Growth from a Garden: A Biblical Discipleship Model through the Lens of the Soil
Abstract:
As collaborative research partners, Rising Star Church, Freedom Church, and Truett Theological Seminary are developing a community garden as a context to engage persons in biblical discipleship. We center the garden and a garden-based, biblical discipleship model to seize an opportunity to explore new ways to experience discipleship in churches led by Black pastors. Our garden creates a space for an immersive study of scripture and fellowship with each other and the land. How we engage with the land informs our communities about practical biblical stewardship, particularly God’s command for creation care and care for our brothers and sisters across different faith communities, generations, and socio-economic statuses. How we care for adamah (the land, ground or soil) becomes a lens to view spiritual development. How the ground develops incites our imagination for spiritual development. The stages of soil development mirror seasons of spiritual maturity. Like the soil, spiritual development has stages such as additions, losses, transformations, and translocation.
Our work highlights what Jennings calls movement away from the land, [away from discipleship], and towards self-sufficiency and mastery. We seek a countermovement towards a new model of discipleship. Forced to migrate away from the land, African Americans have often conflated the oppression of slavery with the oppression of the soil. These migration patterns expose the historical tensions amidst social and environmental justice, and other forms of discipleship. Our work connects communities and a generation who value the soil with a middle aged and middle-class generation that has migrated away from it, while also implementing values in a younger generation who has yet to encounter the land in a meaningful way. In this presentation, we underscore the purpose, principles, process, and practices illuminated in this new discipleship model to help individuals return to sacred spiritual and community practices that honor the Creator.
Bios
Robert White is a pastor, public speaker, motivational coach and leadership strategist. Robert is passionate about individuals’ understanding and living out their God given purpose. His passion for individual’s to understand the gospel is evident in his passionate delivery of scripture and his strategic approach to evangelism and community engagement. Robert serves as the Lead Pastor of Freedom Church in Bedford, TX, a growing, diverse, and multi-generational church. Prior to planting Freedom, Robert served as the Youth and Young Adult pastor at Cornerstone Baptist Church. Robert has served as Associate Director of Evangelism for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Robert studied Business Administration with a Finance concentration at California State University Dominguez Hills in Carson, CA. Robert is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity from Baylor University’s George W. Truett Seminary. Robert is married to Marisha White and is the proud father of two daughters, Makenzie and Makayla.
Ralph S. Emerson is a pastor, speaker, and author. Ralph’s ability to be biblical, practical, as well as culturally and generationally relevant has opened doors for him to speak across different platforms nationally. He graduated from Florida A & M University with a BS in Business Administration and is currently pursuing theological studies at George W. Truett Theological Seminary. He announced his call to preach on July 15, 2001, and began preaching under the leadership of his father, Pastor Ralph W. Emerson Jr. of The Rising Star Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX. There he served as youth and young adult pastor, Executive Pastor of Next Generation Ministries, and church Executive Pastor. In October 2023, he was installed as the Senior Pastor at Rising Star Baptist Church. He is happily married to his boyhood crush and best friend, Chanesia. They have two children, Orien Christopher and Eden Gabrielle.