Vine work is the Great Commission.And there is trellis work: creating and maintaining the physical and organizational structures and programs that support vine work and its growth.What’s the state of the trellis and the vine in your part of the world? Has trellis work taken over, as it has a habit of doing? Is the vine work being done by very few (perhaps only the pastor and only on Sundays)? And is the vine starting to wilt as a result?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 different people play in growing the vine? * How can we get more people involved in vine work? In The Trellis and the Vine, Colin Marshall and Tony Payne answer these urgent questions afresh. They dig back into the Bible’s view of Christian ministry, and argue that a major mind-shift is required if we are to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ, and see the vine flourish again.

    This book provides them a vision to greater levels of both rest and productivity.

    Grasp the depth of your wealth as a believer and live in the victory and thankfulness that comes through knowing that you could not have earned it yourself.

    Woo takes the reader step-by-step through the multiracial transformation of a congregation.As pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church in Alief, Texas for over seventeen years, Dr. Woo led this church from an all-Anglo declining congregation in a transitional neighborhood into a multiracial congregation that is now more than sixty-five percent nonwhite with more than forty-four different countries represented.The Color of Church unfolds the story of how God has helped Wilcrest understand the biblical principles of a multiracial church that He progressively revealed in Scripture. Each chapter parallels the biblical model or mandate and the Wilcrest transformation story from a uniracial to a multiracial congregation. In 1992, Wilcrest had 180-200 people in worship of which 98% were anglo. Today, the congregation of 450-550 is represented by 44 different countries with an anglo population of less than 40%. The Color of Church adopts the definition that a multiracial congregation is composed of racially diverse believers united by their faith in Christ, who make disciples of all the nations in the anticipation of the ultimate racial reunion around the throne of God.