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The Art of Vinemaking: Spiritual Flourishing in a Productivity-Driven Culture
What if fruitfulness wasn’t something you had to strive for?
What if it ripened naturally from a life rooted in the True Vine?
In a culture that equates fruitfulness with productivity, The Art of Vinemaking offers a countercultural to move at the pace of abiding rather than striving.
Join author and artist Bette Dickinson in the vineyard as she learns this life-giving rhythm from the vine itself—and from a local vinedresser, Dave Bos. Through personal story, biblical reflection, and the botanical wisdom of the vineyard, this book helps you cultivate a life rooted in Christ, bearing fruit that lasts.
Complete with 17 hand-drawn illustrations, this book is a beautiful companion for weary ministry leaders, burned-out believers, and anyone longing for a deeper connection with God.
What if it ripened naturally from a life rooted in the True Vine?
In a culture that equates fruitfulness with productivity, The Art of Vinemaking offers a countercultural to move at the pace of abiding rather than striving.
Join author and artist Bette Dickinson in the vineyard as she learns this life-giving rhythm from the vine itself—and from a local vinedresser, Dave Bos. Through personal story, biblical reflection, and the botanical wisdom of the vineyard, this book helps you cultivate a life rooted in Christ, bearing fruit that lasts.
Complete with 17 hand-drawn illustrations, this book is a beautiful companion for weary ministry leaders, burned-out believers, and anyone longing for a deeper connection with God.
314 pages, Paperback
Published September 15, 2025
10 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 22, 2025
The Art of Vinemaking by Bette Dickinson takes you on a journey of what it truly means to abide in Jesus and for your life to flourish. Bette is a wonderful artist in paint, and in this book she instead paints with words, taking you through her personal discovery of how vines are tended for quality fruit, not mediocre masses, if the vinedresser wants quality wine, and how that applies to what Jesus meant when he said ‘I am the vine, you are the branches, abide in me’. Bette takes the reader through the seasons of tending the vine, revealing the need to slow down, to notice, to pay closer attention to the seasons and rhythms of life and what is needed for a flourishing life rather than the productivity driven approach. For spiritual growth in ways that just doing more stuff, striving and powering on will never achieve, read this book. Take time to dwell, to taste and see. This book would be great for individuals, home groups, book clubs, church pastors and leadership, and for anyone that thinks ‘there must be more to life than this’.
September 23, 2025
The Art of Vinemaking is one of those rare books that slows you down-in the best way. In a world obsessed with hustle and productivity, Bette invites us into a deeper, more sacred rhythm of life; abiding.
Her writing is warm, wise and deeply reflective. The vineyard imagery-pruning, waiting, growing-mirrors the seasons of our own spiritual journey so beautifully. Add in the hand-drawn illustrations and this becomes more than a book- it’s an experience. I closed the final page feeling both grounded and inspired.
If you are craving rest, reflection or a reset in your walk with God-this book is a gift.
Her writing is warm, wise and deeply reflective. The vineyard imagery-pruning, waiting, growing-mirrors the seasons of our own spiritual journey so beautifully. Add in the hand-drawn illustrations and this becomes more than a book- it’s an experience. I closed the final page feeling both grounded and inspired.
If you are craving rest, reflection or a reset in your walk with God-this book is a gift.
September 22, 2025
A friend recently commented that, from an agricultural standpoint, a tree that produced fruit year round wouldn’t produce good fruit! Yet here I am, observing and having lived the expectation that in the West we will always be producing, always be heading up and to the right, with no margins for failure. Bette describes this as the productivity-driven approach and invites us to consider that perhaps God’s ways are focused on our health and flourishing. Perhaps the areas where we feel shame because of our society’s pressure to produce are the places where God compassionately gazes on us and removes our burdens so we can heal.
What if the the vinedresser isn’t concerned about the fruit that’s produced, but the health of the vine? Bette poses this question at the onset of this book and unpacks the beauty of the ways that God, as the loving, tender and faithful vinedresser, has created rhythms in our lives that allow for intangible fruit like relational depth, character formation, and wholeness of creation and communities.
