Tim Chester Reviews "The Vine and the Trellis"

A summary of the book:

?Vine work is about the ministry of the Word of God, by the power of the Spirit. It is the ministry that sees people converted, changed, and made mature in Christ. Trellis work is all the other things we do in our churches that hopefully support that vine work, but which actually aren?t vine work in themselves.? The authors of this book don?t dismiss ?trellis work? ? all the institutional and structural stuff of church. But they argue we need a refocus onto ?vine work? ? making disciples.

There?s a lot of good stuff in this book. I particularly love the key principles elaborated of chapters 2 and 12:

Ministry mind-shifts

1. From running programs to building people

2. From running events to training people

3. From using people to growing people

4. From filling gaps to training new workers

5. From solving problems to helping people make progress

6. From clinging to ordained ministry to developing team leadership

7. From focusing on church polity to forging ministry partnerships

8. From relying on training institutions to establishing local training

9. From focusing on immediate pressures to aiming for long-term expansion

10. From engaging in management to engaging in ministry

11. From seeking church growth to desiring gospel growth

Summary Propositions

1. Our goal is to make disciples

2. Churches tend towards institutionalism as sparks fly upwards

3. The heart of disciple-making is prayerful teaching

4. The goal of all ministry ? not just one-to-one work ? is to nurture disciples

5. To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker

6. Disciple-makers need to be trained and equipped in conviction, character and competence

7. There is only one class of disciples, regardless of different roles or responsibilities

8. The Great Commission, and its disciple-making imperative, needs to drive fresh thinking about our Sunday meetings and the place of training in congregational life

9. Training almost always starts small and grows by multiplying workers

10. We need to challenge and recruit the next generation of pastors, teachers and evangelists

Making a start

Step 1: Set the agenda on Sundays

Step 2: Work closely with your elders or parish council

Step 3: Start building a new team of co-workers

Step 4: Work out with you co-workers how disciple-making is going to grow in your context

Step 5: Run some training programs

Step 6: Keep an eye out for ?people worth watching?