Introduction

The practice of Christian ministry is an increasingly complex and demanding task. Although the standard pre-ministerial educational program already includes 90 credit hours beyond the baccalaureate, many ministers express a desire for a disciplined program of continuing education that will enable them to integrate their practical learnings in ministry with additional advanced-level course work. The Doctor of Ministry degree has been developed to meet these needs.

Increasing religious pluralism in the United States and Canada as well as growing world religions and the globalization of theological education call for more breadth and depth in the education of Christian leaders. Emmanuel School of Religion is committed to the world mission of the church. Thus it offers the Doctor of Ministry degree with a concern for addressing the need for the continuing education of the servants of the church.

Objectives

The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada considers the Doctor of Ministry degree to be “the highest earned degree for the profession and practice of ministry.” The Doctor of Ministry presupposes the Master of Divinity degree and hence is designed for those seeking to enhance their ministry and their knowledge and competencies requisite for this degree and its goals. The Emmanuel degree is specifically designed to strengthen the students’ general practice of ministry, while also permitting concentration in the form of a major. The purpose of the Emmanuel D.Min. degree is to increase the students’ competence to an advanced level in all phases of ministry so that they may:

• demonstrate an understanding and integration of specific acts of ministry in the light of the Bible, church history, Christian doctrine, and the pastoral disciplines.
• formulate a comprehensive and critical theory of ministry that will enhance both their self-understanding and practice of ministry while continuing to engage in ministry wherein the theory is assessed by practice and practice by theory.
• enhance their ability to analyze community dynamics and personal needs, especially in the light of the availability of new resources, as they develop new strategies for ministry.
• develop and acquire skills and competencies for continuing growth in the practice of ministry at its most mature and effective level.
• strengthen their ability to prepare and motivate others in ministry as the term “doctor” (teacher of teachers) suggests.
• contribute to the understanding and practice of ministry through the completion of a D.Min. doctoral-level project.

Program Design

The program consists of courses from both the Classical Core and the Ministry Core. The difference between the two is a matter of content and approach, but not of purpose. All courses are focused on the understanding and practice of ministry. A total of 36 semester hours are required for the Doctor of Ministry degree. Thirty (30) semester hours are divided equally between the Classical and the Ministry Cores as described below. The D.Min. project is assigned 6 semester hours.

Classical Core

Five three-semester-hour courses are required: one each in Old Testament, New Testament, Church History, and Christian Doctrine, and a second in the area of the student’s choice. Each course will relate the subject studied to significant issues in ministry and provide additional resources from that area for enhancing ministry.

Ministry Core

Five three-semester-hour courses are required in the Christian Ministries area. One course must be in formation/supervision. No more than three courses may be taken in any one Field. Students are encouraged to consider courses in: administration, church growth, clinical pastoral education, counseling, leadership development, preaching, teaching, worship, world mission, and evangelism.

Project

A student must complete a written project, which is assigned six semester hours credit. The project consists of the design, accomplishment and evaluation of a ministerial program culminating in a written report in which biblical, historical, and theological themes are viewed in practice as well as in theory. Within that six-hour block for the project, a one-hour reading course will introduce the student to methodologies necessary for the project. (See The Project Requirement for more details.)

Candidacy

Candidate status means that the student has formed a purpose and a plan for completing the degree and has a tentative topic for the project. Candidacy for the degree and permission to begin the project will be considered after the completion of 18 hours plus the one-semester course, CM 8000 Reading Course in Social Science Methodologies. Hence a student applying for candidate status must submit a Program Statement and a Project Proposal.

Program Statement

The student is asked to submit a two-page statement (typed, single-spaced, double spacing between paragraphs) in which he/she should (1) assess personal strengths and weaknesses; (2) discuss concerns to be addressed in his/her ministry setting as an integral part of the D.Min. experience; and (3) outline a tentative schedule for completing degree requirements.

Project Proposal

The project must be planned in consultation with a faculty member/supervisor. Both the Program Statement and the Project Proposal should be submitted to the Director of the D.Min. Program who will arrange for a faculty committee of three to evaluate both documents and will subsequently discuss them with the student.

Dates and Requirements

Six or more D.Min. courses of three hours credit each will be offered each year—on campus, two in Fall Session, two in Spring Session, and two in Summer Session; and occasional courses at other locations as demand dictates. Enrollment for a course must be completed three months before it begins. A reading list will be sent to the student, usually within two weeks after enrollment is completed. Each student is expected to master the reading list prior to the beginning of classes since D.Min. courses are designed for peer group discussion; they are not traditional lecture courses. Professors are expected to facilitate and encourage discussion; students are expected to draw both on the reading lists and their ministerial experience to enrich the classes.

Each course will consist of six days of classes taught in one week from Monday afternoon through Saturday noon. In order to reduce travel costs, two courses will be taught in a block so that the student may in two weeks earn six hours credit. In most cases by the second day of class for each course there will be an examination on the reading list. Other class meetings will be structured around discussions with particular attention to peer group involvement. A final examination will be a part of the schedule for the final day of each course. An integrative paper will be due six weeks after the close of the unit.

All entering students are required to attend an orientation session on the first day of their first class. The orientation session will usually be held on Monday evening. The primary purpose of the orientation session is to insure that students recognize the role of the D.Min. Program in assisting them to develop an integrated theology of ministry.