God’s plan is to give us abundant life and produce fruit that ripens over time through intimacy and loving cultivation as we abide in him. Bette lovingly unfolds this through the examples of how the vinedresser approaches the health of the vine. She breaks this down into smaller areas of tending that the vinedresser considers to promote the overall health of the vine, like terroir, attachment to the vine and the life cycle of the vine. Bette invites us to see how God draws forth who he has created us to be, not what social media or our relentless culture says of us. God’s work is making us whole, reflecting his image.
Bette encourages her readers to abide with Christ in his death, post harvest and dormancy, experiencing communion with him as we release the identities we’ve put on. She encourages us to trust in God’s abundance during times of pruning and move towards communal flourishing as we go into the branches. Bette points towards the flow from surrender of our own power to receiving God’s in the resistance of bud break, and the energy of growing. She offers insight into the vulnerability of flowering and the shift from branches to fruit and the healthy stress of ripening. She returns to the importance of community in the entire cycle of the vine. Bette reminds the reader that God never promised immediate results in our effort, but he does take our offerings and turn them into something beautiful and enduring. Be prepared to engage further and be transformed through the thoughtful and supremely helpful reflection questions at the end of each chapter.
I spent the better part of a decade working in healthcare, with it’s productivity-driven approach, where I was a commodity to be used and discarded when I was burned out. Through this book I engaged in questions and practices that promoted further healing of my wounds and restoring of my soul. May you also experience the reminders of your inherent value that are not based on what you have to offer but on how beloved you are by God, who sees you as you read this book!
What if the the vinedresser isn’t concerned about the fruit that’s produced, but the health of the vine? Bette poses this question at the onset of this book and unpacks the beauty of the ways that God, as the loving, tender and faithful vinedresser, has created rhythms in our lives that allow for intangible fruit like relational depth, character formation, and wholeness of creation and communities.
God’s plan is to give us abundant life and produce fruit that ripens over time through intimacy and loving cultivation as we abide in him. Bette lovingly unfolds this through the examples of how the vinedresser approaches the health of the vine. She breaks this down into smaller areas of tending that the vinedresser considers to promote the overall health of the vine, like terroir, attachment to the vine and the life cycle of the vine. Bette invites us to see how God draws forth who he has created us to be, not what social media or our relentless culture says of us. God’s work is making us whole, reflecting his image.
Bette encourages her readers to abide with Christ in his death, post harvest and dormancy, experiencing communion with him as we release the identities we’ve put on. She encourages us to trust in God’s abundance during times of pruning and move towards communal flourishing as we go into the branches. Bette points towards the flow from surrender of our own power to receiving God’s in the resistance of bud break, and the energy of growing. She offers insight into the vulnerability of flowering and the shift from branches to fruit and the healthy stress of ripening. She returns to the importance of community in the entire cycle of the vine. Bette reminds the reader that God never promised immediate results in our effort, but he does take our offerings and turn them into something beautiful and enduring. Be prepared to engage further and be transformed through the thoughtful and supremely helpful reflection questions at the end of each chapter.
I spent the better part of a decade working in healthcare, with it’s productivity-driven approach, where I was a commodity to be used and discarded when I was burned out. Through this book I engaged in questions and practices that promoted further healing of my wounds and restoring of my soul. May you also experience the reminders of your inherent value that are not based on what you have to offer but on how beloved you are by God, who sees you as you read this book!
