In their 2009 book, The Trellis and the Vine, Colin Marshall and Tony Payne gave us the evocative image of supporting structures (the trellis) surrounding the organic growth of God’s people (the vine).
Their argument was: both are needed. Here my brief is to write about evangelical churches in Britain. And as I consider this movement of churches that I love, I can’t help thinking we have a wonderful vine and, at points, a wonky trellis. That trellis – our systems and the assumptions behind them – needs urgent scrutiny.
‘Every system is perfectly designed to deliver the results it gets.’ This aphorism, attributed to numerous thinkers, is vital to grasp, especially when we dislike the results we’re witnessing. It prevents us from shrugging our shoulders, it awakens us to the systems we are ordinarily oblivious to, and it confronts us with the ways we have designed the problems we’re seeing.
