Free The Trellis and the Vine by Tony Payne, Colin Marshall

Christian partnership
    According to Paul, gospel partnership is the normal Christian life. It means standing together united in the gospel, determined to live as citizens of heaven in the midst of our corrupt generation, longing and striving to see the gospel be defended and proclaimed, and bravely copping the conflict, struggle and persecution that inevitably follow.
    The practical outworking of this partnership is broad ranging. We see the Philippians praying for Paul (1:19); we see them sharing in his troubles by sending him financial help (4:14-19); we see Philippians like Epaphroditus, Euodia, Syntyche and Clement among Paul’s band of co-workers; and we see the Philippians being called to imitate Paul in contending for the gospel despite hostility from without and opposition from within (3:17-4:1).
    The gospel itself demands that we stand with our leaders and preachers in profound unity, teamwork and solidarity—not because of their personalities or gifts, but because of our common partnership in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There aren’t two classes of Christians—the partners and the spectators. We’re all in it together.
    One church we have been involved in tried to express this by not having ‘membership’ of the congregation, but ‘partnership’. In our society, when you join as a ‘member’ of something, it can have connotations of passivity and consumerism. I join a club, and expect certain benefits. The ‘partnership’ language, on the other hand, communicates immediately that we are signing up for active involvement—for being partners together in a great enterprise: the gospel mission of Christ.
    In first-century Philippi, there was no doubt what this involved—a willingness to publicly bind yourself to a new and distrusted ‘sect’ whose leaders were being thrown in gaol; a determination to stand together with your brothers, come what may, and contend for the gospel; and a self-forgetting commitment to your brothers and sisters in Christ.
    None of this was a program of good works to get you into heaven! In fact, legalizers who wanted to put confidence in the flesh were the enemy. But the immeasurable free grace of God that came to them through faith in Christ was not a licence for an easy, comfortable life with a dash of spirituality on the side; rather, it was a passport to a new citizenship of suffering and contending side by side for the gospel.
    Paul was their leader, example and fellow soldier in this fight. And this is the pattern we see elsewhere in the New Testament as well. Leaders, pastors and elders are responsible to teach, to warn, to rebuke, and to encourage. They are foremen and organizers, guardians and mobilizers, teachers and models. They provide the conditions under which the rest of the gospel partners can also get on with vine work—with prayerfully speaking God’s truth to others.
    However, at a profound level, all pastors and elders are also just partners. They do not have a different essence or status, or a fundamentally different task—as if they are the real ‘players’, and the rest of the congregation are spectators or support crew. A pastor or elder is a vine-worker who has been given a particular responsibility to care for and equip the people for their partnership in the gospel.
    Which brings us inevitably to ‘training’.

Chapter 6.
The heart of training
    Readers of this book may well fall into two categories.
    There are some for whom ‘training’ is something of a ministry buzzword. They assume they know what it means, and are accordingly either for it, against it, or just tired of hearing about it.
    There will be others for whom ‘training’ is something you do at the gym or at theological college or seminary, but who have never considered that ‘training’ ought to happen in the local church.
    For the benefit of both groups, and all those in between, let’s pause to consider what ‘training’ really is in connection with Christian life and