The Trellis and the Vine part 1

THE TRELLIS AND THE VINE

A book review

Presented to

(Future)Dr. Bob Buchanan

Faith Baptist Church

Parker, Colorado

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Internship of 2010-2011

By

Stephen M. Reese

September 27, 2010

            Marshall, Colin and Payne, Tony, The Trellis and the Vine, Chapters 1-6. Kingsford, New South Wales, Australia. Matthias Media, 2009. 80 Pages

Introduction

            Colin Marshall is a graduate of Moore Theological College (BTh, MA). Until 2006 he directed the Ministry Training Strategy, and is now heading up Vinegrowers, a new training ministry aiming to help pastors and other ministry leaders implement the principles in this book (see vinegrowers.com)[1]

            Tony Payne is a graduate of Moore theological College (BTh Honors) and is the publishing director of Matthias Media.[2]

Summary

            The Trellis and the Vine Chapters 1 – 6 deal primarily with the fact that the modern evangelistic church has fallen into the trap of too much ‘Trellis’ and not enough ‘Vine’. Let me explain, the authors consider the trellis to be the framework of the modern church just as a trellis is used in a backyard to give framework to a vine. The modern church seems to be far too engaged in building up frameworks around Christians; Sunday School, ABC’s, Awana, small bible groups and so on and so forth.

            The ‘Vine’ is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the gospel message into lives. What the authors argue is that more ‘Vine work’ or sewing of the gospel message and the gospel life into people’s hearts and lives through an older/different method of doing church. A way of disciple making that put’s Christ and His example foremost.

            “The image of the Trellis and the Vine raises all the fundamental questions of Christian ministry:

·         What is the vine for?

·         How does the vine grow?

·         How does the vine relate to my church?

·         What is vine work and what is trellis work, and how can we tell the difference?

·         What part do people play in growing the vine?

·         How can we get more people involved in vine work?

·         What is the right relationship between the trellis and the vine?”[14]

The authors go on to point out that many gospel preaching pastors are confused if not downright discouraged by the seeming failures that they experience in ‘church growth.’ From church growing ‘gurus’ to mission of the year ministries we have seemingly lost our way being influenced sometimes more by tradition and others by determination to ‘grow’ the church.

What Marshall and Payne suggest is a radical departure from the current way of doing ‘church’. It’s all about the ‘vine’, with the trellis being secondary. They point out that the vine is the growing of individuals in the church in their Christian maturity and what form or ministry that might look like.

“This is a revolutionary mind-shift: when we think about our people, it moves our focus to putting them first and building ministries around them.”[18]

            In chapter 2 they give 11 points to consider, “arguing that structures don’t grow ministry any more then trellises grow vines, and that most churches need to make a conscious shift—away from erecting and maintaining structures, and towards growing who are disciple-making disciples of Christ.”[18] In many ways they attack the very root of the modern church by questioning how people are being reached, and what is being done to make Christ-centered disciples out of everyone instead of just sticking them in a category or box at church.

            Chapter 3 addresses the oft asked question, “What in the World is God Doing?”[29] A question that many Christians especially in the floundering West have no doubt asked themselves in their own hearts and minds. And the answer Marshall and Payne gives is a quite reassuring answer, “This is what God is now doing in the world: Spirit-backed gospel preaching leading to the salvation of souls. It’s his program …And by it, he is gathering a new Christ-centered people as his very own; a quiet steadily growing profusion of leaves on the great vine of his kingdom.”[35] Also stated is that the New Testament doesn’t spend so much time on church growth, but rather on the spread of the gospel into new believer’s lives and the growth of the gospel in the hearts of mature believers, “as it is spoken and re-spoken under the power of the Spirit.”[37]

            In Chapter 4,  Is every Christian a vine-worker? The book takes on a new turn that lies at the whole business end of the deal. Are all members of the body called to share the gospel? and the answer is a resounding yes! “There are not two sorts of disciples – the inner core who really serve Jesus and his gospel, and the rest.”[42] The chapter goes on to talk about a healthy body that, “speaks the truth in love, one to another.”[45] What a refreshing and wonderful thing God has blessed us with! Not that we achieve true maturity everyday but that through his Holy Spirit we have the chance to, one with another! Ephesians speaks to all of this when Paul writes, “For through him we both have access in One Spirit to the Father.” Eph 2:18 Paul is speaking of the differences between Jews and Gentiles, but I think the scripture can also be used as a testament to God’s power to reconcile brother’s who have fallen out with one another. (I may be completely off base here, but it did strike me that way.)

