have become accustomed to, that nothing less than a complete 'ministry mind-shift' will be required to get us back on course.

Marshall and Payne use the simple but powerful analogy of the relationship between the trellis – which is the framework and support – and the vine – which is the living organism which grows on it. The problem is that most of our energies and agendas as local churches are targetted at the framework (church) rather than the organism (people/disciples) and, say the writers, we need to shift 'away from erecting and maintaining structures, and towards growing people who are disciple-making disciples of Christ.'

This will involve shifting

from running programmes to building people
from running events to training people
from using people to growing people
from filling gaps to training new people
from solving problems to helping people make progress
from clinging to ordained ministry to developing team leadership
from focussing on church polity to forging ministry partnerships
from relying on training institutions to establishing local training
from focussing 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

Underneath of all of this is a very welcome high view of the church as the people of God and the Scriptures as the Word of God. It is an intensely practical book with lots of suggestions about getting started in making this mind-shift and training apprentices. The authors acknoowledge that is won't be easy or pain-free but it will get us back on a biblical track.

I recognised almost every one of the frustrations and problems they identified from my years in pastoral ministry. We used to run ourselves ragged with busyness just to 'keep the show on the road'. I used to use the analogy of a football team who spent their whole time just kicking the ball around the park, passing it from one to another, and forgetting that the object of the exercise was to get the ball in the back of the net!

This book ought to be required reading and a standard text book in all church leadership training institutions and read, studied and discussed by all pastors and church leaders.

For the purpose of review, I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher. I was under no obligation to write a positive review.

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"The Trellis and the Vine" I read and I loved it.

I haven't written a review of it, but having read the book let me tell you what I have done!

I attended a Trellis and Vine Workshop in Sydney with Col & Tony

I've arranged to have Col come and run a workshop here in Rockhampton in June this year for all the Church in Central Queensland. I've advertised that conference and the book in the Magazine "New Directions" the Presbyterian Church Newsletter for Queensland.

I bought 8 copies of the book and gave them to my Elders to read - we discuss a chapter of the book every month at our meetings and are working hard on the principles the book talks about at church.

I just promoted the book to my Pastor's group which I started as I result of the book.

I bought 20 copies of the book and gave them to every Presbyterian Minister and Elder in Central Queensland - we recently met and discussed the book and agreed to start being intentional about disciple- making. They're coming to the conference in June! Some of these guys are buying the book and giving it to their friends in other churches.

I can not recommend this book highly enough to people in ministry. After 10 years of Pastoral ministry its very easy to get caught up in the cycle of meetings, committees and denominational responsibilities. The Trellis and the Vine isn't anything new - there are no new revolutionary ideas here but simply the encouragement and the thinking to help the church rethink it's priorities and to start becoming intentional in it's mission of disciple-making and making disciples who make disciples.

After 10 years of Word based Ministry it's good to be back in the Word with people. I love how the Trellis and the Vine tells me how to suck eggs especially when I've been sucking on lemons.

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Marshall, C & Payne T, The Trellis & The Vine, (Matthias Media, Sydney, 2009). 166 pages plus appendices. Available in various formats through Matthias Media: http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/products/the-trellis-and-the-vine. Reviewed by David Burke.

This little book has only been out for two years but is packing a punch. Ministry leaders from around the globe and in various traditions acclaim it and the language of 'trellis and vine' has become a standard ministry metaphor.

The subtitle indicates the book's goals: The ministry mind-shift that changes everything. Talk about ambition! In summary, Col Marshall and Tony Payne call for disciple-making and disciple-growth to be at the centre of the church's energies and to be at the heart of pastors and church leaders. The book makes a strong case for this from various Scriptures and then turns to the practicalities.

Nothing new?

In one sense there is nothing new in the book. Since Jesus took the 12 aside for deeper lessons and Paul did the same for Timothy, wise leaders have invested themselves in the growth and training of believers with potential. And I'd guess that most Christian leaders would speak about the importance of someone who took them aside at a formative stage and invested in their growth. In this respect, the book is applied exposition of 2 Tim 2:2 and Eph 4:11-12.

What's new?

