Trellis and the Vine - 1

So I have been reading this book "The Trellis and the Vine" by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. The basic summary of the purpose of the book is to point out the fact that most people in churches today are focused on programs, how the church building looks, etc (the trellis) and very few are involved personally in others' lives (the vine) and making disciples. The illustration they use is how a trellis is basically a wall or a structure. It's easy to see results in tending to the trellis, we can paint the trellis, wash it, etc to make it look nice the same way that we can take care of the church building, organize events, etc. However, tending the vine is hard work and sometimes takes quite awhile to see results the same way spending time sharing the Word with someone and teaching them might take awhile to see real results or fruit in their lives.

I am in no way, and I know the authors in no way, are saying that trellis work is bad in and of itself because it is extremely necessary and a very good thing. However, we need to take Jesus' command to make disciples seriously and not ignore the vine work. The book I think hits home when it says "Many of us minister in contexts where the unspoken (or even spoken!) assumption is that it is the pastor's job to build the church, and the members' job to receive that ministry and to support it through involvement in a range of jobs and roles...The pastor is really the one who does the vine work and the rest of us do what we can do maintain the trellis."

How true is that? How often do we come to church to get something from the message? How often do we count it the pastor's responsibility to cause spiritual growth in the members or even to cause growth in attendance? What if, when we came to church on Sunday's and listened to the message our pastor teaches us, we listened to the message not in order to get something out of it ourselves (even though that is definitely important) but instead we listened to it in order to re-teach it to someone? First of all, in doing so, in listening to the Word in order to re-teach it, we would get so much more because we would really know the Word and have meditated through it as opposed to listening to it on Sunday and then by Wednesday not having a clue what the pastor taught on last Sunday.

The role of disciple-maker in the bible is not reserved for pastors or elders only, it is the role of every single Christ follower. It doesn't matter how young you are, how old are you, how much of the Bible you think you know, etc. Disciple making is hard work though. Sometimes you can spend years pouring into the life of someone and not see results. But you can spend a weekend painting the church or doing some other trellis work and you see the results immediately so that is the type of "work" that most of us tend to do. It's easy and we see results quickly. However, how much eternal value is that? We are all to be "making disciples of all nations" and "teaching them to observe all" that Christ has commanded us in His word.