            Chapter 5 Guilt or grace? Is a setup for chapter 6, the authors use this chapter to expound on the roles of members in the body, and they state that there is very little difference between the roles of the pastor and elders than that of the laity. “It means standing together in the gospel, determined to live as citizens of heaven in the midst of our corrupt generation, longing and striving to see the gospel defended and proclaimed, and bravely copping the conflict, struggle and persecution that inevitably follow.”[66] That is the basic premise of the chapter that leads to the fulfillment of the gospel in the average Christian’s life, the working of the indwelling Holy Spirit in each Christian’s walk and service to the Kingdom of God. Not that this is a program of good works but the onputting evidence of the Grace of God through the risen savior Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Finally we approach Chapter 6 to which the first 5 chapters have been leading, ‘training’. [67]

            Paul uses the word training in 1 Tim 4:7 as if to say to Timothy that he were training for an athletic event or contest. One is reminded of the Spartan soldiers that were trained for a single-minded purpose from the age of 7 to be the finest soldiers in the world. Even as children in the agoge the young perished from the brutality of the training and conditioning, only the strongest went on to join their fathers in the front lines. I believe Paul is asking for nothing less from us. A willingness to forgo all things except the relevant, to be the finest examples of Christ-likeness that we can be, to train to serve Christ as Jesus says in Mark 10:21 “go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” It is an awesome task that we are presented with and one not to be taken lightly.

            Also the training that took place was done by Timothy following Paul’s lead in the Way as a son would study under a father as an apprentice, so the authors suggest it is to be with the training in the local church one man to another.

Personal Reflection

            I find the concepts of the first six chapters of this book to be a revelation, a new way of thinking that is in fact the old way of doing things. A return as it were to the training by imitation, as we train children to grow so too can we train Christians, and it would seem to me that that is just the way they did it in the early church. There were no seminaries for the new convert to attend, only the Word of God and the Old Testament at that. I am both terrified and joyous about the opportunity that I have been given to ‘Intern’ under Pastor Bob Buchanan and I believe in my heart of hearts that great things will come from this relationship. They already have.

---

[1] Marshall, Colin and Payne, Tony, The Trellis and the Vine, About the Authors. Kingsford, New South Wales, Australia. Matthias Media, 2009. 80 Pages

[2] Ibid

The Trellis and the Vine

THE TRELLIS AND THE VINE

A book review

Presented to

(Future)Dr. Bob Buchanan

Faith Baptist Church

Parker, Colorado

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Apprenticeship of 2010-2011

By

Stephen M. Reese

October 4, 2010

Marshall, Colin and Payne, Tony, The Trellis and the Vine, Chapters 7-12. Kingsford, New South Wales, Australia. Matthias Media, 2009. 86 Pages

Introduction

            Colin Marshall is a graduate of Moore Theological College (BTh, MA). Until 2006 he directed the Ministry Training Strategy, and is now heading up Vinegrowers, a new training ministry aiming to help pastors and other ministry leaders implement the principles in this book (see vinegrowers.com)[1]

            Tony Payne is a graduate of Moore theological College (BTh Honors) and is the publishing director of Matthias Media.[2]

Summary

Chapter Seven: Training and Gospel Growth

            The authors Marshall and Payne open the second half of the book with the application of all that they have discussed in the previous six chapters. They begin to discuss the actual training of people and what that might look like. They also give an interesting warning that the better the church trains people the more likely they are to lose them to the mission field, church planting and even seminary. “Thinking broadly, there are four basic stages in the growth of the gospel in someone’s life. We might call them:

·         Outreach

·         Follow-up

·         Growth

·         Training”(83,84)

            “Where the “word of truth” is taught and believed, it bears fruit. People are changed. They are transferred from one kingdom to another … They begin to have a faith in Christ Jesus and a love for all the saints, and to long for their heavenly inheritance.”(82) The outreach is to unbelievers, follow-up is for new believers, while growth is for all believers and training; especially training, according to the authors, should be included in the process to becoming more effective Disciples of Christ.

            In specifying training as a key ingredient in the development of the growth of the gospel in the church, the authors use the rest of their book to build their case. “But before we talk more about what a training ministry looks like in practice, it’s time to pause and deal with some issues that have no doubt been brewing in some readers’ minds for some time.”(91)

Chapter Eight: Why Sunday sermons are necessary but not sufficient.

            “By far the greatest obstacle to rethinking and reforming our ministries is the inertia of tradition—whether the long-held traditions of our denominations and churchmanship, or the more recent traditions of the church growth movement that have become a kind of unspoken orthodoxy in many evangelical churches.”(93) The authors then go on to point out the different ways that pastors are called to lead. From the Sunday sermon, to just basically caring for their flock a single pastor they say is limited to between 100-150 people that they can serve depending on their gifts. And they point out that the more people that can be trained up the easier and more fruitful the pastor’s ministry becomes. Not unlike the military, where each man is trained in basic combat techniques and so makes the whole army stronger as a result. But if you can train both soldiers and officers at the same time it becomes a force-multiplier, and the army is that much more devastating to the enemy.

            They give three dominant roles that pastor’s play in the church today, pastor as CEO, pastor as clergyman, and finally pastor as trainer. They explain that the big church model of pastor as CEO is the difference from running a little ‘Mom and Pop’ store to running a giant superstore. The pastor delegates much more and has far less time to spend in one-on-one ministry, much less training. He is consumed with making sure the various departments of his ‘store’ are being run well, and almost none on personal growth ministry. Although interestingly the authors point to the ‘consumers’ in this church model as being more growth oriented. That is the ‘storefront’ of the church is made as appealing as possible to newcomers and the gospel itself is lost somewhere along the way.

            The pastor as clergyman model is the ‘Mom and Pop’ store owner. He spends more time maintaining the flock he has, preaching and teaching on Sunday, and just keeping the flock together as best as his abilities will allow. In this church model the authors present the ‘consumers’ as in a maintenance mode, with little gospel growth. Though the flash and dash of the growth model is missing the gospel is usually at the forefront of the ministry, as it should be.

            However, according to Marshall and Payne the pastor as trainer is where the rubber meets the road. “There is a radical dissolution, in this model, of the clergy-lay distinction. It is not minister and ministered-to, but the pastor and his people working in close partnership in all manner of word ministries.”(99) Pastoral care is spread out among the congregation, people ministering to one another, many of the sheep become shepherds themselves, the load gets spread around and so does the growth of the gospel. There is still trellis work to do, there always will be, but the vine is growing abundantly and even spilling over into the neighbors’ yards. And this mode of ministry, according to the authors, results in a church with disciples in mission mode, which is to spread the gospel.

Chapter Nine: Multiplying gospel growth through training co-workers.

            “The problem is, he [the pastor as trainer model, in a small church of say 130 regular attendees] barely has time to spend with ten of them, let alone 130.”(109) This is where it really starts to get interesting, Marshall and Payne go back to Paul’s ministry as a model of how the overloaded pastor spends his time and energies. “Up to 100 names are associated with Paul in the New Testament, of which 36 could be considered close partners and fellow laborers.”(112)

            There were ‘fellow workers’ (1 Cor 3:5-9) to Paul in God’s great ministry and they were co-dependent upon one another and the Lord to do their business. “Their common status as God’s labourers both dignifies and humbles. They are working alongside God in his great work in the world; and yet they are nothing, because it is God who gives the growth.”(113) They were also minister-servants working alongside each other, and building one another up in the service of the Lord. “It’s a lovely picture of mutual labour and encouragement.”(114)

            This model of Paul’s with co-laborers seen as integral and in many ways equal to himself is a hard model to follow in today’s world. But theologically it is hard to argue with. There is only one Master, and the rest of us are his humble servants, so it makes sense that we would all, like a well matched team of horses, pull along in the work together building up and encouraging one another along the path, and creating more disciples along the way.

            At the end of the chapter the authors address the choosing of viable candidates for discipleship training, and they give many good reasons for selecting certain people and other reasons for not selecting people. “In one sense, the criteria for selecting co-workers are obvious. Co-workers need to be a people who have a heart for God and a hunger to learn and grow. They need to be soundly converted, mature believers with some runs on the board in Christian living, who have the faithfulness and potential to minister to others.”(118)

Chapter Ten: People worth watching

            Marshall and Payne use chapter ten to explain the unique way that God calls people to his service, and the means that the pastor as trainer can use to find the right people in his own congregation. They break this down into four manageable questions, that cover the ‘call’, remuneration “Do I get paid to serve?”. And finally does it demean people to stay in secular work?

