牧者，请教导你们的商业人士照看葡萄树
场景一：午饭后和我们教会的一位牧者聊天，问到教会近况。谈了一些令人振奋的情况之后，他表达了对某个成员的失望，并将其描述为“过多关注流程”。这个成员想要把许多时间花在教会建筑、收益以及预算的细节上。
这些年来，我从很多牧者那里听到这种失望。
场景二：我在一个“商场基督徒”的团契中。大概有700人到场，参与者大部分是男性。他们来自不同背景的教会，但会议领袖及所有的内容都属于主流的福音派。从很多方面来看，这都是一场非常有帮助的会议，作为“基督徒商业人士”，和众多志趣相投的朋友们在一起很受鼓励。然而，从前台到廊间谈话有个不断涌现的主题：“我们需要这样的会议，是因为我们在自己的教会不被理解。”
这些年来，我一再听到这种感想，它们通常来自于那些形式上独立于任何教会的商务人士。
我猜想，你牧养商业人士越久，或者你在教会中作为商业人士越久，你越有可能经历类似以上的两个场景之一。我们可以称之为牧者-商业人士鸿沟。
葡萄架与葡萄树：给牧者和商业人士的计划
所以到底是怎么回事呢？你可以给出几个理由来解释这种张力，从个体到教会治理，从教会架构到罪性和超我。但兼任牧者（我是教会中的带职长老）和商业人士（过去12年来，我一直是互联网创业者）的我，认为最简单的解释就是葡萄架与葡萄树的比喻。是的，我从科林•马歇尔（Colin Marshall）和托尼•佩恩的杰作《葡萄架与葡萄树》（ The Trellis and the Vine，2009，Matthias Media）中借用了这个比喻。
葡萄树的工作就是大使命：藉着公开或一对一的传道，建立门徒。而葡萄架则是要建立并保持组织实体上的架构与计划，支持葡萄树。葡萄架很重要，但作用有限，而且起到的是辅助作用。从另一方面来说，葡萄树是每个教会成员最基本的角色。所有的成员都要成为能够建立门徒的门徒，彼此担当，彼此鼓励，彼此劝勉，彼此相爱等。
那这和牧者与商业人士之间的鸿沟有什么关系呢？简列如下：
商业人士：你的牧者（通常情况下）更擅于葡萄树的工作，而不是葡萄架。要意识到这一点，并帮助他们搭建有限但可以支撑的葡萄架。
牧者：许多的商业人士并不会自发承担起葡萄树的工作，但会自发搭建葡萄架。要教导他们生发葡萄树，同时也利用他们的葡萄架优势。
再简单一点说，牧者的日常是做葡萄树的工作，并在其中训练他人。而许多商业人士的日常则是搭建葡萄架——组织和结构。当他们在各自领域中各司其职时，事情就进展顺利。但当他们作为地方教会的成员走到一起时，葡萄架和葡萄树开始交叉，张力就此产生。为什么？因为在那些时刻，他们都强调自己擅长的部分而淡化他们所不擅长的。
在本文及相关文章中，我给出了解决此矛盾建立合一的制胜策略。本文余文针对牧者，而另一篇文章针对商业人士。两者都回答了这个问题：我们如何竭力保守合一，并发挥牧者和商业人士各自的恩赐？
牧者的策略
牧者们，你们教会中的大部分商业人士并不会自发地承担起葡萄树的工作，但他们能搭建葡萄架。因此，你们的策略有三重：在他们的日常工作中鼓励他们，教导他们帮助葡萄树成长，并利用他们搭建葡萄架的能力。
1）通过关心他们的日常生活来鼓励商业人士
首先，通过关心他们的日常生活来鼓励商业人士。我认为牧者和商业人士之间的一些张力归根结底是爱的问题，或至少是对此的感知问题。如果你是一名牧者，我怀疑你可能会传达一些你不在乎教会中商业人士的信息。怎么说呢？它不是神学问题；你爱教会中的每个人。它是个情感问题：面对那些做牧养和宣教的人，你可能会非常兴奋，但面对商业人士的工作，会明显冷淡许多。作为回应，商业人士可能会离开教会，一头扎进工作。
想象一位父亲有两个儿子。很清楚他两个都很爱，两个儿子也都知道这一点。然而其中一个儿子热爱华盛顿红皮（Washington Redskins，美国的一支橄榄球队），而另一个儿子是个艺术家。这位父亲确实喜欢后者的艺术，但他热爱红皮队。你会发现随着时间的推移，艺术家儿子将感觉到他的父亲爱自己少些，即便客观上他知道那不是真的。他越这样想，越不愿意在父亲面前证明自己，或只是简单地在别处寻求认可。