September 25, 2025
I had the deep honor and joy of being part of Bette’s reading group for The Art of Vinemaking, and to learn about the lifecycle of the grapevine from Bette and her friend vinedresser Dave Bos was an utterly eye-opening experience to me — as someone who had never come near a grape vine! Moreover, to discover the profound ways in which the grapevine’s seasons mirror our own human (and Christian) cyclical seasons of resurrection, life, and death astounded me. No longer did I dread so much the times when my work “output” seemed less than profuse during medical leave for major surgery, as I came to see this event as part of the cycle, a time of rebuilding from stress for what else is part of my life’s plan that I could never hav even imagined before. Bette’s numerous examples of moving personal and professional loss of much longed-for hopes and dreams along her path likewise made me realize that the deep pain of pruning with its raw exposure also leaves us open to possibilities we had never previously considered. I would highly recommend this encouraging, thoughtful book to anyone trying to recognize their worth beyond the strictures of the exhausting 24/7/365 productivity culture that depletes us so deeply to our core.
September 29, 2025
Bette Dickinson’s The Art of Vinemaking is far more than a book about wine. It is a tender meditation on life, faith, and formation. Drawing on the rhythms of the vineyard, Dickinson invites us to consider what it means to flourish in a culture obsessed with speed and productivity. The book unfolds as a tapestry of stories, Scripture, and wisdom, showing how God, the True Vinedresser, tends the soil of our lives with patience and love.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this book. It stirred both my mind and my heart, reminding me that fruitfulness is less about output and more about abiding. I found myself reflecting deeply on how place, history, and community shape us, much like terroir shapes a grape.
What I loved most was Dickinson’s lyrical weaving of theology, creation, and personal story. I learned to value hidden growth, slow processes, and the unseen work of God beneath the surface. The book achieved its goal beautifully, shifting my imagination from striving to surrender.
The subject never lost my interest, the imagery was rich, and the “characters,” from the vinedresser to our Creator, were well drawn and meaningful. In the end, the book left me longing to remain in Christ and trust His seasons.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this book. It stirred both my mind and my heart, reminding me that fruitfulness is less about output and more about abiding. I found myself reflecting deeply on how place, history, and community shape us, much like terroir shapes a grape.
What I loved most was Dickinson’s lyrical weaving of theology, creation, and personal story. I learned to value hidden growth, slow processes, and the unseen work of God beneath the surface. The book achieved its goal beautifully, shifting my imagination from striving to surrender.
The subject never lost my interest, the imagery was rich, and the “characters,” from the vinedresser to our Creator, were well drawn and meaningful. In the end, the book left me longing to remain in Christ and trust His seasons.
September 23, 2025
"The Art of Vinemaking" is a book for such a time as this. In our fast paced, productivity oriented society where identity is defined by "doing", Bette Dickinson, MDiv, offers a biblical & science based alternative to living based on slowing down to listen and to allow the Vinedresser to shape & form us. This act of slowing down requires courage for it means shutting out the familiar voices that scream "produce, produce, produce" in order to attune to the One voice inviting us to "Abide in Me as I abide in you." (John 15:4-5) Bette's message has encouraged me to rest in Christ the Vine while exploring my God-given passions with joy & creativity. From this place of "abiding" vs striving, I am becoming my true self, more fully alive to offer beauty & hope to a hurried and fractured world. Highly recommend.
September 22, 2025
This is a must-read book. Dickinson has created a gentle, yet insistent, piece of art that invites and compels us towards a new rhythm of life, a rhythm consonant with the seasons of the vine. With a deep awareness of the crushing weight of our productivity-driven culture, Dickinson weaves a tapestry of biography, biology and theology to help us locate ourselves within the provenance of God's journey and care. God is the master vine-maker and wine-maker here, and it is God who guides Dickinson - and the vine - and us - through times of planting, caring, pruning, dying, resting, rebirth, and bearing fruit.
I could hardly imagine a more timely work than The Art of Vinemaking, and a more important message in an era of destructive knee-jerk reactionism, burn-out, and consumerism.
I could hardly imagine a more timely work than The Art of Vinemaking, and a more important message in an era of destructive knee-jerk reactionism, burn-out, and consumerism.