            They give a series of answers to these questions that really get to the core issues of serving in the ministry. That as Christians we are all called to the ministry in one form or another, whether it be as a full time pastor or a lay person. The authors point out that secular work is still done to the glory of God, that in all things the Bible tells us that we should, “in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”(Col 3:17)

            “What we are saying, in effect, is that we should be talent scouts. If the current generation of pastors and ministers is responsible for calling, choosing, and setting apart the next generation, we need to be constantly on the lookout for the sort of people with the gifts and integrity to preach the word and pastor God’s people.”(139)

Chapter Eleven: Ministry apprenticeship

            The authors start the next to last chapter asking the question, what happens between the man being called to the pastorate, and his going and doing the work. The usual answer is seminary. They suggest an alternative method, the one they have been building up all along, the apprenticeship program. Where the selectee partly through osmosis, mainly through study and the work of the ministry learns what it is to be a full time pastor. And through this process finds out if they are suitable to the calling.

            They give seven examples of the benefits of the apprentice model:

1.      Apprentices learn to integrate word, life and ministry practice

2.      Apprentices are tested in character

3.      Apprentices learn that ministry is about people, not programs

4.      Apprentices are well-prepared for formal theological training

5.      Apprentices learn ministry in the real world

6.      Apprentices learn to be trainers of others so that ministry is multiplied

7.      Apprentices learn evangelism and entrepreneurial ministry

This is where the authors mention that after training, many of the best go out into the world on their own in missionary, church-planting and various other forms of ministry and leave the very church that taught them. This seems like the hardest thing of all, to train or be trained for a year to two years and then leave the nest. But it’s exactly what Paul’s people did!

Chapter Twelve: Making a start

                  “…Christian ministry is really not very complicated. It is simply the making and nurturing of genuine followers of the Lord Jesus Christ through prayerful, Spirit-backed proclamation of the word of God. It’s disciple making.”(151) If it were only so easy! We live in a sin-racked world with one another’s strengths and weaknesses. And unfortunately it is the weaknesses that come up most often in our day-to-day interactions, but all is not lost for we have Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit to lead us.

                  The authors go on to point out how frustrating the day-to-day ministry can be. And how easily it is that we get discouraged, and consequently how easy it is to fall into the traps of the latest fad. The mega-church, the purpose driven life, and any other number of fads that come along every few years or so to entice us away from the church’s true purpose which is to build disciples.  Miller and Payne even go on to say that, “Churches inevitably drift towards instititutionalism and secularization. The focus invariably shift from the vine to the trellis—from seeing people grow as disciples to organizing and maintaining activities and programs.”(152)

                  The heart of Christian ministry is building up people in discipleship and training them as to the way they should go, not in numbers of people sitting in the pews on Sunday but in the number of people being reached on a spiritual level. “The sermon on Sunday should aim to make disciples,”(153) as should ABC’s, Sunday School, Men’s Breakfast, Ministry Community, and everything else we engage in at church, as a gathered family.

                  Again and again Miller and Payne stress the prayerful teaching of the word is the cornerstone to their approach. “The essence of ‘vine-work’ is the prayerful, Spirit-backed speaking of the message of the bible by one person to another (or to more than one).”(153) They state as a conclusion that, “but without the speaking it is all trellis and no vine.”(153)

Conclusion

                  As I read and reread this book I was deeply convicted of much of what the authors had to say about discipleship, and discipleship training. I find little to argue with in their argument and much to learn and to put into practice. And as an apprentice trainee I am again reminded of the awesome task laid out before me, that is to learn as much as possible in my year or two of training, to revel in this chance to serve God in such a way and yet to be humble in my walk and conduct, character, and actions at all times.

                  I would recommend this book to any church that is struggling with growth issues or spiritual warfare issues especially. It is infinitely better to spread the load of the pastor and elders than to expect them to carry the load by themselves. I go back to my Spartan analogy in the first paper, that we all are called to service, and that only through training possibly as harsh as the agoge[3] (for we will be joined in battle against the forces of evil if we take up this noble endeavor, and we must be ready) will we be equipped with the armor and knowledge of God’s awesome authority to defeat the powers of darkness.

