The Trellis and the Vine (20 page)

The other main plank in our training resources is the DVD-based Six Steps range, now with three titles in the series. Each one contains simple, straightforward training for every Christian in a basic area of Christian living and ministry:

•
Six Steps to Encouragement:
how to encourage one another with God’s word

•
Six Steps to Talking About Jesus:
how to begin to share your faith with others

•
Six Steps to Reading your Bible:
how to dig into God’s word for yourself.

These courses are ideal for running in existing small groups as a framework for training people in knowledge, godliness and the ability to serve others.

Appendix 3. 
Colin Marshall talks to Phillip Jensen about MTS training

CM:
Can MTS be written up as a system or curriculum?

PJ:
Systems never worked for me. I think ministry is caught as much as it is taught. No, it might be more accurate to say that I rationalize my personality the way you rationalize yours. So my rationalization is that ministry is caught as well as taught.

What one individual needs to hear is different from another. I will enthuse someone when I am enthusiastic about something, and I’m usually enthusiastic about new ideas or the latest ideas—things I’m wrestling with. We’re training officers, not soldiers, so we need to train in principle rather than in procedure. So it doesn’t matter which issue we are talking about, if we can get back to the principle that lies behind it. Then, when our trainees face different issues, they can apply those principles elsewhere. I’m happy to talk about whatever they want to talk about.

CM:
What’s an example from this week with your trainees?

PJ:
I read this week about child-raising and ‘warehousing’ children. Raising our children as Christians and ministers is an abiding issue. One of my principles is not to follow the fads and fashions of the day in child-raising. Another principle is not to read too many books on the subject, for that only confuses matters. I want to ask: What does the Bible say about raising children?

CM:
So you just came across this article in the newspaper and turned it into a training topic. Your juices were stirred so you got your trainees all excited about it in a staff meeting. But how do you know you’ve covered everything over the two years of MTS?

PJ:
I haven’t.

CM:
But doesn’t that leave gaps in the training?

PJ:
Yes and no. They’re not gaps if you never intended to cover everything. Training is a lifetime thing, and you have to learn to think. You don’t learn to think with a closed curriculum. It’s about learning to see the world through the Bible’s lenses.

CM:
So you can start with any topic and get them thinking biblically.

PJ:
They need to see the world from the perspective of the gospel and the ministry of the gospel. Then they go to theological college with that framework. So I don’t need to teach them a curriculum course in church history, but I do want them to understand who the good guys and the bad guys are, and how history has shaped us to be the way we are. So I’m happy to paint the big picture, knowing that when they get to college they will get the details.

CM:
You don’t worry about the dates.

PJ:
I want engineers (for example) to want to learn history and open their minds. Christianity is very historical.

CM:
But as pastors start to train someone as an MTS trainee, they may not have your capacity to just start with a topic and turn it into a training session. Can anyone learn to do that? Do some trainers just need to work through a curriculum?

PJ:
I suspect you will be what you will be. Your trainees will grow to be like you, whatever you are like. Yes, we are all different. Trainees and trainers burn with passion about different things. So for some trainers, Reformed theology is what excites them, so they will train their trainees by working through Louis Berkhof. That’s all right. The sheep will always grow like the shepherd. So you’ll get people coming out who are like that. I could start with Berkhof, but within about three chapters I would get lost or forget or…

CM:
…want to re-write it.

PJ:
So I suppose that means there will be a lot of flibbertigibbets coming out of my training—people who can’t concentrate for more than a few minutes on one subject!

CM:
So if the exact method doesn’t matter very much and the personality of the trainer also doesn’t matter, what’s the bottom line when you’re training an apprentice pre-college?

PJ:
You’re reproducing yourself, really. So you have to make sure that the bit of you that you reproduce is the important bit. You’ve got to reproduce the gospel; you’ve got to reproduce godliness. For me, Christian liberty is very important. I don’t think you get the gospel right unless you understand Christian liberty. So I don’t want them to become like me in terms of liking rugby or cricket or “You’ve got to do it this way”. I want them to become like me in the gospel and in godliness.

CM:
I always found it very liberating that you taught us to minister through our own personalities.

PJ:
Yes, so you don’t have to come and be like Phillip Jensen. That would be awful.

CM:
Awful—yep!

PJ:
I beg your pardon. I have to put up with this personality all the time. To see lots of little me’s all around would be a dreadful experience not just for the world, but also for me. I want Tim Thorburn to be the best Tim Thorburn he can ever be, and Peter Blowes to be the best Peter Blowes he can ever be.
[1]
That’s why (it may be my rationalization) I want them to tell me what subject they want to wrestle through, rather than me telling them they’ve got to think this or do it that way. That’s why I don’t want to have a curriculum that tells them these are the things to do. But I think there are people out there who would be really good curriculum teachers and for whom a curriculum would be a great help.