September 25, 2025
In a world that demands more, we need to learn to cultivate the deepness of abiding with God that Bette Dickinson describes in this book. So often we focus on what we produce instead of allowing God to transform us from the roots up. Bette's exploration of the vineyard illuminates the metaphor Jesus used when he said he is the vine and we are the branches. Slowing down over the course of the year to examine how God is working in every season of our lives will lead us to the abundant life Jesus promised. Bette's book is an important guide and a beautiful invitation to walk with God through all the seasons. Get a group of friends, maybe a bottle of good wine, and start exploring this book together. Also, the benediction at the end of the book is gorgeous!
September 22, 2025
Have you ever felt like you just can't keep up with the pace of life and everything you need to produce? Just like the seasons we experience in nature, we too were created to have seasons of rest, of restoration, and pruning that make it possible for us to be healthy enough to produce fruit in the proper season. Bette Dickinson, MDiv, draws upon the rich spiritual truths that can be found in the vineyard. She gives us a vision for a different way of life - one that is not "productivity-driven" but focused on our and our community's flourishing. If you are longing to abide in the True Vine, as Jesus describes in John 15, you will love going deeper using "The Art of Vinemaking" as your guide.
September 23, 2025
This book has been such a timely blessing ! The analogies come from such a unique perspective (Bette & an actual Vinedresser) and I was hooked the moment I started reading.
God was revealing so much about the root system in my life as I read the book. He has used it to bring an holy conviction and reminder that fruitfulness does not flow from striving, but from union with Christ.
Thankful for Bette and the wisdom God has given
her to write this book.
Preparing to read it again
But this time with a small group!!
God was revealing so much about the root system in my life as I read the book. He has used it to bring an holy conviction and reminder that fruitfulness does not flow from striving, but from union with Christ.
Thankful for Bette and the wisdom God has given
her to write this book.
Preparing to read it again
But this time with a small group!!
January 1, 2026
A timely book for the moment we are in. Bette’s metaphorical descriptions of the spiritual life using the vine is so practical and engaging, beautiful and inspiring. I found myself in awe in so many ways. Definitely recommend picking this book up, no matter what season you find yourself in.
October 22, 2025
This is a brilliant and timely piece of work. As one reads it you sense something sacred and mystical as Bette weaves her story with theology and the wonder of vine growing.
We're all familiar with the vine metaphor in John 15. And challenged by it. However, Bette in sharing the cyclical nature of vine growing with the tremendous help of Dave, a vine grower, we're invited to adopt a lifestyle centred around the seasons of the vine.
I was fascinated by the viticultural aspects of the book, learning a bunch of new terminology and how Bette related the science to the wonder and beauty of the trinitarian relationship with us. Increasingly, I was drawn to God, the more I understood the mystery of His hand in the cycles of the vine and our lives.
Bette's writing is very practical, Dave's input adds weight as do examples from Bette's life, and we're challenged at the end of each chapter with 3 questions about the preceding content. I actually wonder if a more detailed 'study' book would be useful but I understand Bette has a series of online courses coming which will add further context and allow greater personal reflection.
I believe this is one of the best books I've read this year and I look forward to continued reflection and meditation upon its contents.
We're all familiar with the vine metaphor in John 15. And challenged by it. However, Bette in sharing the cyclical nature of vine growing with the tremendous help of Dave, a vine grower, we're invited to adopt a lifestyle centred around the seasons of the vine.
I was fascinated by the viticultural aspects of the book, learning a bunch of new terminology and how Bette related the science to the wonder and beauty of the trinitarian relationship with us. Increasingly, I was drawn to God, the more I understood the mystery of His hand in the cycles of the vine and our lives.
Bette's writing is very practical, Dave's input adds weight as do examples from Bette's life, and we're challenged at the end of each chapter with 3 questions about the preceding content. I actually wonder if a more detailed 'study' book would be useful but I understand Bette has a series of online courses coming which will add further context and allow greater personal reflection.
I believe this is one of the best books I've read this year and I look forward to continued reflection and meditation upon its contents.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews