The Vine Project and Church Renewal

In seasons of evaluation and renewal, churches often ask a simple but searching question: Are we actually making disciples—or just staying busy? One of the most helpful resources I’ve encountered for addressing that question is The Vine Project: Shaping Your Ministry Culture Around Disciple-Making, by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne.

At first glance, The Vine Project might look like another book on church programs or leadership strategy. It isn’t. It’s a deeply biblical, Christ-centered vision for ministry shaped by Jesus’ words in John 15: “I am the vine; you are the branches.” From that image flows the book’s central conviction: God’s people bear fruit as they remain in Christ and as the word of Christ dwells richly among them—especially through ordinary Christians speaking the gospel to one another.

Why a “Project”?

Marshall and Payne are intentional in calling this a project, not a program. A program can be adopted, run for a season, and quietly shelved. A project, by contrast, requires sustained attention, shared ownership, and long-term cultural change. The Vine Project is about re-orienting the whole life of a church—its preaching, structures, calendars, leadership pathways, and expectations—around the core task of disciple-making through God’s Word.

The aim of the project is not growth for growth’s sake, nor the multiplication of activities, but fruitfulness: men and women growing in Christlikeness and helping others do the same. It presses churches to ask whether their energy, money, and volunteer hours are aligned with that biblical aim—or whether well-intended activity has drifted from it.

Especially Helpful for Churches in Renewal

For churches walking through a season of renewal or evaluation, The Vine Project is especially valuable. It provides language and categories to assess spiritual health beyond attendance, budgets, or busyness. It helps leaders identify bottlenecks in discipleship, clarify pathways for growth, and rethink how leaders are trained and deployed. 

Perhaps most importantly, The Vine Project helps churches recover a biblical understanding of ministry. Marshall and Payne do not flatten the real distinction between pastors, elders, and members. Leaders are still called to teach, guard the gospel, and equip the saints. What the book resists is the unbiblical assumption that “ministry” is something only leaders do, while everyone else is merely a consumer of religious goods and services. Instead, leaders are to train and support the whole church to speak God’s word to one another, so that every believer plays an active role in the mutual upbuilding of the body.

Looking Toward 2026

As churches begin planning for 2026, The Vine Project offers a wise framework for reflection and action. Rather than asking, What new thing should we start? it invites churches to ask, How can we better align what we already do with the work God has clearly given us to do?

Whether used by pastors, elders, staff teams, or key lay leaders, this book can serve as a shared starting point for meaningful conversations about discipleship pathways and long-term faithfulness. For churches longing not just to survive, but to grow deep roots and lasting fruit, The Vine Project is a resource well worth committing to.

If you would like a free copy of The Vine Project, please email Nik Lingle at [email protected].