The Trellis and the Vine (3 page)

We are easily consumed by keeping ministry programs running. The urgent crowds out the important, and everyone thinks that their agenda should be dealt with first. We know that training leaders will help to maintain and expand our ministries, but it takes all our energies just to keep the wheels turning. However, if we take our focus off our immediate pressures and aim for long-term expansion, the pressures we face will become less immediate and may eventually disappear.

10. From engaging in management to engaging in ministry

Ministers do need to be responsible managers of the resources entrusted to them, and therefore they will always have a certain amount of administration to do. But the trap for them is that they become so caught up in the management exercise, they weaken the ministry of teaching and training. How many hours per week does your minister spend attending committees, managing property, organizing programs or conducting church business? Could you train others to take over some of this work? Could your minister be relieved of some of his administrative workload so that he can devote time to training one or two new leaders?

11. From seeking church growth to desiring gospel growth

Once we’ve spent time and resources training our leaders, we soon fear losing them. However, one of our goals in training people should be to encourage some of them into further formal training in theology so that they might progress into denominational or missionary ministry. We must be exporters of trained people instead of hoarders of trained people. In a resource-poor church, this can be very hard to do. Even in churches with many leaders, regular turnover and re-training is demanding. But our view of gospel work must be global as well as local: the goal isn’t church growth (in the sense of our local church expanding in numbers, budget, church-plants and reputation) but gospel growth. If we train and send workers into new fields (both local and global), our local ministry might not grow numerically but the gospel will advance through these new ministers of the word.

L
ET US TRY TO ILLUSTRATE
what these mind-shifts mean in practice with just one nitty-gritty example.

Imagine a reasonably solid Christian said to you after church one Sunday morning, “Look, I’d like to get more involved here and make a contribution, but I just feel like there’s nothing for me to do. I’m not on the ‘inside’; I don’t get asked to be on committees or lead Bible studies. What can I do?”

What would you immediately think or say? Would you start thinking of some event or program about to start that they could help with? Some job that needed doing? Some ministry that they could join or support?

This is how we are used to thinking about the involvement of church members in congregational life—in terms of jobs and roles: usher, Bible study leader, Sunday School teacher, treasurer, elder, musician, song leader, money counter, and so on. The implication of this way of thinking for congregation members is clear: if all the jobs and roles are taken, then there’s really nothing for me to do in this church. I’m reduced to being a passenger. I’ll just wait until I’m asked to ‘do something’. The implication for the pastoral staff is similar: getting people involved and active means finding a job for them to do. In fact, the church growth gurus say that giving someone a job to do within the first six months of their joining your church is vital for them to feel like they belong.

However, if the real work of God is people work—the prayerful speaking of his word by one person to another—then the jobs are never all taken. The opportunities for Christians to minister personally to others are limitless.

So you could pause, and reply to your friend, “See that guy sitting over there on his own? That’s Julie’s husband. He’s on the fringe of things here; in fact, I’m not really sure whether he’s crossed the line yet and become a Christian. How about I introduce you to him, and you arrange to have breakfast with him once a fortnight and read the Bible together? Or see that couple over there? They are both fairly recently converted, and really in need of encouragement and mentoring. Why don’t you and your wife have them over, get to know them, and read and pray together once a month? And if you still have time, and want to contribute some more, start praying for the people in your street, and then invite them all to a barbeque at your place. That’s the first step towards talking with them about the gospel, or inviting them along to something.”

Of course, there’s every chance that the person will then say, “But I don’t know how to do those things! I’m not sure I’d know what to say or where to start.”

To which you reply, “Oh that’s okay. Let’s start meeting together, and I can train you.”

Now if you’re a pastor reading this book, your reaction at this point might be something like this: “Okay, right. Now I really know these guys are living in a dream. In their fantasy world, I’m supposed to have time to meet individually with all the members of my congregation, and personally train and mentor them so they can in turn personally minister to others. Have they seen my diary? Do they have
any
idea of the pressure I’m under? If that’s what they mean by a mind-shift, it sounds more like a brain-explosion to me!”

Well, we haven’t seen your diary, but if it’s anything like most pastors’ diaries, we know very well the pressure you’re under. And in due course, we’ll get to the nitty-gritty of how these sorts of mind-shifts play out in the day-to-day life of real churches.

However, there is some vital biblical work to be done first. To understand the scriptural foundations for re-focusing our ministries around people rather than structures, we have to go back and re-examine our core assumptions about what God is doing in our world, how he is doing it, who he is using to do it, and what it all means for Christian discipleship and ministry.

Chapter 3.
What in the world is God doing?

In the quiet moments, when you’re being honest with yourself and God, do the following thoughts ever pass through your mind?

God, what are you doing?!

We know that you are strong and mighty and majestic. You rule over everything. You hold the world in your hand.

But how long are you going to leave us like this?