What's new in this book is the passion with which the case for training is argued and the careful outworking of the training agenda and process. The ministry of training is developed through a vision for recruiting gospel-partners and moving them through phases of growth and service, concluding with a vision for full-on ministry apprenticeships. Marshall and Payne write with many years experience in Christian training. This shows as they work through the details and anticipate challenges.

Quotable quotes

Here are some quotes to whet the appetite (but you really need to read the book to get the point):

"Is there anything more vital to be doing in our world? It is more important than our jobs, our families, our pastimes … yes, even more important than the comfort and security of familiar church life. (p38)

• …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 inwards working of the Spirit. That's vine work. Everything else is trellis. (p39)

• To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker. (p43)

• We have to conclude that a Christian with no passion for the lost is in serious need of self-examination and repentance. (p52-3)

• A pastor or elder is just a vine-worker with a particular responsibility to care for and equip the people for their partnership in the gospel. (p67)

• We are always an example to those whom we are teaching and training, whether we like it or not. We cannot stop being an example. (p74)

• The principle is: do a deep work in the lives of a few. (p161)

What's good about the book?

I like the way in which Marshall and Payne puts discipling where it belongs – at centre stage in church life and ministry. The wide scope of training to include convictions and character along with competence in skills is refreshing. Likewise, its great to see the focus on gospel growth, not church growth – this is a timely encouragement in a day when numerical growth remains a guilt-trap for pastors. And again, the grounded practicality of the book makes it immediately useful. It's a book that gives a vision and then gives the small starter-steps to see it happen.

Problem areas

However there are a few problems areas. It would be easy to pick up the impression that church is just a training organisation and that people like pastors are only trainers. Likewise, the brief discussion of what is unfortunately called 'secular work' will leave many feeling that their daily labour has no significance before God (pp136-138). It would be a pity if some readers saw these issues and dismissed the whole book as a product of alleged 'Sydney reductionism'. Finally, it would be a great complement to see even a brief discussion of what kind of trellis work and trellis workers are needed to complement the rightful focus on vine work and workers.

Notes to myself

I wrote a few notes to myself as I read the book:

• Gratitude for the people who invested themselves in my training as a new Christian and helped my growth and entry to service.

• Thanks for the privilege of investing myself in the training of others along the way and for the pleasure of seeing God's fruit in their lives.

• Thinking about the ministries I now have and the peopl...

[Note] This review was transferred from our old online store which did not give ratings. But this new store requires ratings. So in order to transfer them we have tried to give a rating which reflects the content of the review. So you may prefer to ignore the rating and just read the review.
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Books on church ministry and leadership abound. It seems that everyone wants to be a mega-church and every mega-church pastor has a book describing how to become one. But, instead of the pastor as chaplain or the pastor as CEO we need a biblically faithful model which also equips the whole church and releases them into ministry. That's exactly what Colin Marshall and Tony Payne offer in The Trellis and the Vine.

Here they offer the image of a garden trellis and the vine which grows on it as a model for ministry. Without the trellis (structure) the vine cannot grow to its fullest extent. A trellis without a vine is a meaningless accessory to a life-less garden. The trellis grows as the vine grows. But, working on the trellis does not make the vine grow. Only tending to the vine will cause it to grow.

I believe that this is an incredibly helpful metaphor for pastoral ministry and the life of the church. The two prevailing patterns of church life (pastor as chaplain & pastor as CEO) are healthy or entirely biblical. They may work, but pragmatism can't be the ultimate guide to health and truth.

The beauty of this book and their vision is that while they care about building structures and leadership, they understand that ministry is ultimately about people. It's the people who matter. It's the people about whom pastors will be called to give an account. If we focus only on building structures but do not tend to the people we have not fulfilled our duty as pastors. Conversely, if we only focus on meeting peoples needs but we do not lead them, equip them and release them to do ministry alongside their pastor-coaches, then we fail to follow the biblical command (Eph. 4).

Marshall and Payne offer a refreshing model for healthy pastoral ministry. This is a well-written and helpful book that explores both the theological and the practical. They provide an image, a foundation and a plan for this vision of ministry. This is an excellent book and I plan to share it with all those who minister alongside me.