Instead of being Johnny Raincloud about academia, I’d like to offer Jesus’ method for teaching his disciples, taken from The Master Plan of Evangelism, by Robert E. Coleman:
Having called his men, Jesus made a practice of being with them. This was the essence of his training program — just letting his disciples follow him.
When one stops to think of it, this was an incredibly simple way of doing it. Jesus had no formal school, no seminaries, no outlined course of study, no periodic membership classes in which he enrolled his followers. None of these highly organized procedures considered so necessary today entered into his ministry. Amazing as it may seem, all Jesus did to teach these men his way was to draw them close to himself. He was his own school and curriculum.
What implications might this have for our ministry/missions/disciple training today? Lots, I think.