Doctor of Ministry Program

The Doctor of Ministry is an advanced professional degree that focuses upon primary professional training and upon subsequent on-the-job learning. It is intended to help the candidate shape his or her own ministry specialty. The ministry specialty is an area of professional concern in which incresed competence is desired - defined and articulated by the candidate, emerging from his or her day-to-day practice of ministry, eventually deepend by systematic study and reflection, and finally, analyzed in a carefully executed research project. In the development of the ministry specialty and its subsequent study, the minister's community and context of ministry are taken seriously.

Because the D. Min. is an advanced professional degree in ministry, it is for clergy and Christian workers who wish to continue their professional education.

The D. Min focuses on two types of knowledge. One is the articulation of a ministry specialty which integrates one or more disciplines of theological study with the D. Min. student's ministerial activity. For example, a ministry specialty may relate biblical studies and liturgics to preaching, or systematic theology to pastoral counseling, church history and the arts of educational ministry, or Christian ethics to advocacy for social justice.

The second type of knowledge is the development of skills of continuing professional education, i.e., learning how to learn more from the practice of ministry and reflection upon the practice. The four skills of continuing professional education are:
1. Identifying issues of ministry for study;
2. Selecting learning resources appropriate to the issues;
3. Translating what has been learned through study into professional practice; and
4. Forming the investigation process into a document that will be useful in ministry.

The first two skills are given special attention during the admission and coursework phases of the program; the last two skills surface in order as the program proceeds, each of them is latent at every point. It is the management of these skills which reveal the minister's ability to learn from the job in ways that will enhance professional practice.

Finally, the context within which ministry and learning take place is an important part of the D. Min. program, including both the local community within which the student works, as well as, the wider society and global community of mankind.

This program highlights the multi-cultural character of this larger context and seeks to help the student consider and understand the implications of a context for the practice of ministry.

Degree Requirements
* Successfully complete a minimum of 56 quarter units of coursework determined by the student and the student's Doctoral Commitee from the Doctor of Ministry course list and any other coursework prescribed by the student's Doctoral Committee with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale.
* Successfully complete the Integrative Review
* Successfully complete 12 quarter units of the Dissertation/Research Project.
* Successfully complete the degree requirements within the time limit.

Time Limit
The D. Min. program must be completed within 4 years from the time the student commenced the first course, as a regular student. This time limit, at the option of the university, may be extended due to special extenuating circumstances.

Awarding the Degree
When it is certified that the candidate has completed all required work and met all financial obligations for the Doctor of Ministry degree course, the degree will be recommended by vote of the Doctoral Committee of the School of Theology. The degree is granted by Life University's Board of Trustees and is conferred at the university's commencement.

Integrative Review
After the student completes his/her coursework, the student is required to successfully complete the Integrative Review with the D. Min.. committee members. In preparation for his review, the candidate submits to the committee a written description of how his/her courses are integrated with their prcatice of ministry, and a proposal for a research project, including a description of the ministry setting and bibliography. During the oral review, the candidate will discuss this material with the committee.

The integrative review is designed to evaluate the candidate's progress according to the following criteria:
* The ability to identify a critical issue in his/her ministry context.
* The skills to select appropriate study resources.
* The capacity to translate study into professional practice in a community setting.
* The willingnes sto formulate a document useful for ministry in a multi-cultural world.