解决办法是什么？我们应该去迎合教会中每个自觉被忽视之人的感受吗？我们应该不那么尊重牧者吗？实际上我想的比牧者简单。考虑一些你能关心教会中商业人士的实际方法。
首先，公开并专门地为教会中不同的职业问题祷告。为一些更“接地气”的问题祷告，如：
同事的关系；
更有效率的沟通；
面对挫折，官僚主义和看似无意义，有恩典和能力用敬虔的方式回应；
神起初提供工作的仁慈；
有能力抵制我们将工作偶像化的倾向；
有能力抵制我们懒惰，拖延和游手好闲的倾向；
提升在工作中作光作盐的异象；
在面临提拔，内部政治，失望，及职业规划上有智慧；
有能力知道何时该推进，何时不该；
在职业选择上越来越自由，并适当给予家庭时间。
考虑在教会中找一位成熟的商业人士询问，公开谈论他在工作中所学到的，以及神怎样在他的心中，人际关系中，以及周围环境中作工。不要将你们会众在工作中的价值仅限于他们传福音的频率和果效。相反，努力建立他们，不仅仅通过讲道，也通过你们的祷告和对他们具体职场生涯的关心。
鼓励他们，特别是在周一。周一进入工作状态可能很难。特别是刚刚在周日享受完家宴之后，此刻要面对一个没有关怀，充满竞争，甚至失望的工作环境，更加困难。（讽刺的是，我认为教会越健康，周日高亢和周一低落的差距越大）。要意识到这一点。那么怎样应对这种情况呢？我的答案并不是要让周日少点鼓励少点荣耀神。但是你可以避免产生一种印象，好像敬拜只是在教会中，而不是在工作中，以及好像只有全时间事奉才重要。
2）给你们的商业人士一个异象，教导他们开展葡萄树的工作——在家中，职场中，教会中。
其次，给你们的商业人士一个异象，教导他们开展葡萄树的工作——在家中，工作中，教会中。牧者很容易忽视在教会中教导商业人士。可能是因为假定你们的商业人士都成功而有才华，他们已经有了开展葡萄树工作的恩赐和能力。或者说，也许你们教会中的商业人士处于另一个极端：他们太世俗，以致于你无法想象他们会去开展葡萄树的工作，所以你忽略了他们。
你要做的就是给他们一个教会工作的异象，然后训练他们去做。对此我有三个建议。
首先，教导他们在职场中作基督徒的意义——那真的只是作门徒的意义。帮助他们看到，作耶稣的门徒不仅仅是他们生活中抛来抛去的另一个球而已。它和其它的责任并不存在竞争关系。跟随耶稣这个首要任务，是他们的第一责任，其他所有的责任依此确立，并在各自位置上为此服务。
思考歌罗西书3章24节。我们为何无论作什么，都要从心里做？因为我们无论作什么，都是“给主”作！作基督门徒是第一重要责任，它组织并定义所有那些次要的“无论作什么”的责任。教会生活，家庭生活，职场生活——都是“无论作什么”，我们作为人，作为基督徒，该有的次要责任。因此要将所有的这些看成竞技场，我们在其中努力跟随耶稣，尊崇荣耀祂。
当我们的商务人士开始理解到，我们有且仅有一个第一责任，其它所有的责任都是由这个第一责任所定义，那么，他们常常感觉到的许多混乱都可以得到缓解。突然之间，他们在人生驿站中相互竞争的各种呼召和责任开始指向同一个方向。
其次，装备他们成为葡萄树的工人——训练门徒的门徒——在他们职场，家庭，及教会的呼召中。大部分商务人士的日常工作和葡萄树的工作非常不同。实际上，“葡萄树的工作”——如辅导，建立他人，悉心管理——在市场上通常得不到赞赏或回报。为什么？因为它需要长时间的委身来建立他人，而大部分事务追求的是快速有效的结果。因此，不仅是大部分的职场人士不会在工作中加强他们的葡萄树技能，而且整个体系常常是在阻止它。要意识到这一点，并花时间训练他们做葡萄树的工作。
第三，给他们一个可以效法的模式。给出葡萄树工作的异象，但也帮助他们看到实际情况到底如何。一开始，门训别人对我来说很陌生。真正对我有帮助的是，学着看看别人怎么做。
我的实践从每两周在当地咖啡馆见一个教会的朋友开始，每次30-45分钟，倾谈生活的重要方面。我们谈到生活中的5个重要方面：个人门训，婚姻（或其它主要关系），养育子女（如果适用的话），事工，以及工作。每人用10分钟，思想自己在这些方面过去几周做得如何，以及未来一周的目标。我们彼此分享这些话题，并允许就此提出棘手的问题。
