Commentators have emphasized the explosion of Christianity. Africa may he recovering the importance it had in early Christianity. However, growth could be traumatic and challenging. One factor to take into consideration is ministerial formation because the quality of a church's stewardship may depend on the quality of its messengers. Missionary practice of theological education was vitiated by a racism that delimited the range and curricula of African education. Internal critics from missionary homelands, as well as nationalists, challenged this by promoting indigenised curricula, open access and creative pedagogy. By the late 1940s, colonial governments began to found universities. In the next two decades, nationalists and the educated elite made further efforts to liberate theological education. By the early 1980s, proponents of theological education by extension (TEE) essayed to contextualize the curricula and environment of formation, and reduce costs. TEE failed because of a host of reasons, including logistics and the African love of certificates. Other reforms included the formation of regional ecumenical associations to design relevant curricula, and establish accountability and quality control. The Roman Catholics increased the number of African centres for postgraduate training. However, the insurgence of Pentecostalism scrambled the models of theological education. Inheriting “the mantle of Elijah” became a metaphor for short-circuiting long years of ministerial formation. Rapid expansion put much pressure on the need for personnel By the 1990s, churches that had been displaced from the education field by imploding new states, re-entered the field at the cost-intensive tertiary level. The growth of Christian universities has immense import for African Christianity. Recently, educated and professional Pentecostals engaged in inter-regional mission have developed new models of “theological education by engagement” to supplement the mushrooming Bible colleges that hardly seek accreditation. Other title-loving “men of God” acquire doctorates from offshore agents and some fake ones. Old hands can hardly recognize the vibrant terrain anymore!