CM:
Do you get officers out of curriculum teaching?

PJ:
I think less so. The soldiers get trained through the manual. My colleague Mark Charleston, who was in the army, tells me that we are now operating with two different kinds of infantry: infantry and SAS. With the infantry, you put them in the battle and tell them where the enemy is and how to proceed. With the SAS, you drop them down somewhere in the battlefield and tell them the enemy is somewhere within a 360-degree arc around them, and you wish them the best of British luck. The non-manual training will best train the SAS but can be confusing for someone who needs an infantry procedure, someone who can’t proceed unless they’ve got a system. I probably wouldn’t be the best trainer for them.

[
1
] Tim and Peter were some of Phillip’s very first trainees.

About the authors

Colin Marshall
has spent the past 30 years training men and women in the ministry of the gospel, both in university and local church contexts. He is a graduate of Moore Theological College (BTh, MA) and the author of
Growth Groups
, a training course for small group leaders, and
Passing the Baton
, a handbook for ministry apprenticeship. Until 2006 he directed the Ministry Training Strategy, and is now heading up Vinegrowers, a new training ministry aiming to help pastors and other ministry leaders implement the principles in this book (see
www.vinegrowers.com
).

Tony Payne
has spent more than 20 years in Christian writing and editing as the Publishing Director of Matthias Media. He is a graduate of Moore Theological College (BTh Hons), and the author or co-author of many popular books and resources, including
Two Ways to Live: The choice we all face
,
Fatherhood: What it is and what it’s for
,
Guidance and the Voice of God
,
Prayer and the Voice of God
and
Six Steps to Reading Your Bible
.

What people are saying about
The Trellis and the Vine

What Col and Tony have described here is exactly what I’ve been trying to do in my own life and in our congregation for years. According to this book, Christians are to be disciple-making disciples and pastors are to be trainers. Superb! This book sets out a crucial shift that is needed in the mindset of many pastors. The authors have carefully listened to the Bible. And they’ve worked on this book. The result is a book that is well-written and well-illustrated, but even more, a book that is full of biblical wisdom and practical advice. This is the best book I’ve read on the nature of church ministry.

Mark Dever

Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington DC, USA

I am thrilled that this book has been written! What God has done in Sydney over the last few decades is nothing less than supernatural—and we in South Africa have long been the beneficiaries. The model of ministry presented in this book has left an indelible mark on my own ministry and been of inestimable value to the denomination I belong to. The mindsets put forth in this book have not only impacted many of our churches, but have changed our regional thinking, planning and strategy. We are indebted to Col and Tony for putting into words a culture of ministry that is biblically pragmatic, deeply theological and, above all, passionately concerned for the lost.

Grant Retief

Rector, Christ Church, Umhlanga, South Africa

This is a simple, beautiful book that I plan to have every pastor and elder at The Village Church read. It quietly and calmly beckons us back to biblical, hands-on shepherding and is a book desperately needed among large churches in the West.

Matt Chandler

Lead Pastor, The Village Church, Dallas, Texas, USA

Gospel ministry is about God’s glory and God’s people! This excellent book takes us right to the heart of authentic Christian ministry. Any church will benefit hugely from studying and acting on it.

William Taylor

Rector, St Helen’s Bishopsgate, London, UK

For over twenty years, I have seen the ideas in this excellent book developed, tested and improved in the active ministry of the gospel. They are the kind of counter-intuitive ideas that, once encountered and embraced, make you wonder why you did not always think this way.

Phillip D. Jensen

Dean of Sydney, St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, Australia

If I could put only one new book into the hands of every person preparing for ministry today,
The Trellis and the Vine
would be it. Marshall and Payne leverage decades of experience in one of the world’s great cities with the hope of stimulating gospel growth around the globe. This book will also refresh every pastor who has ever asked, “What in the world am I
supposed
to be doing?” I came away energized, strengthened in my core calling and better prepared to bear fruit for Christ. In fact, it’s so good that I want every leader and pastoral intern in our church to read it!

David Helm

Pastor, Holy Trinity Church, Chicago, Illinois, USA

It is impossible to read
The Trellis and the Vine
without having your cherished ministry assumptions profoundly challenged.

