The Trellis and the Vine
Customer Reviews
7 Item(s)
Will make you think about the way you think about doing church
I really enjoyed the book. It will one of those books that although I might not read again, it's principles will be forever stuck in my head. Now all I have to do is ensure I keep putting them into practice and not get carried away with the trellis! 
A great resource for pastors and church leaders
I read the recommendation of this book by Mark Dever and that got me interested.
I have been in pastoral ministry since 1986 and my strengths tend to lie in the 'people' side of ministry and not administration. But over the years the trellis work becomes easier and is actually less demanding than developing people and setting them free for ministry. It is also much safer to focus on programs where we can control the content and activity, than to equip people to actually do the work of ministry. Recently I started serving with an International church and I realise the huge importance on investing my energies in work that produces Gospel growth above anything else.
It's time to become a green-fingered Christian
The basic premise of the book is that church leaders spend too much time working on procedural and structural aspects of church life (the trellis)and not enough time helping Christians to grow as disciples so they in turn can make other disciples (the vine). It is painfully true, isn't it? But this isn't just a timely kick in the guts. It is also a helping hand back up again. There are lots of practical suggestions for reconfiguring church life, and particularly the leader's time, so that real gospel growth takes place. I'm reading it for the second time and encouraging the elders at our church to pack it with their Speedos and sunhats so that after the summer we can move forward together with this.
Timely reminder of our core business; action points would help.
My criticism is that this book is so useful that it drained my wallet and even then the several copies that I felt it necessary to purchase are all out on loan. So I am having to review from memory! That said, the task is rendered easier by the fact that the title itself is almost enough to draw our attention to a theme that is so pertinent that its very utterance makes it blindingly obvious. The authors' subsequent treatment of the Biblical imperative to emphasize the vine and recognise that it is God who cultivates helps to order our priorities and challenges us to get in step with what the Holy Spirit is already doing and stop getting in the way with our own plans - often well-meaning yet misguided.
Ministry training for France
With half the evangelical leaders in France retiring in 5-10 years, we needed a book like this to transform our ministry methods. This book is thoroughly biblical with hands-on applications for the busy leader who wants to start change now. We hope to have this book in French very soon. I gave 10 copies to young leaders last weekend. Thanks Col and Tony
This book is not just for church leaders
While much of this book is clearly addressed to church leaders, I found plenty to challenge, stimulate and encourage me as an ordinary member of the church. It argues from Scripture that ALL Christians are disciples who are commanded to be involved in making other disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the authors give plenty of practical suggestions as to how this can be done, with a list of helpful resources in the back. If you are inclined to think of yourself as being simply a member of the 'support team' helping the pastor to do the work of teaching and evangelism, this book will challenge you to think again! I found the biblical explanation of what 'training' is all about most helpful. As a mother and grandmother I could relate to the description of it as being akin to parenthood, and this further stimulated me to think of other approaches to making disciples. What I really appreciated was that this book helped me to see that I will always have an important role to play, whether I have a specific job title in the church or not. It also helped me to re-focus on what is really important.
An extremely helpful reminder of what ministry should be all about.
My copy of this book is getting dog-eared already! The premiss of the book is amazingly simple and incredibly practical: that ministry is about getting people around God's word through preaching, small groups, and one-to-one bible reading. It seems ridiculously obvious but the scary fact is that day to day ministry relentlessly militates against this approach. I have already established a regular pattern of one-to-one bible reading and my church members have embraced the idea to surprising enthusiasm. This is a really encouraging book that I keep dipping into just to remind myself what I should be doing with my day!
7 Item(s)
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