Manor Park Evangelical Church|Serving Christ and the Community in St. John's

We all share the passion to see Jesus Christ formed in those we minister to (Galatians 4:19). The issue is, how should we do this? Specifically, how can we take someone recently converted out of the world and by the grace of God turn them into fully committed followers of the Lord Jesus?

My contention in this study is that in much of the Western Evangelical tradition, the answer to that question has been shaped more by the academy than by Christ. What I mean is this: in too many evangelical churches we believe that a young believer will mature in Christ merely, or at least largely, by exposure to sermons. I call this the Scholastic Model because, if not based on the academy it reflects it's approach: that learning is largely a cerebral matter.

Against this is the Incarnational Model which, based on the example of Jesus, views the learning process as a far more relational activity in which teaching is given in both verbal form and lived-out, incarnational, "word becomes flesh" form. Instead of the academy, this method is more like apprentice schemes where a teacher will not only verbally teach a pupil, he or she will also show them how the job is done.

Here in summary is what incarnational discipleship is all about: Disciples are made when new converts are taught to follow Christ by the teaching and example of mature disciples. I am passionately convinced that the Western Evangelical Tradition needs to recover a more biblical vision of discipleship if we are to reap the fields that are ripe unto harvest.

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