As someone who’s spent some years in full-time church ministry, this book looked like it was probably just going to teach me how to suck eggs. And it did.
But the thing is, I don’t actually know very much about how to suck eggs. And I wish I’d read this book when I was still leading a congregation.
The central idea is a simple one: that churches, and church leaders, need to prioritise people (the vine), rather than programs (the trellis). Simple to say; much harder to do.
The authors, two extremely experienced gospel-hearted Australians, gently suggest that too often churches get so caught up in meetings, structures, finance, buildings and so on that the “vine work”, the discipleship of Christians and evangelism to non-Christians, is neglected. There’s a lot of activity, a lot of commitment, a lot of people giving a lot of time: but there’s not much gospel growth.
What’s needed is a church where everyone is helping, encouraging, supporting, challenging, teaching—in other words, “discipling”—everyone else. The kind of church where, for instance, there's loads of one-to-one work going on, overseen by, but not done by, the full-time staff.
And for that to happen requires what they describe as “a ministry mind-shift that changes everything”.
So this is a book for pastors; but it's not just for them. It's actually for whole church, and particularly the more mature Christians within each church. After all, if this book's right, ministry is as much about them as it is about the "ministers".
Personally, I found some of the observations in the chapters on training most striking:
It’s not a perfect book! I’d have liked a little more on what the idea that the Sunday sermon isn’t everything means for a pastor’s timetabling priorities; and I was left wondering whether our “normal” Sunday services reflect an “alongside” approach to ministry, rather than a “topdown” one, but there were no ideas on this. (Maybe there’s another book in that…)
But those are minor things. Overall, it’s easy to read, not overlong, very realistic about ministry and church life; and a great way either to reassure yourself you’re on the right track as a member or leader of a church, or to help and challenge you to change direction a little (or a lot!) if that’s what’s needed.
After all, we all think we know how to suck eggs. But actually, I’ll bet not that many of us do!
If you want to get a copy, simply click here. And as part of our one-to-one week, you can save 25% by using the code one25 at checkout.
To mangle a phrase from an old mobile phone company’s ad campaign:
Who could you have a one-to-one with?
When one2one (now T-mobile) asked celebrities who they would like to have a one-to-one conversation with, most of them chose famous dead people: Martin Luther-King, Elvis Presley, and so on.
This week, on the blog, we’re going to focus on Christian one-to-ones. With normal people. Living people.
WHAT'S A ONE-TO-ONE?
One-to-ones are intentional Christian conversations. It’s talking to someone else, or listening to someone else, about Christ. It can be as informal as a chat at the school gate or over a drink in which you share Christian encouragements or prayer requests.
But often, it’s a bit more deliberate than that; it involves opening the Bible up and looking at it together. It’s based on friendship and those everyday conversations; but it’s arranged and organised. Sometimes it’s two Christians of roughly the same age and stage; often it’s an older, more experienced Christian with someone who’s been following Christ for less time. Or it might be a Christian meeting up with a friend who isn't a Christian but wants to find out more.
And here’s the thing: anybody can “do” one-to-ones. There’ll be someone we all know that we could one-to-one with. But often, church members leave it to the full-time “experts”. And the full-timers have a lot of other stuff on their plate… so although anybody could do it, and everybody thinks it would be great if somebody would do it, in the end nobody does it.
And that’s a real shame, because one-to-ones are rocket fuel for the Christian life. They’re catalysts for deep, real, Christian friendship. They’re manure for growing Christians (OK, I’m struggling for metaphors now).
THE BLOG THIS WEEK
So this week, do keep coming to the blog. You’ll find:
So we hope you’re already thinking: who could I have a one to one with?
But by the end of the week, we’re hoping you’ll be thinking:
Who will I have a one to one with?
Three annoyances when it comes to great conferences about Bible ministry:
Well, we’ve taken the annoyance out of last week’s Bible Centred Youthworker Conference.
Simply go here to listen to the main talks, two fantastically encouraging and challenging series on Revelation (morning) and 1 Thessalonians (evening), and to the seminars.
And if you go to the conference blog, you can find some of the outlines of the seminars, with more to go up in the next few weeks.
So, no need to miss out this time!
Millions will hear the king speak this week in cinemas—but one man really did hear the king speak.
A 94-year-old retired policeman, he heard King George VI through a window, practicing his Christmas speech for the following morning over and over again.
How exciting to be able to listen to an actual eye (and ear) witness of the King, sixty years later! Unsurprisingly, the media are full of it, like here.
Course, many of us did that this morning anyway - just we were listening to eyewitnesses of the King of kings.
“We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead." (Acts 10:39-40)
Which makes the prospect of a sermon on Sunday seem all the more exciting!
66 books with one theme?
Wouldn’t it be great to have a little booklet to give to a non-Christian friend with answers to the big questions people have about the Christian faith?
It would?! We know—which is why our little I’m Glad You Asked That booklet has proved such a big seller.
But it’s nearly 20 years old now, and has been retired for a few years: so after two decades it’s time (like a Hollywood actress) it had a facelift and a comeback.
So we’re asking ourselves:
This is where we’d love you to come in. The current questions are listed below: please leave a comment, telling us one (or more of):
We’d really, really love your help with this, so that the new version won’t only look better, it’ll also be able to work better and in more situations (just like a facelifted Hollywood actress…)
Here are the current questions:
Christians should get angry. But we need to get angry about the right things.
We’re currently developing a Good Book Guide for small-group Bible studies looking at the book of Jonah.
The author’s Stephen Witmer, a pastor in Massachusetts. And he makes a great comparison between Jonah, and what makes him angry, and Jesus, and what makes him angry.
Stephen’s put loads of interesting, challenging stuff like that in the Good Book Guide. It should be out this summer.
Half of elite scientists are “religious”, and another fifth consider themselves “spiritual”, according to a recent study.
The US survey, which is based on 1,700 scientists, suggests that Richard Dawkins’ famous claim that elite scientists are atheists is also a rather false claim.
That’s the first interesting point made in an article about the study in today’s Guardian.And Nick Spencer goes on to make a couple more really thought-provoking observations:
“Our conviction that scientists, elite or otherwise, are somehow better qualified to discern the nature of reality is dubious.
“Elite scientists undoubtedly know vastly more about their subject than other people. But to imagine that that makes them somehow better qualified to adjudicate on big-picture questions is like saying because I know my home town like the back of my hand, I am well-equipped to lecture on European geography.”
“Christ often remarked on the inability of the educated elite of his time to get what he was about.
“There is a long-standing theme within Christian thought that sees the Christian message as having a particular appeal to the underclass, not only those socially and politically alienated, but also those the intellectually and educationally excluded.”
My question is: is that true of Bible-teaching churches today in the UK? Does the way we run our churches, and the style of our teaching, have “a particular appeal to the underclass”, both in social and educational terms? Or does it tend to have more of a “particular appeal” to middle-class, university-educated “elites”?
What do you think?
Great quote in a comment piece on the newly-released films Biutiful and Hereafter. Both movies (starring Javier Bardem and Matt Damon) tell the stories of men who know that there’s life after death, and what it’s like.
But they keep this knowledge to themselves, which is absurd:
“Information of cosmic significance, which could bring succour and hope to millions, not to mention really irritate Richard Dawkins, is dealt with as a private and personal matter.”
The writer’s talking about two made-up film characters: what struck me is that when Christians are told that faith should be simply “a private matter”, they’re being told to do exactly the same thing.