Emmanuel recognizes the stress a program like this can produce in students and their families. Therefore married students are urged to attend at least one marriage enrichment seminar during their enrollment in the D.Min. program.

Because of Emmanuel’s interest in the Church’s world mission and the globalization of ministerial education, every effort will be made to include participants with cross-cultural backgrounds within each D.Min. course. In that way the focus of each course on the theory and practice of ministry will not be limited to the concerns of one cultural, social or racial group. Overseas missionaries also will be encouraged to participate in this program.

The first draft of the D.Min. project is due the first week in February of the final academic year; the final draft is due the first week of April of the final academic year. The oral examination will be scheduled between March 15 and May 1 of that year.

The minimum time for the program is three years. Each session offers a two-week (6-credit-hour) block. A person in full-time ministry would be expected to take no more than two sessions or 12 credit hours per year. The program must be completed within 6 years. A student must do at least 3 semester hours each year to remain in good standing.

Student Load

Full-time status is 12 semester hours of course work during one academic year; half-time status is 6 semester hours of course work during one academic year.

System of Grading

Academic Probation

Good Standing and Probation

A minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.00 is required for the Doctor of Ministry degree. If at any time during the course of the degree program the student drops below a 3.00 GPA, he or she will automatically be placed on academic probation. If probationary status occurs prior to the point at which the student has accumulated 18 semester hours, the student must bring the GPA up to 3.00 or better prior to being considered for Candidate Status. If probationary status occurs after one has been granted Candidate Status the student must raise the GPA to 3.00 within the next six semester hours taken toward the Doctor of Ministry degree. A 3.00 GPA is required for graduation.

Suspension

A student on probation who fails to achieve a 3.00 GPA within the time frames outlined above will be suspended. Suspension means the withdrawal of permission to enroll in classes for credit and the termination of any degree candidacy previously conferred.

If students can show extenuating personal circumstances to be the cause of their failing to achieve the GPA needed to lift the probation, they may petition the faculty for a one-semester extension of the probation.

The Project Requirement

The D.Min. project involves the study and analysis of a specific ministerial program in which a student demonstrates his or her theology of, personal sense of, and skills in ministry through reflection on its practice. The project is neither solely a pragmatic nor a technical enterprise. The rationale behind it is that some of the best theology available to the church can and should be produced by those deeply involved in ministry. Its purpose is to show that well-thought-out, well-written studies of important themes in ministry can arise out of the cooperative efforts between seminary and congregation or other church institutions. It should contribute to the understanding and practice of ministry, show a strong integration of the two, and be both conceived and written in such a way that the information within it can be transferred from its close attention to a particular context into another and different one.

Students should begin to identify the area early in their work, but no credit will be given for projects that were started before the proposal was approved. The project proposal may be submitted after the completion of 18 hours and the one-hour methodology reading course, CM 8000. The project proposal will consist of the following:

1. An explanation of its purpose which identifies the particular needs of ministry which prompted the project.
2. A description of the ministry situation within which the project will be pursued.
3. A statement of the goals of the project.
4. An explanation of the design which includes the strategy employed and the time schedule. (The strategy will indicate how a congregation or institution will be involved in the project.)
5. The criteria to be used for evaluating the project during its development and at its completion.

The following requirements for the project apply.

1. Submit a written proposal of 8–10 pages for the project to the office of the D.Min. Director. This proposal must set out both the objectives and the design of the project. A supervisor and a review committee will be appointed to oversee the project.
2. Submit a 40–60 page exposition of the Old Testament, New Testament, church historical and theological foundations for the project with a working bibliography.
3. Develop a study group within the congregation or institution in which the student serves that can be a sounding board as the project develops. Minutes should be kept of the group’s meetings and submitted with the final project.
4. At the beginning of the actual project choose one of two forms of evaluation: (a) an on-site visit of the supervisor or a representative near the completion of the project so that a written evaluation of its goals and design will result; (b) the submission of duplicate monthly written reports by the student to the D.Min. Director and the faculty supervisor that will become the basis of an evaluation.
5. Begin and finish the project in no less than three months and no more than twelve months. Seventy-five percent of the project must be completed at the same site. The student is encouraged to remain in the ministry in which the project is begun until the project is completed.
6. Submit a 40–60 page evaluation of the project, one which is informed by the foundational 40–60 page exposition (cf. 2), that both documents its progress and critically assesses its value in terms of its goals.
7. For the final written project report, submit the 40–60 page exposition (cf. 2) and the 40–60 page evaluation (cf. 6) in a revised form that shows the integration of the two in deepening the understanding and practice of ministry.
8. Present a public report on the project, using appropriate visual aids and demonstrations, to indicate the applicability of the project to ministry. This presentation will be evaluated by the project supervisor, a second reader, and a third faculty member.
9. Submit two copies of the project report printed on archival bond paper to the Dean’s Office to be bound, catalogued, and shelved in the Library.

Calvin L. Phillips Award

In honor of Calvin L. Phillips on the occasion of his retirement from the presidency, the seminary faculty established an award to recognize Doctor of Ministry projects of truly exceptional merit. The certificate of this award bears the citation: “The Calvin L. Phillips Award for the Outstanding Doctor of Ministry Project of [year].”

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