---

[1] Marshall, Colin and Payne, Tony, The Trellis and the Vine, About the Authors. Kingsford, New South Wales, Australia. Matthias Media, 2009. 167 Pages $23.00

[2] Ibid

[3] The agoge was where Spartan children, all boys, at the age of seven were taken from their homes and started intensive physical and psychological warfare training. At 18 they were expected to go out and kill a healot (slave) without being caught before they would be admitted into the army. No wonder they were able to hold up the Persians at Thermopylae with only 300 men!

My first Paper in 20 years, be gentle Sensei

THE NATURE, MARKS AND PURPOSES OF THE CHURCH.

Four books reviews

Presented to

(Future)Dr. Bob Buchanan

Faith Baptist Church

Parker, CO

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Internship of 2010-2011

By

Stephen M. Reese

September 20, 2010

Gilbert, Greg. What is the Gos-pel? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2010), 124 pages.

Anyabwile, Thabiti M., What is a Healthy Church Member? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 120 pages.

Dever, Mark, What Is a Healthy Church? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 126 pages.

Wayne Grudem, “The Church: It’s Nature, It’s Marks and its Purposes” in Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1994) Chapter 44

Introduction

            Greg Gilbert graduated from Yale University, and has been an associate pastor at Capital Hill Baptist Church and is now “the senior pastor of Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and is the author of What is the Gospel? (Crossway, 2010).” [1] I just emailed him should have more directly from the source ;)

Thabiti M. Anyabwile is senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Grand Cayman Islands. He holds B.A. and M.S. degrees in psychology from North Carolina State University. He and his wife, Kristie, have two daughters.[2]

Mark Dever has served as Senior Pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. since 1994. He and his wife Connie live and minister on Capitol Hill. He has multiple degrees his latest is a Doctorate for Philosophy in Ecclesiastical History from Cambridge University.[3]

            Wayne Grudem is research professor of Bible and theology at Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix, Arizona. He holds degrees from Harvard (BA), Westminster Seminary (MDiv), and Cambridge (PhD).[4]

Summary

            Gilbert presents a very simple, direct and coherent message as it concerns the gospel. There is no question that he has a firm biblical foundation and is quite adept at spelling it out, “Since the very beginning of time, people have been trying to save themselves in ways that make sense to them, rather than listening and submitting to God. They have been trying to figure out how to get salvation to work – how to get the gospel to work …apart from the cross of Jesus Christ.”[5]

            In his introduction he points out that, “When you come right down to it, Christians just don’t agree on what the gospel is – even Christians who call themselves evangelical.”[6] I think this is especially true when you watch many of the Televangelists and listen to their seemingly profound words that have nothing to do with Christ’s message.

            Gilbert uses Paul’s epistle to the Romans chapters 1- 4 as, “one of the best places to start looking for a basic explanation of the gospel …”[7] and Paul himself says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16 ESV

            On the basic premise of “Paul’s argument in Romans 1-4, we can see that at the heart of his proclamation of the gospel are the answers to four crucial questions:

1.      Who made us and to whom are we accountable?

2.      What is our problem? In other words are we in trouble and why?

3.      What is God’s solution to that problem? How has he acted to save us from it?

4.      How do I,--- myself, right here, right now—how do I come to be included in that salvation? What makes this good news for me and not just for someone else?” [8]

He then uses the rest of the book to answer these questions in as simple and direct and readable a manner as any book I’ve read in quite some time. This book will be in my library from now on. Gilbert’s style is loving and persuasive without being grating or arcane; he presents the truth clearly and leaves no room for the reader to misinterpret what he is saying.

Gilbert’s goal I believe is to give the church an indispensible tool to educate both mature believers all the way down to seeking unbelievers and I think he has managed to do that in spades. I would, if I could, buy 100 or even a 1,000 copies of this book to hand out to everyone I know, so desperate is the need today for clarification of the gospel.

The thesis is also clear and direct; without the true gospel the church is lost and no longer has any power to teach God’s Word, nay even the ability to reach soul’s for harvest is so compromised that at best we’d be dealing with a false church, and like so many false churches we would be condemning people to Hell.

I had the privilege of hearing Thabiti preach at Together for the Gospel in April, 2010, in Louisville, KY. The name of his sermon was Fine Sounding Arguments, in which he dealt with the watered down gospel so prevalent in today’s churches.

