Jesus is the instructor, the cities and country sides are the classroom, the crowds are the object lessons, and the disciples are the students. A real minister is doing real ministry in front of them. People’s lives are being changed while the disciples are being trained. Will this system work? It did and it will.

Do we have to do discipleship training this way? Most of us haven’t been. Jesus could have trained these men any way He wanted to. Most training during that time was being done the way we do most of it now, in a classroom.

We all wonder whether or not everything Jesus did was important for us to follow to the letter. We figure that some things He did just because it worked best for that time period. We are concerned that people won’t respond to things like that today.

Once we start slicing and dicing Jesus’ ministry, we don’t know where to stop. We end up with a copy, of a copy, of a copy, of a copy of Jesus’ disciple training method and an anemic worldwide Christian movement.

Now, once again, don’t get me wrong. I am not talking against classroom ministry and training. Church Schools, Sunday Schools, Bible Schools, Seminaries, etc. can be awesome. But, none of this is going to take the place of hands-on training.

Regardless of what else these disciples are exposed to, they must be put under the direct leadership of God-anointed, God-approved, ministers. They have to get the opportunity to watch and be part of it all. Christ’s ministers have to bring them to the place where Jesus would approve of them as His disciples.