We’re begging you for some growth, for strength, for some
upside
. You know how it is. Numbers are stagnant, morale is flagging, the money is all over the place.

We’re a joke. The world laughs at us.

Every mistake and scandal, real or imagined, is raked over with glee by the latte-sipping reptiles of the media—the ones with the trendy, thick-rimmed glasses and the ‘correct’ opinions.

Is it that you are angry with us? When are you going to do something to turn this around?

Because don’t forget that the whole thing is your idea. You planted the vine in the first place—cleared the ground for it in the backyard, dug a hole, put up the trellis—and we flourished. But now look at us! We’re being eaten alive.

Restore us, O Lord, God of hosts! Let your face shine that we may be saved!

Apart from the last two sentences, which are a direct quote, the rest of this little outburst is a re-phrasing of the 80th psalm, which was written at a time when Israel felt like many churches do today. The days of God’s power and redemption and victory all seemed to be in the past. More to the point, his favour—the shining of his face upon them—was worryingly absent. God seemed to them like a disappointed father who had watched his wayward son embarrass and humiliate him once too often, and now simply turned away, too appalled and heartbroken to watch.

It’s not so hard today to find these sorts of words in our hearts and on our lips. Our churches falter and stumble. Growth is slow, non-existent or (to use that wonderful modern euphemism) ‘negative’. We potter along in our ministries with our enthusiasm waxing and waning, but the real action seems always to be somewhere else—either in some other Christian movement or in the world itself. Presidents and prime ministers are elected, trophies are won and lost, TV dramas are watched by millions. When ‘all the news that’s fit to print’ is carefully read, there is no mention of what is happening in our little church. We are not news. When a couple walks past our church on Sunday morning on their way to the park with their dog, and hears the faint sounds of our singing, what do they think? “Man, that place is where the action is!” One suspects not. More likely they think, “Poor misguided souls” or “How quaint!” or “I didn’t think people did that any more” or some other dismissive thought.

Modern churches (at least in the West) may not be under the direct attack and disaster that Israel was experiencing, but we certainly still wonder what God is doing in the world. Is he still listening? Is he going to act? I thought he was the Lord and Master of all—if so, what’s the plan?!

Many of the psalms plumb these depths. But Psalm 80 has the distinction of exploring these ideas via the image of Israel as God’s vine:

Restore us, O God of hosts;

let your face shine, that we may be saved!

You brought a vine out of Egypt;

you drove out the nations and planted it.

You cleared the ground for it;

it took deep root and filled the land.

The mountains were covered with its shade,

the mighty cedars with its branches.

It sent out its branches to the sea

and its shoots to the River.

Why then have you broken down its walls,

so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?

The boar from the forest ravages it,

and all that move in the field feed on it. (Ps 80:7-13)

Here we find ourselves plunged into the middle of a story that has been unfolding since before there were any such things as vines, or for that matter earth into which they could be planted. It’s the story of what God is really doing on planet earth. It begins with his plan to create all things by and for his Son, and it culminates in new heavens and a new earth, populated by a newly resurrected people of God who are united to Jesus Christ.

But here, in Psalm 80, it all hangs in the balance. After the wreckage of the Fall and the judgement of the Flood and Babel, God had planned to gather people from every nation to himself by carving out for himself one particular nation descended from Abraham: Israel. Over centuries, this plan had begun to unfold. The nation grew like a young vigorous plant and, despite the suffering of its slavery in Egypt, God rescued it, drove out nations before it, and planted it in the ground he had prepared.

Now the whole project was on the brink of ruin. The walls of the vineyard had been broken down, and all those who passed—including those with tusks and curly tails—were taking the chance to pluck the grapes. If we can extend the metaphor a little further, even the vine itself wasn’t healthy. It was infected with disobedience, faithlessness and the worship of false gods.

It is at this low point in the history of God’s plans that the psalmist cries out for mercy and rescue. It is also at this point that the prophets cry out with God’s answer—that there will be judgement in the first place for Israel’s sin, but that there is also the promise of mercy, rescue and restoration, in God’s own time and way.

What the prophets did and didn’t know

The prophets express these twin themes of judgement and mercy in many ways, but since we have started with the vine image, let us continue with it. Hosea condemned Israel as a luxuriant but ultimately false and doomed vine, but also prophesied that God would make the plant blossom once again:

Israel is a luxuriant vine

that yields its fruit.

The more his fruit increased,

the more altars he built;

as his country improved,

he improved his pillars.

Their heart is false;

now they must bear their guilt.

The L
ORD
will break down their altars

and destroy their pillars. (Hos 10:1-2)

I will heal their apostasy;

I will love them freely,

for my anger has turned from them.

I will be like the dew to Israel;

he shall blossom like the lily;

he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;

his shoots shall spread out;

his beauty shall be like the olive,

and his fragrance like Lebanon.

