Every once in a while, you may be fortunate to have a conversation that drastically deepens and sharpens your perspective on the Christian life. I had one of those paradigm-shifting conversations in the midst of being asked to consider joining the leadership core of the para-church ministry I attended – Crossroad Campus Ministries (CCM). Little did I know that it would lead to a lifetime of unexpected ministry.

I was secretly very happy when I received the invitation. However as I thought and prayed over the decision, I realized that my actions and commitments found me wanting. I recognized a glaring deficiency in my “resume.”

You see, I attended a both a para-church and church that placed a high value on membership and general commitment to the local church but I wasn’t officially serving in either. This was a time when I decided to take a step back from formal ministry and focus on personal growth.

My conscience bothered me enough to talk to my college pastor about this hole in my “resume.” Among other things, I asked him for his thoughts on me taking a role in leadership without having an official service title to my name in the church. Wouldn’t this time commitment demonstrate to my peers that my priorities were mixed up? Would this make me a disobedient and unfaithful church member? Would I be spurning Christ’s bride for one of her brides’ maid?

I can’t remember how exactly this moment unfolded but I remember the exact words he used:

“Anthony, wherever there’s people, there’s ministry to be done.”

… or in the spirit of one of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign slogans:

“It’s the people, stupid.”

Wait a second. Did I just hear him tell me that I could meet with people without a title? Did he mean to tell me that I didn’t need to oversee or be enrolled in of some kind of program in order to do ministry?

Here is a little bit of helpful context leading up to that point. I was influenced, to no one’s fault, to be a very task-oriented and program-driven Christian. In high-school I was a serving machine. I occupied many positions in CGBC’s own youth ministry. I served in Vacation Bible School, led praise teams, gave messages, contacted speakers, welcomed guests, and worked as a janitor. In college I channeled all of my energy to serve when I came back to CGBC, whether in VBS ministry, speaking for the youth clubs, or working as an office assistant at church.

The idea that I was capable and encouraged to participate in this sort or organic ministry was remarkably liberating to me. The funny thing was, at that time I did not know that I needed to be freed. You see, I was tethered to what Collin Payne and Tony Marshall in their book Trellis and the Vine to a “trellis” mentality.

The book uses the illustration of the trellis and a vine to paint a visual picture of the relationship between programs and people in the church. The basic work of Christian ministry is to proclaim the Gospel in the Spirit, and to see people converted, changed, and grow in spiritual maturity. The work of planting, watering, fertilizing, and tending to the vine is “vine work.” “Trellis work” is the framework needed to help the vine grow. “Trellis work” supports the vine work and often grows as the ministry and congregation grows. This could include management, finance, committees, and leadership infrastructure. “Vine work” and “trellis work” are supposed to work in tandem to build and equip Christ’s church.

Unfortunately many churches fall into the trap of focusing more on the trellis and less on the vine. Churches have become good at creating programs and helping new members get involved quickly. Church growth gurus say that you need to give a new person a service opportunity in order for them to feel like they are a part of body life. Committees are formed and programs are started to help keep people engaged. People pour their time and resources into maintaining these programs. At the end of the day it seems that there is a disproportionate number of trellis workers compared to vine workers.

Take a moment and ask yourself, “Who do you know in our church is involved in Gospel proclamation and discipleship?” Many people can only list their pastors. They are involved in the shepherding work, but even that is often limited to Sunday morning through the sermon and sacraments. In the midst of all of our programs, who is directly involved in the lives of people? Who is meeting with individuals to challenge them to grow in their faith in an environment of transparency? It seems that harvest is great and the trellis workers are many but it seems that the vine workers are few.

I had been so obsessed with “trellis work.” I was used to serving with a title. I was used to being on a committee to strategize and plan for the future. I was used to picking up a guitar to play or a Bible to preach from to serve the church. Even someone who does not enjoy being around people can lead worship or deliver a sermon because it does not require one to directly engage and apply the Word in a context of vulnerability and transparency. Vine work on the other hand, is often messy, unpredictable, and out of our control.

Yet there was something about my pastor’s challenge to me that shook my very core. There is something exciting about meeting with people and encouraging them in their faith as we share life together. It is in fact the very goal of the Great Commission, to make disciples and to teach them all Christ had commanded. Vine work is participating in the very mission and heart of God. Discipleship is doing what we were saved to do. As Christians we are not simply have His grace stop with us, but to spread through us, first in the church and then to all who do not call Jesus their Savior.

I began to meet with multiple guys every week. I would meet with some guys consistently and other guys sporadically. I had a real desire to get into the lives with friends and walk alongside them as an older brother or peer. Tending to the vine became something that made me feel alive, not because I was some wise, gifted, and extroverted Christian, but because it was encouraging to see that the God who gives eternal life is working among His people.

I eventually acquired some of the ministry titles that used to be important to me but I never forgot what my pastor told me. Meeting with real people matters for the sake of the kingdom. It is necessary ministry that cannot be accomplished by the pastors alone. We are all summoned by the King to participate in His mission to both be disciple and to disciple others.

Trellis and the Vine challenges us to have the ministry mind-shift that I experienced in college. We need to change our mindset from running programs to building people, from running events to training people, from using people to growing people, and from filling gaps to training new workers. We need to shift from solving problems to helping people make progress, from clinging to ordained ministry to developing team leadership, from focusing on church polity to forging ministry partnerships, and from relying on training institutions to establishing local training. We need to move from focusing on immediate pressures to aiming for long-term expansion, from engaging in management to engaging in ministry, and from seeking church growth to desiring gospel growth.

I want to challenge you as a fellow laborer to think seriously about your role in “vine work.” This article may sound self-congratulatory, that I had discovered some kind of secret, but that is not the case. Think for a moment. Does it take a Masters of Divinity to meet with a friend or a new person? Nope. Does asking someone how they are doing require you to be well read, eloquent, or out-going? Nope. Does asking a younger man or woman out to lunch have to be a two-hour high-level theology debate or a discussion on church polity? Nope. As I discovered through my conversation with my college pastor, anyone and everyone is able to engage in the Bible’s “one another” commands but whether we are willing is a different story.

May God lead Chinese Grace Bible Church to be a place where great “trellis” ministry complements, supports, and encourages more “vine” workers to build up the church to the glory of Christ. May we all see the role we play in discipleship ministry. Amen.
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1. All of these “from” statements are taken from the headers of Chapter 2 in the Trellis and the Vine