通常情况下，我们会在某一个方面消耗大部分的时间。例如，我的朋友试图搞清楚，怎样才能最好地教养他年幼的孩子们。我和他一起探索，应用圣经的教导，给他实践的智慧，经过几周尝试不同的策略和书籍，他最终得以在为人父母方面取得了实际的进步。
这就是关键：不要假定你们的商务人士知道怎么做葡萄树的工作。如果他们是基督徒，就假定他们想要学习如何门训他人。
3）利用你们商务人士搭建葡萄架的能力
第三，利用你们商务人士搭建葡萄架的能力。当教会中不那么需要诸如战略，计划，进度，及效率等类的事情时，它们在其它方面却非常有用。作为一个牧者，如果你能看到哪里需要“搭建葡萄架的能力”，以及谁能掌握你所需要的特定工具，你会事奉得很好。
所以葡萄架在教会中的哪些领域有用？这里有一些清单：
如何组织成员关怀以满足需要；
如何做小组；
如何管理你们的房产和资产；
职员评估及薪酬；
法律事务；
招募托儿所志愿者；
预算及收入预测；
网站和声誉维护；
开展新的学生事工或国际事工；
整体战略计划；
精简长老会议；
及社区延伸服务。
这个清单还可以继续写下去。你们教会中有很多需要做的葡萄架工作
所以，你该去找谁来做呢？怎样在你们教会使用搭建葡萄架的能力？答案是，学习理解你们的“商务人士”及他们擅用工具的不同。实际上，基于个性和所从事的工作，商务人士有很多不同的技能。以下是快速概览：
一名“普通的商业人士”建立组织，系统，和进度，是一个战略思考家。他们懂得如何为达成目标而分配资源。
一名创新者/企业家看到事物的不足，而想要完善。他们看得到机会，想要做事，但或许不会考虑到所有的细节和得失。他们可以在大致的方向上推进，而几乎不需要指导。
专业的销售属于业务驱动型，说服人们相信，推动协议达成。
一名分析师/律师/会计师分析，研究，以数据为中心，通常是某一小众领域的专家。
一名操作人员/经理“保持火车准时运行”。通常不是非常有创造性，他或她可能是一个好人，可以保持某件事长期运转。
一名工程师（软件或硬件）按系统化和流程化思考，明白事物怎样组合，通常情况下，他们有全局观，是个计划者。
一名设计师知道如何用具体的方法交流抽象的问题，带来审美的秩序。
出于神的恩典，你们教会中的人可能有各种各样的恩赐。找到他们，邀请他们用自己的恩赐来服事教会。你会非常讶异，竟然会有那么多的商务人士因未获服事邀请而受挫。所以，鼓励你们教会中不同的成员，服事如同一个身体。
目标：一个身体
正如神并没有把人的肉身设计为只有一个肢体，祂也不会把基督的身体设计为只有一个肢体。是的，祂的设计中有牧师和宣教士，但也有警察，教师，木工，以及所有其他的“部件”，他们在一起各尽其职，使教会身体稳定运行。
教会中所有的恩赐一起协作，创造了一个正常运行的身体。如果你拿走任何一部分，或是让整个身体只有一个肢体，损害的就不仅仅是整体的美丽，而是所有各个肢体的美丽。他们只有在互补协作的时候才美丽。没有任何个体能单独站立得住，所有的肢体都由神配合，以建造一个功能完全的身体。我们所有人的角色是相互补充相互支持的。他们一起协作，帮助教会映出基督的荣耀。
Pastor, Teach Your Businesspeople to Tend the Vine
Scene 1: Over lunch with a pastor of my church, I asked him how things at church were going. After mentioning some encouragements, he expressed frustration with a member whom he described as “overly concerned with process.” This member wanted to spend a lot of time on the details of buildings, benefits, and budgets.