            That is not so far from what he teaches in his book, What Is a Healthy Church Member?, early on he states, “The greatest need in the church today is the gospel. The gospel is not only news for a perishing world, it is the message that forms, sustains and animates the church.”[9]

Anyabwile give ten marks of a healthy church member, I will attempt to distill these into 3 common areas, and cover them in an overarching theme. Marks 1, 2, and 3 of a healthy church member deal with being an Expositional Listener, a Biblical Theologian, and [being] Gospel Saturated. “ …, as members of Christian churches we should listen primarily for the voice and message of God as revealed in his Word.”[10]

            The author makes five points that I think should be noted about the disparate roles of expositional listening.

1.      Expositional listening cultivates a hunger for God’s Word.

2.      Expositional listening helps us to focus on God’s will and to follow him.

3.      Expositional listening protects the gospel and our lives from corruption.

4.      Expositional listening encourages faithful pastors.

5.      Expositional listening benefits the gathered congregation.

Anyabwile focuses next on the fact that, “Members of Christian churches continue to think small thoughts of God and great thoughts of man.”[11] This simple statement, I believe, exposes the weak underbelly of churches today and the prolific rise of New-Age culture and phenomena in our churches, of the ‘Jesus is Just Alright with Me,’ mentality. This, I believe stems from the lack of biblical knowledge in the church as much as anything that influences from the outside.  

In the case of marks 5, 6, and 7, Anyabwile goes into a myriad of traps and cultural, as it pertains to certain churches, beliefs that have nothing to do with the gospel, such as answering the call at the end of the service and asking Jesus into your heart. He points out that without genuine conversion there can be no genuine church. In mark 5, he states that doing the work of an evangelist will be costly, and that sharing the truth of God’s redemptive work will often be rejected and we will be criticized. But he also makes the point that eloquence of language, mood lighting, or any other number of psychological tricks will make our presentation, if it is sincere, any more effective. It is the work of God through us to reach the lost.

It is mark 6 that spoke most to my own heart. “They are the “Lone Ranger Christians” who don’t want to be saddled with the burdens of church membership. They don’t want people “in their business.” They want to come into a church, consume what they need, and leave unattached.”[12] For I have been a reluctant participant in regular church services for years, rationalizing that I could do just as good a job as any preacher at exposing God’s Word to myself. Ah the delusions of grandeur!

The last four marks deal with discipline as it pertains to the Christian walk, Thabiti seeks to explain that a committed church member will seek out two forms of discipline, “: formative discipline and corrective discipline.” Formative discipline deals with that part of our walk that has to do with growing in Christ and his church. Whereas corrective discipline is that part of our walk that deals with loving reproof, and when needed condemnation of sin in our walk.

Mark #8 deals with a growing church member, “Advancement in the knowledge and likeness of Christ, spirituality and progress toward it, are supposed to be normal for the Christian”[13] he states that some have ‘fallen asleep’ as it were, and feel like there is no higher plateau to reach, while others are in the normal growth and solidification process and still others are simply apathetic. And mark #9 is the humble follower, this is a position of holding in honor those who have chosen to be leaders in the church, what I call “Having their back” and humbly accepting their decisions whether we agree with them or not. It is perhaps one of the most important things a church member can do in light of the fact that our leaders are already under so much spiritual attack.

And finally mark # 10 A Healthy Church Member is a Prayer Warrior, this is something that I am not, and I admit to hold in awe some of the people who can seem to spend so much time with the Lord. I believe American’s in general are poor prayer warriors simply because the act of prayer seems so passive, we’re not ‘working’ not being ‘practical’ or that we’re not good enough to ask for God’s consideration. But Anyabwile assures, “Believing the gospel changes our status from outsiders to members of the family of God, adopted sons of God through faith in Christ.”[14]And thanks be to God that truer words were never spoken!

