Program Duration and Location

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The Doctor of Ministry degree consists of 30 credit hours of study and the completion of a ministry project and thesis. Students may begin the program in any semester. A typical program includes three semesters of coursework and three semesters of project development, implementation, and completion.

Credits are earned in three ways: in person, online, or with a combination of both in-person and online courses. Online classes are typically semester-long experiences and on-campus classes meet in week-long intensive formats. Occasional regional sites and travel seminars are also offered.

Curriculum

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The Doctor of Ministry is awarded after the successful completion of 21 credits of coursework and 9 credits for the project-thesis.

The 21 credits of coursework consist of one class in each of the foundational areas (Place, Process, and Future, with courses designated to fulfill each), a methods class, and an additional 9 credits of electives.

 

Place courses: Interpret the culture and context of your ministry through historical, social, biblical and theological analysis.

Process courses:  Enhance proclamation and ministry practices by gathering your faith community’s stories and discerning opportunities for transformation.

Future courses: Enable a future that ensures social justice, personal and societal health and wholeness, and individual spiritual formation by learning to measure growth and change and to respond with coherence and creativity. 

 

Students are encouraged to create a custom area of focus by selecting electives that build upon one another in areas such as Worship, Spirituality, Preaching, Congregational Growth and Community Development, Social Justice, or Ministerial Leadership.

A series of 1.5 credit electives are also available that update student knowledge in the central disciplines of their seminary education. These courses include topics such as: Renewing Biblical Literacy, Renewing Social Consciousness, Renewing Liturgical Practices, Renewing Historical Perspectives, Renewing an Understanding of Family Systems, Renewing Theological Reflection and Writing, Renewing a Practice of Clergy Health and Wholeness.

In the 9-credit project-thesis, DMin candidates develop and implement a collaborative ministry practice project conducted in their chosen context. This phase of the program requires 9 credit hours, including prospectus development, implementation and evaluation of the project, and the writing of a thesis with a faculty mentor. This project culminates in a publishable-quality thesis about one’s process, analysis, and results.

Learning Formats

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Online courses connect teachers to students and students to students through real-time virtual classrooms. Instructors and students share their screens (to show powerpoint, videos, lecture notes, etc.). Students can host the class, participate in small group discussion, and give in-class presentations. Asynchronous threaded discussions, pre-recorded lectures, and posted reading and writing assignments supplement the video classroom experience.

In-person courses are intensive, seminar-style classes that usually meet for a week. These classes are scheduled in October, January, March, or July. Students complete reading and written assignments before and after gathering with colleagues and professors for a week of learning, worship, and socializing. These courses take place in a face-to-face setting, usually at our Madison, NJ campus, but occasionally in North Carolina, Washington state, New York City, and abroad.

Students are can complete some courses online and other courses face-to-face. This model may be ideal for those students wanting a high degree of flexibility in the content, timing, or delivery of the courses they take.

 

A program that mixes online and in-person learning could be designed in this way:

 

Semester 1

• One week-long on campus intensive that meets the Place requirement
• One full semester online course that meets the Process requirement

Semester 2

• One week-long intensive that meets the Future requirement
• One full semester online elective*

Summer 1

• One week-long intensive Methods course
• One week-long intensive elective*
• One online elective*

       [Total 2 weeks on campus]

 

For students needing more flexibility in terms of the timing of study,

a fully intensive in-person program could be designed in this way:

 

Semester 1

• One week-long intensive that meets the Place requirement
• One week-long intensive that meets the Process requirement

       [Total 2 weeks on campus]

Semester 2

• One week-long intensive that meets the Future requirement
• One week-long intensive elective*

       [Total 2 weeks on campus]

Summer 1

• One week-long intensive Methods course
• Two week-long intensive electives*

       [Total 3 weeks on campus]

Project Phase

• Typically three semesters with periodic in-person and/or online meetings with faculty mentor and other project phase students with similar projects

 

*An elective course can also be “renewing” courses that are 1.5 hours each. Two of these can be taken in place of a 3 hour course. On campus renewing courses will be half-day one week-long intensives. Online renewing courses will meet for 6 weeks online.