I’ve heard this type of frustration from quite a few pastors over the years.
Scene 2: I was at a “Christians in Business” meeting. There were probably 700 or so in attendance, mostly men. They came from a variety of church backgrounds, but the conference leader and overall content was mainstream evangelical. In many ways, it was a helpful conference, and as a “Christian businessperson,” it was encouraging to be around other like-minded friends. However, one theme kept coming up both from the front and in hallway conversations: “We need this conference because our churches don’t understand us.”
I’ve heard this sentiment repeatedly over the years, normally from business guys who are functionally independent from any church.
My guess is, the longer you pastor businesspeople, or the longer you’re a businessperson in a church, the more likely you’ll experience something similar to one of these two scenes. Let’s call it the Pastor-Businessman Divide.
THE TRELLIS AND THE VINE: A PLAN FOR PASTORS AND BUSINESSPEOPLE
So what’s going on here? You could come up with several reasons for this tension, from personalities to polity, from structures to sin and super egos. But as both a pastor (I’m a lay elder in my church) and a businessperson (I’ve been an internet entrepreneur for the past 12 years), I think the simplest explanation can be found by considering the analogy of a trellis and a vine. Yes, I am borrowing from the excellent book The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne.
Vine work is the Great Commission: making disciples through teaching the Word, whether publicly or one-on-one. Trellis work is creating and maintaining the physical and organizational structures and programs that support vine work. Trellises are important, but are limited and supporting. On the other hand, vine work is the fundamental role of every member of a church. All the members are to be disciple-making disciples who hold one another accountable, encourage one another, exhort and love one another and so on.
So how does this relate to the tension between pastors and business-people? Simply this:
Businessman: Your pastor (generally) is better at vines, not trellises. Realize this, and help to build trellises that are limited and supporting.
Pastor: Many of your businessmen don’t naturally take to vine-work, but are naturals at building trellises. Teach them to grow vines, but also take advantage of their trellis power.
To oversimplify, the day-job of a pastor is to do vine work and train others in it. And the day-job of many businesspeople is to build trellises—organizations and structures. When each is doing their day-job in their own spheres, things go swimmingly. But when they come together as members of a local church and their vines and trellises start to overlap, there can be tension. Why? Because in those moments, they both emphasize what they are good at and deemphasize what they are not.
In this article and its companion, I lay out a game plan for averting these tensions and building unity. The rest of this article addresses pastors, while the other article addresses businesspeople. Both answer the question: how can we fight for unity and leverage the gifts of both pastors and businesspeople?
THE PASTOR’S GAME PLAN
Pastor, many of your businesspeople don’t naturally take to vine-work, but they can build trellises. So your game plan is threefold: encourage them in their daily work, teach them to grow vines, and take advantage of their trellis prowess.
1) Encourage businesspeople by caring about their daily lives.
First, encourage businesspeople by caring about their daily lives. I think some of the tension between pastors and businesspeople comes down to love, or at least the perception of it. If you’re a pastor, I wonder if you might be sending the message that you don’t care about the businesspeople in your church. How? It’s not theological; you love everyone in your church. It’s emotional: you might get really excited about those who are pastoring and are missionaries but show far less excitement for what your businesspeople are doing. In response, businesspeople might be tempted to check out of church and invest entirely in their work.