            Dever’s book What Is a Healthy Church in which the author points out, “It is particularly important for our churches to have sound biblical theology in one special area – in our understanding of the good news of Jesus Christ, the gospel. The gospel is the heart of Christianity, and so it should be at the heart of our churches.”[15] Again and again he emphasizes the importance of the gospel, not at all unlike Anyabwile and Gilbert do in their books. What Dever seeks to point out is that the church is in need of returning to the apostolic version of a Christ centered, Christ directed, Christ driven vision. Not something new or inventive to get people back into the church, but the gospel plain and simple: and as hard as that may be for some to enjoy it is what we are called to do in the church. “The basic principle here is quite simple: we must listen to God’s Word, and we must follow it. Only two steps – listen and follow.”[16]

            At last we come to Grudem, who wraps everything up nicely in Chapter 44 of his Systematic Theology. Here the term “the church” is used to apply to all those Christ died to redeem, all those who are saved by the death of Christ. But that must include all true believers for all time, both believers in the New Testament age and the believers in the Old Testament age as well. So great is God’s plan for the church that he has exalted Christ to a position of highest authority for the sake of the church: “He has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:22-23)[17]

            Grudem also speaks of the visible and invisible church. Whereas the invisible church is that great ‘cloud of witnesses’ (Heb 12:1), and the church as God sees it. While the visible church, “is the church as Christians on earth see it.”[18] “Realizing this distinction between the church invisible and the church visible, Augustine said of the visible church, “Many sheep are without and many wolves are within.””[19]

            The author gives a grand overview of the church as both next door and universal, and that if the church is to be relevant in this day or those before us, it must be Christ-centered, and therefore gospel centered.

Personal Reflection

            What I found most striking in all four books was the simple massage of the ‘unadjusted gospel’. By that I mean laying out the simple truth of God’s Truth.  The Creator was tossed aside by the created, thus incurring His wrath. The Law was given to show that man could not be perfect, but God sent His only begotten son to fulfill the Law, and Christ gave up his life willingly as the redemptive sacrifice for all mankind. Now it is up to us to repent from our sins and accept Christ’s gift and lordship in our lives. Nice and simple, and yet the modern evangelical church has lost or so watered down that message that millions are living without the whole truth.

            I also found all three books reassuring, in the fact that they all three point us back to the gospel and the apostolic church. We are to teach and preach the gospel from our pulpits and from our lives; as an everyday, every minute Christ-likeness, centered in

the gospel to the best of our ability.

Another quote I found especially true, at least for me, was, “The gospel is a stark message, and it intrudes into the world’s thinking and priorities with sharp, bracing truths. Sadly there has always been a tendency among Christians – even among evangelicals – to soften some of these edges so that the gospel will be more readily acceptable to the world.”[20] All too often I find myself leaving out God’s wrath when I try to explain the gospel to a non-believer or even a new believer, it’s just such a sharp sword, the word that is, that we often balk at using it properly, to cut away the falseness of the world and expose the Truth as Christ has commanded us to do.

Grudem really struck a nerve when he quoted Augustine about the sheep without and the wolves within the church, I find the idea of non believers, and by non believers I mean those that will never be believers, attending a church and becoming active in its ministries both upsetting and angering, and I need to study this more. Grudem also verifies the sovereignty of Christ as the power over the church and that I find most reassuring.

As to criticizing the four works I was tasked to read I have none at this time, I find my ‘knowledge’ to be greatly lacking and therefore find myself in no position to criticize such men as these who have put forth great effort and thought into their respective works. I will say this; I wish to know more and will strive to do my best to learn as much as possible in the next year or year-and-a-half.

---

[1] http://www.9marks.org/ejournal/why-hell-integral-gospel

[2] http://www.crossway.org/contributor/anyabwile.thabiti

[3] Robert R. Buchanan, “A Display of God’s Glory, What is a Healthy Church and Nine Marks of a Healthy Church,” A three book review presented to Dr. Donald S. Whitney : Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. January 12, 2008

[4] Wayne Grudem, systematic Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI : Zondervan 1994) Back Cover

[5] Greg Gilbert, What is the Gospel? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books 2010) p102.

[6] Ibid, p17

[8] Ibid, p31

[9] Thabiti M. Anyabwile, What is a Healthy Church Member? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books 2008) p39

[10] Ibid, pp19,20

[11] Ibid, p27

[12] Ibid, p65

[13] Ibid, p84

   

[14] Ibid, p108

[15] Mark Dever, What is a Healthy Church? (Wheaton, IL : Crossway Books 2005) p75

[16] Ibid, p49

[17] Wayne Grudem, “The Church: It’s Nature, It’s Marks and its Purposes” in Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1994) Chapter 44, p853

[18] Ibid, p857

[19] Ibid, p857

[20] Ibid, p21