They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow;

they shall flourish like the grain;

they shall blossom like the vine;

their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

(Hos 14:4-7)

It seemed to all outward appearances that nothing was going on except sin, failure and judgement. And yet the prophets promised that, like a phoenix from the ashes, Israel would rise again by the life-giving power of their God. The vine would blossom once more, and grow to be a beautiful plant known throughout the world. But the path to these glories would be through suffering and judgement. There was no avoiding the consequences of sin. Somehow, at some future time, God would bring his people through judgement and out the other side into the sunshine of his salvation.

All God’s promises are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ in Jesus Christ (2 Cor 1:20), and this one is no exception. The apostle Peter spoke of the fulfilment of the prophetic promise in his first letter to the descendants of Israel scattered throughout the ancient world, the “elect exiles of the dispersion”. In one of the most glorious paragraphs in the whole New Testament, he wrote:

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1 Pet 1:10-12)

Rarely has so much of the theological space-time continuum been packed into so few words. It starts with the prophets speaking of the gracious salvation that was to be revealed, and yet not being able to figure out exactly when and by whom the salvation would come. It ends with angels longing to gaze into the extraordinary fulfilment of the prophetic promise.

What the prophets did know was that the path to glory would be via the sufferings of God’s Christ—which is exactly what you would expect when you think about it. God’s message to Israel throughout the prophets was always this: you will suffer deeply because of sin, but glory and restoration will be there to greet you on the other side. When the Christ came to stand in the place of Israel, to be Israel, what would we expect of him but that he would suffer judgement because of sin before being vindicated and glorified on judgement’s far side?

Fast forward many hundreds of years and that is precisely what Jesus the Christ does—suffering and dying for sin, and rising triumphant to the place of glory. And in all this, says Peter to his readers, you’re better placed than the prophets of old or the angels of heaven—because not only has the promise now been fulfilled, but it has all been clearly revealed to you “through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven”.

What does this mean? The preaching of the good news is clear enough. Some evangelists had come and announced the gospel to them—the news that Jesus Christ had died for sin and risen to glory, and that they should turn back to him and put their faith in him. But the evangelists had done their work “by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven”; the Holy Spirit was in some sense also the evangelist. Just as the Spirit of Christ was at work in the prophets, so the same Spirit was at work in and through the evangelists—which is to say that the Spirit gave them the apostolic message to say and the boldness to say it, and also worked in the hearts of their hearers to elicit a response.

Peter’s readers had experienced that response. They had been born again to a living hope (1:3), born again not of perishable seed but imperishable seed, namely the living and abiding word of God, the gospel that was preached to them (1:23-25).

A breathtaking picture emerges from this extraordinary little paragraph in 1 Peter. In fulfilment of his ancient plans, God has brought salvation by sending his Christ to pass through suffering to glory. He is now announcing this momentous news to the world by his Holy Spirit working through human evangelists, and by this method he is saving people, bringing them to new birth, and granting them an eternal, unshakeable, incorruptible inheritance in his eternal kingdom.

What God is doing now

This is what God is now doing in the world: Spirit-backed gospel preaching leading to the salvation of souls. It’s his program, his agenda, his priority, his focus, his project, or whatever business-related metaphor you’d like to use. And by it, he is gathering a new Christ-centred people as his very own; a quiet, steadily growing profusion of leaves on the great vine of his kingdom.

This is what we see happening in Acts. We call it the Acts of the Apostles, but a better name would perhaps be ‘The Acts of the word and Spirit of God through the Apostles’, because that’s how it seems to go. The apostolic task is to preach; to bear witness; to proclaim the word; and to do so under the power and enabling of God’s Spirit. The apostles affirm this priority in Acts 6 when they indicate how determined they are to keep devoting themselves “to prayer and to the ministry of the word”.

Then four times in Acts we are told that the “word of God (or the Lord)” increased and multiplied and spread, almost as if it had a life of its own. And at every step of this growth, the Spirit is there at work, filling the preachers with boldness and the power to speak, and granting faith and new life to those who hear—such as in the massively significant conversion of Cornelius and his house in Acts 10, where the Holy Spirit falls on “all who heard the word”, even as Peter is speaking. It is interesting how this event is later described, when Peter relates the story in Jerusalem in chapter 11. When Peter is finished, even those in the sceptical circumcision party are forced to glorify God and say, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life”. Salvation and new life come as the word is preached, but only if God grants repentance—only if the Holy Spirit falls on those who hear the word, so that their dead hearts might spring to life in response.

Paul describes the progress of the gospel among the Colossians in much the same way. Epaphras had preached the word of truth to them, and Paul thanks God that when they heard it they responded with faith. And as in Acts, Paul then describes the gospel as having a vibrant, growing life of its own: “…the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth…” (Col 1:5-6).