Imagine a dad who has two sons. It’s clear he loves them both very much, and they both know it. One son, though, loves the Washington Redskins while the other son is an artist. The dad really likes the latter son’s art, but he loves the Redskins. You could see how over time the artist son will feel like his dad loves him less, even though he knows objectively that’s not true. And the more he feels this way, the more he may struggle to prove himself to his dad, or simply look elsewhere for approval.
What’s the solution to this? Should we cater to the feelings of everyone in the church who feels less valued? Should we esteem pastors less? I actually think it’s easier than pastors think. Consider a few practical ways that you can care for businesspeople in your church.
First, pray publicly and specifically for different occupational concerns in your church. Pray for the more “earthly” concerns such as
relationships with coworkers;
using time well on commutes;
the grace and strength to respond in godly ways to frustrations, bureaucracy, and seeming meaninglessness;
God’s kindness in providing jobs in the first place;
the ability to fight our tendency to idolize work;
the ability to fight our tendency toward laziness, procrastination and idleness;
an increasing vision for what it means to be salt and light in the workplace;
wisdom in navigating raises, internal politics, disappointments, and career planning;
ability to know when to take promotions and when not to;
an increasing sense of freedom in choosing a career and setting the appropriate hours for your family.
Consider asking a mature businessperson in your church to speak publicly about what he’s learning in the workplace and how God is at work in his heart, his relationships, and his circumstances. Don’t reduce the value of your people in their workplace to how frequently or how well they’re doing in evangelism. Instead, work to build them up, not just through your preaching, but through your prayers and concern for their specific work-life.
Encourage them, especially on Mondays. It can be hard to go to work on Monday. It can be even harder when you’ve just had a family feast on Sunday and now you’re heading out to what can be an uncaring, competitive, and disappointing work environment. (Ironically, I think the healthier the church, the bigger the gap can be between the Sunday high and the Monday low). Recognize this. What can you do to try to counteract this? I don’t think the answer is to make Sundays less encouraging and God-glorifying. But you can avoid giving the impression that worship happens only in church, not at work, and that the only work that matters is paid ministry.
2) Give your businesspeople a vision for, and teach them to do, vine work—in their families, in their workplaces, and in the church.
Second, give your businesspeople a vision for, and teach them to do, vine work—in their families, in their workplaces, and in the church. It is easy for pastors to neglect teaching the businesspeople in their church. It is possible to assume that because your businesspeople are successful and talented, they already have the gifting and ability to do vine work. Or, perhaps the businesspeople in your church are at the other end of the spectrum: they are so worldly that you cannot imagine them doing vine work, so you ignore them.
What is needed is for you to give them a vision for the work of the church and then train them to do it. I have three suggestions for how you can do this.
First, teach them what it means to be a Christian in the workplace—which is really just what it means to be a disciple. Help them see that their discipleship to Jesus is not just one more ball flying around in their life. It is not in competition with other responsibilities. It is their first responsibility, and all others are defined by and find their place in service to that one overarching assignment of following Jesus.
Think of Colossians 3:24. Why are we to work with all our heart at whatever we do? Because we do whatever we do “for the Lord!” The great first responsibility, discipleship to Jesus, organizes and defines all those secondary “whatever you do” responsibilities. Church life, family life, work life—those are the “whatever-you-dos,” the secondary responsibilities we have as humans and Christians. So we ought to understand all of them as arenas in which we strive to follow Jesus and bring him honor and glory.
When our businesspeople start to understand that we have one and only one first responsibility, and that all our other responsibilities are defined by that first responsibility, a good deal of the chaos they often feel is relieved. All of a sudden, their various callings and duties in life stop being in competition with one another and instead begin to point in the same direction.
Second, equip them to be vine workers—disciple-making disciples—in their callings to the workplace, family, and church. Most business-people’s day-to-day work is very different from vine-work. In fact, “vine-work”—things like mentoring, building into others, and managing well—is normally not appreciated or rewarded in the marketplace. Why? Because it takes a long-term commitment to build into others, yet most businesses want quick and efficient results. So not only are most businesspeople not sharpening their vine-making skills in their jobs, but the system is normally set up to discourage it. Recognize this and take the time to train them up in vine-making.