In your hands is a God-glorifying, scripturally-soaked re-evaluation of Christian ministry. It will untangle the anomaly of being a Christian without a radical missionary heart. It will identify the plethora of ministry structures that owe more to cultural pragmatism than the Bible. And above all, it will inspire us to serve the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Richard Chin

National Director, Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students, Sydney, Australia

God makes ministers in the midst of his church. It is in the context of the faithful local church that ministers are best taught, shaped and equipped.
The Trellis and the Vine
is a superb guide to preparing pastors and ministers for Christ’s church. It comes from a ministry so deeply committed to the recovery of biblical truth and the cause of the gospel. The wisdom in this little book is invaluable. My advice: Keep a good stack on hand at all times, and put this book to good use. 

R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, USA

This book empathizes with the confusion that many pastors have when they allow themselves to lose focus on Jesus’ goal for ministry, namely, to make disciple-makers. But it doesn’t leave the pastor there in the cloud of desperation; it gives him the courage to trust in his Master’s strategy again. And take courage: Jesus’ strategy was able to reach countries as far as my own.

Cristóbal Cerón

General Coordinator, Gimnasio (MTS), Chile

There is no need greater (in the happy resurgence of robust, gospel-centred churches in the English-speaking world) than for us to think biblically and wisely about how we live and minister together in our congregations. All manner of folk are offering us their opinions as to how we ought to do this in this reforming era (in which some, if not many, rightly see the weaknesses of the ministry and methodology of the last fifty years, but whose prescriptions for remedy fall short of the standards of Scripture and wisdom). Yes, let’s rethink what we are to do and be together as the church, but let’s do it biblically, and with the wisdom of biblical discernment and pastoral experience. So I announce with joy that I have new conversation partners as I am asking myself, under the authority of God and Scripture, questions about the structure and ministry of my congregation: “Why are we doing what we are doing? Are we focusing on the right things? Is the gospel central? Are we making disciples? Has ‘administry’ trumped ministry? Is our corporate life and mission biblically shaped?” And more. As I ask these things, I am so deeply helped and heartened and humbled and corrected by the fidelity and wisdom of Colin Marshall and Tony Payne’s profound little book that I can’t but commend it to you.

Ligon Duncan

Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi, USA

(Past Moderator, General Assembly, Presbyterian Church in America)

The Trellis and the Vine
is a must-read for every minister of the gospel. The principles in this book will revolutionize the way many of us do ministry, and help us to encourage and grow the next generation of gospel workers. So often we are caught up in building and maintaining our ‘trellis’ (ministry structure), and we forget that Christian ministry is all about the ‘vine’—the people. Thank you for this clear, Bible-centred approach to the most important task in the world.

Ainsley Poulos

Equip Women Ministries, Sydney, Australia

This book is the perfect example of good theology driving practice. Col’s many years of experience in recruiting and training pastors shines through on every page. Scattered with helpful personal examples, this book is a crucial read for people seeking to grapple with the biblical principles of gospel growth. 

Paul Dale

Senior Pastor, Church by the Bridge, Sydney, Australia

The Trellis and the Vine
is a dangerous book to read. It demolishes precious and much-loved idols like these: “If we just have the right vision and mission statement, they will come… If we just have the right vibe, they will come… If we just have the right speaker… the right band… the right building…”

The Trellis and the Vine
reminds the church that Jesus says the exact opposite. Jesus tells us to be great commission-aries and to “Go… make disciples of all nations”.
The Trellis and the Vine
is the best book I have read about mobilizing all Christians to be great commission-aries. It will turn church-shoppers into servants, and disciples into disciple-makers.

Ben Pfahlert

Director, Ministry Training Strategy (MTS), Sydney, Australia

This stimulating new book on
biblical
training will challenge some cherished methodologies. Tony and Col, though, are able to unsettle and critique with sympathy and understanding. Their observations are always judicious and never judgemental. Every page pulsates with a desire for the growth of the gospel and the maturing of the church. This is not the work of quick-fix pragmatists or armchair theologians, but the product of thirty years of effective ministry practice and reflection. It deserves to be widely read and discussed by all who are serious about every-person ministry in the church. It will be a set text at BCV!

Michael Raiter

Principal, The Bible College of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

This book identifies vital change in culture, priority, energy, creativity, vision and ministry that we need today. This kind of change is hard work, and this book will help. The basic priorities in a local church will be the greatest influence on a person’s future ministry, which is why this book is of strategic value. William Carey’s influential 1792
Enquiry
was about creating a useful trellis, but as a means, not an end in itself. Big minds keep focused on ends, not means, and significant ministries keep working on the vine. Praise God for this book.

Peter Adam

Principal, Ridley Melbourne Mission and Ministry College, Australia