The Trellis and the Vine Quotes

“Search as we may, we don’t find in the Bible any example or concept of an inner call to ministry.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“Imagine if all Christians, as a normal part of their discipleship, were caught up in a web of regular Bible reading—not only digging into the word privately, but reading it with their children before bed, with their spouse over breakfast, with a non-Christian colleague at work once a week over lunch, with a new Christian for follow-up once a fortnight for mutual encouragement, and with a mature Christian friend once a month for mutual encouragement.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine: The ministry mind-shift that changes everything

“There are not two sorts of disciples—the inner core who really serve Jesus and his gospel, and the rest. To be a disciple is to be a slave of Christ and to confess his name openly before others: “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 10:”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“The third momentous implication is that this people-growth happens only through the power of God’s Spirit as he applies his word to people’s hearts. That’s the way people are converted, and that’s the way people grow in maturity in Christ. We plant and water, but God gives the growth. We speak God’s word to someone, and the Spirit enables a response. This can happen individually, in small groups, and in large groups. It can happen over the back fence, over dinner, or over morning tea at church. It can happen in a pulpit or on a patio. It can be the formal exposition or study of a Bible passage, or someone speaking some Scripture-based truth without even referring to the Bible.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“the only growth that has any significance in God’s plans is the growth of believers. This is what the growing vine really is: it is individual, born-again believers, grafted into Christ by his word and Spirit, and drawn into mutually edifying fellowship with one another.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“But the emphasis is not on the growth of the congregation as a structure—in numbers, finances and success—but on the growth of the gospel, as it is spoken and re-spoken under the power of the Spirit. In fact, New Testament congregations, as far as we can tell, were usually small gatherings meeting in houses. They were outwardly unimpressive, and had minimal infrastructure. But God kept drawing people into them by the gospel. Or to put it another way, Christ kept doing what he said he would do in Matthew 16. He kept building his church.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“But it’s interesting how little the New Testament talks about church growth, and how often it talks about ‘gospel growth’ or the increase of the ‘word’. The focus is on the progress of the Spirit-backed word of God as it makes its way in the world, according to God’s plan. Returning to our vine metaphor, the vine is the Spirit-empowered word, spreading and growing throughout the world, drawing people out of the kingdom of darkness into the light-filled kingdom of God’s beloved Son, and then bearing fruit in their lives as they grow in the knowledge and love of God. The vine is Jesus, and as we are grafted into him, we bear fruit (John 15:1-11).”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“Thus the goal of Christian ministry is quite simple, and in a sense measurable: are we making and nurturing genuine disciples of Christ? The church always tends towards institutionalism and secularization. The focus shifts to preserving traditional programs and structures, and the goal of discipleship is lost. The mandate of disciple-making provides the touchstone for whether our church is engaging in Christ’s mission. Are we making genuine disciples of Jesus Christ? Our goal is not to make church members or members of our institution, but genuine disciples of Jesus.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“It’s a commission that makes disciple-making the normal agenda and priority of every church and every Christian disciple.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“The ‘teaching’ that the disciples are to do reproduces what Jesus himself has done with them. He has been their ‘teacher’ (cf. Matt 12:38; 19:16; 22:16, 24, 36; 26:18), and as Jesus has taught them they have grown in knowledge and understanding. The disciples are now, in turn, to make new disciples by teaching them to obey everything commanded by their Master. This ‘making-disciples-by-teaching’ corresponds to preaching the gospel in the parallel mission mandate in Luke, where Jesus says “repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47).”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“Sometimes our translations may give the impression that ‘go’ is the emphasis of the command, but the main verb of the sentence is ‘make disciples’, with three subordinate participles hanging off it: going (or ‘as you go’), baptizing and teaching. ‘Baptizing’ and ‘teaching’ are the means by which the disciples are to be made. Whatever else baptism might symbolize or involve, here it refers to the initiation of disciples into repentance and submission to the authoritative Jesus, the reigning Lord of the world.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that in many churches, maintaining and improving the trellis constantly takes over from tending the vine.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“Perhaps trellis work has taken over from vine work. There are committees, structures, programs, activities and fundraising efforts, and many people put lots of time into keeping them all going, but the actual work of growing the vine falls to a very few.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“because our goal is not to grow churches, but to make disciples.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“Are you committed to church growth or to gospel growth? Do you want more numbers in the pew now, or more labourers for the harvest over the next 50 years?”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“We shouldn’t sit back and wait for people to ‘feel called’ to gospel work, any more than we should sit back and wait for people to become disciples of Christ in the first place. We should be proactive in seeking, challenging and testing suitable people to be set apart for gospel work.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“This is our aim in people work. It involves not just ministry skills and competencies, but growth in convictions (understanding) and character (godliness).”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“I choose men to meet with me weekly from 6.30-7.30 am.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“Churches don’t make disciples; disciples make disciples (Matt 28:19-20).”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“far the best way to build a congregation full of disciple-making disciples is to assemble and train a band of co-workers to labour alongside you.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“The idea of personal ministry alongside preaching ministry is admirable and hard to disagree with.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“We are training people to be contributors and servants, not spectators and consumers.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“His task is to teach and train his congregation, by his word and his life, to become disciple-making disciples of Jesus.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“A commitment to the growth of the gospel will mean that we train people towards maturity not for the benefit of our own churches or fellowships but for the benefit of Christ’s kingdom.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“However, if we keep the gospel first and central, then learning to do particular activities more effectively can simply be a godly part of our service of Christ and other people.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“We are not attempting to create clones or a cult of personality, but following our Master’s example in persevering in the face of trials and persecution.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“The heart of training is not to impart a skill, but to impart sound doctrine.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“We have to conclude that a Christian with no passion for the lost is in serious need of self-examination and repentance.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“The Christian without a missionary heart is an anomaly.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine

“The Great Commission, in other words, is not just for the Eleven. It’s the basic agenda for all disciples. To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker.”
― Colin Marshall, The Trellis and the Vine