"The ministry mind-shift that changes everything" (or, how to actually suck eggs)

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:

• A minister can’t do all the discipleship work on his own: he’ll never get round everyone properly.
• And actually, it’s the job of every Christian to help every other Christian: it’s not meant to be up to just one man.
• So a pastor needs to help and teach others to help and teach others; “training is the engine of gospel growth” (p 90)
• This needs to be intentional (it won’t just happen), but it isn’t purely formal, about coming to sessions or meetings: “training is inescapably relational” (p 75)
• Paul trained the Christians in his churches by living alongside them, letting them see how he reacted to the ups and downs of life. “The life and ministry of the trainer is a model for the trainee… this requires an honest, open sharing of our lives” (p 90—I wish I’d had that stuck up on a wall in my study when I was working for a church).

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.