Two Books for March

The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne

Gospel ministry is about people, not programs. It is about making healthy disciples, not growing churches numerically. And yet, programs and structures in a ministry are necessary for gospel growth. In the book The Trellis and the Vine, the authors lay out a simple metaphor of a church's ministry, a trellis and a vine, to help pastors and leaders of churches put into proper perspective ministry which makes disciple-making disciples. The trellis of a church is the supporting structure. It is the "management, finances, infrastructure, organization, governance" of the church (p. 8). Though important, even invaluable, trellis work won't produce disciples nor is it the goal of a church. Growing the vine is. That is, the goal of the church is growing healthy disciples who love Jesus, trust in His Gospel, and follow Him in every area of their lives who make other disciples. This is where vine work comes in. Every Christian is a vine worker. Vine work is "a Christian brings a truth from God's word to someone else, praying that God would make that word bear fruit through the inward working of the Spirit" (p. 39). From this metaphor, the authors present a ministry model which is both biblical and helpful.

The Holy Spirit by Sinclair Ferguson

Throughout the ages, the writings of Christian theologians on all sorts of topics of theology and the like are voluminous. Yet, the word "sparse" describes what they have written directly on the person and work of the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

My guest in why there has been such little attention to the Holy Spirit is that they foresaw Ferguson's work on the topic and said, "What could I have added?" That is, tongue and cheek of course since Ferguson himself is the living ghost of Puritan John Owen, a voluminous writer himself on the Holy Spirit, and that Ferguson's work draws heavily on Calvin, who has been called "the theologian of the Holy Spirit." The book is no less marvelous in all account even if you do not agree with him on every point (which I don't). In fact, I would say that it might be the best theological work which I have ever read on one particular subject.

With all this praise, why is The Holy Spirit by Ferguson so good and worthy of reading? There is the brevity of discussion on all matter important to the Holy Spirit. He explains or concisely touches everything concerning the Spirit. There is the constant exegesis from the Scripture to clear doctrine and articulation of truth. I like books which take larger portions of Scripture and walk their way through them as they explain these awesome truths of God and His world. There is the understanding of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in a biblical, historical and redemptive way. That is, Ferguson takes in consideration both the forest of biblical themes and the trees of biblical texts. There is the Gospel of Christ work by the Spirit at the center of this work. On almost every page gospel themes are proclaimed and loved. And finally, there is the lay out and flow of this work is creative and he is a great writer (at least for a theologian).