Third, give them a pattern to follow. Give them a vision to do vine work, but also help them see practically what it looks like. Initially, discipling people was very foreign to me. What really helped me was learning to watch others do it.
I put this into practice by starting to meet up with a friend from church bi-weekly for 30-45 minutes at a local coffee shop to talk through key areas of our lives. We walk through 5 key assignments in life: our personal discipleship, our marriages (or other key relationships), parenting (if applicable), ministry, and work. We each take 10 minutes and think about these areas in terms of how our past weeks went and what our goals are for the upcoming week. We go over each of these with the other person and give them permission to ask us hard questions about any of them.
Normally what happens is there is one box where we spend the majority of our time. For example, my friend was trying to think through how to best disciple his young children. I thought about it with him, applying Scripture and giving him practical wisdom, and over a few weeks he tried different strategies and books that eventually helped him make real progress as a parent.
Here’s the point: Don’t assume your businesspeople know how to do vine work. Do assume that, if they’re Christians, they want to learn how to disciple others.
3) Take advantage of your business people’s trellis powers.
Third, take advantage of your business people’s trellis powers. While things like strategy, planning, process, and efficiency aren’t needed for everything in the church, they are useful for some things. As a pastor, you will be well served if you can see where “trellis powers” are needed, and who can wield the particular tool you need.
So what are some areas in which trellises are useful in the church? There’s a whole host of things:
how to organize member care so that needs are met;
how to do small groups;
how to steward your buildings and property;
staff reviews and compensation;
legal issues;
recruiting volunteers for nursery;
budgeting and income projections;
websites and branding;
launching new ministries to reach students or internationals;
overall strategic planning;
streamlining elders meetings;
and doing specific outreaches for your community.
The list could go on and on. There is a lot of trellis work to be done at your church.
So who should you be on the lookout for? How can you put trellis powers to work in your church? The answer is, learn to understand the differences among your “businesspeople” and the tools they wield. Businesspeople actually have fairly different skills based on their personalities and what they do. Here’s a quick overview:
A “generic businessperson” builds organizations, systems, and processes and is a strategic thinker. They understand how to allocate resources in order to accomplish a goal.
An inventor/entrepreneur sees broken things and wants to fix them. They see opportunities and want to do something, but might not necessarily think about all the details and trade-offs. They can move in the approximate direction and need little guidance.
A sales professional is deal-oriented, convinces people of ideas, and works towards agreement.
An analyst/attorney/accountant analyzes, studies, is data-centric, and is normally an expert in a narrow topic.
An operator/manager “keeps the trains running on time.” Not typically very creative, he or she is likely a good people person and can keep something spinning for a long time.
An engineer (software or physical) thinks in terms of systems and processes, understands how things fit together, and, normally, is thorough and a planner.
A designer knows how to communicate abstract ideas in concrete ways and can bring aesthetic order.
By God’s grace, your church may be filled with people who have various gifts. Get to know them and ask them to serve the church in ways that align with their gifts. It’s amazing how many businesspeople get discouraged because they are not asked to help. So encourage the various members of your church to function like a body.
THE GOAL: A BODY
Just as God didn’t design the physical body to be just one part, so he didn’t design the body of Christ to be just one part, either. He designed it so that there would be, yes, pastors and missionaries, but also policemen and teachers and carpenters and all kinds of other “parts” who would function together to keep the church body functioning smoothly.
All the various gifts in the church work together to create one well-functioning body. If you take any out, or if you make the whole body just one part, you ruin the beauty not only of the whole, but of all the individual parts as well. They are only beautiful when they complement one another and work together. None of them stands alone and all of them are ordered by God to create one well-functioning body. The roles we all play complement and support one another. They all work together to help the church reflect the glory of God.
作者：Sebastian Traeger
Sebastian Traeger是美南浸信会国际宣教差会的执行副主席。
翻译肢体：咸燕美
用圣经视野和实用资源装备教会领袖
进而通过健康的教会向世界彰显神的荣耀
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