Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.)

Description

The degree of Doctor of Ministry has become a nationally accepted terminal professional degree for ministry. The uniqueness of the D.Min. program offered by the Graduate Theological Foundation is found in its exclusive orientation toward ministry as a pastoral ecumenical commitment, through specialized study pursued at the numerous residency sites selected by degree candidates. The Foundation is offering an educational experience as a degree program designed specifically to address the needs of ministry in an environment which is supportive and nurturing, but appropriately independent of any one ecclesial body.

Time Frame and Tuition

The usual time frame for degree programs is a minimum of eighteen months and a maximum of forty-eight months for completion.

Tuition: $7,250.00
Project Processing: $250.00
Graduation: $100.00

Admission Requirements

Baccalaureate degree or equivalent validated by a transcript.
Master’s degree in a cognate field of education such as theology, ministry, pastoral care or administration validated by a transcript.
Five years of accumulated experience in a cognate field of ministry.
Completion of the Application Procedure.

Orientation

Residency and Response Papers

The student completes four Units of Study at approved educational venues. Each Unit of Study must consist of 40 contact hours or three semester credits. All courses must be graduate-level, and sponsored by a graduate, professional, or denominationally approved institution with academically qualified faculty. A response paper of 1,750-2,500 words (7-10 pages) must be submitted for each Unit of Study. Response papers should be analytically reflective regarding the relevance of each Unit’s content to the exercise of the student’s ministry. Papers are evaluated by the Foundation’s faculty and an acknowledgement letter is sent to the student. If further development of the paper is deemed necessary, the student will be notified. All academic work must be completed by February 1 of the intended year of graduation.

NOTE: For Paper Guidelines, please Click Here.

Transfer Credit

Transfer credit does not require a paper.

Project Consultant

Option A: Students may select a faculty member of the Foundation to serve as Project Consultant. This option enables the student to receive helpful and pragmatic evaluative feedback from a member of the faculty in the developmental process of producing the Exit Project. The role of the faculty Project Consultant is responsive and suggestive rather than “supervisory” as is the case with academic thesis writing. The faculty person is encouraged to limit feedback to pragmatically helpful hints and suggestions and not to attempt any censorship of the project. The exercise of discretion with respect to time demands is very important for both the student and faculty member. The faculty Project Consultant must give final approval of the student’s work by submitting the Project Consultant’s Report Form. The assessment from the Project Consultant is due by February 1 of the intended year of graduation.

Selection of Faculty Consultant and Nomination Procedure:

The student peruses the Faculty Details page and makes a selection.
The student completes the Faculty Project Consultant Nomination Form 107 (Forms).
Student Services provides the nominated faculty member with Form 107.
The selected faculty member notifies Student Services of acceptance of student nomination.
Student Services informs the student and faculty member of relationship approval and contact information is provided.

Option B: Students are at liberty to select a Project Consultant who is not on the faculty of the Foundation. In that event, the Project Consultant must hold a comparable degree to that being pursued by the student. The student must nominate the Project Consultant by submitting a letter of nomination to the Foundation along with a C.V. of the nominee. The student is notified upon approval of the Project Consultant by the Academic Affairs Committee. The Project Consultant must give final approval of the student’s work by submitting the Project Consultant’s Report Form. The assessment from the Project Consultant is due by February 1 of the intended year of graduation.

Doctoral Project

The Doctoral Project is conceived of as a translation into practice of the insights, values and creative concerns developed during the course of the units of interactive learning and the intervening periods of reading, reflection, and application. The project should directly relate the implications of the evolving relationships within the actual life of congregations or communities of faith and worship.

The Doctoral Project is a demonstration of praxis. Its structure, focus and content, therefore, allows for a wide range of differing forms appropriate to the actual area of the practice of ministry addressed. The form may range, for example, from an original musical score or liturgy to a research manuscript or instructional video. A note about the length of the project is impractical when speaking of video and audio
cassettes, workbooks and manuals, as well as other hands-on praxisbased projects. For manuscript-style doctoral projects, however, the length would normally be 35,000-40,000 words (140-160 pages), double-spaced, footnoted, and with significant bibliographical references of at least 35 sources. It is also a recommendation for the bibliography to include an annotated listing of the 10-12 sources that were key to the development of the project.

In keeping with the nature of the entire Doctoral Program as an open interaction with fellow professionals, the project is a demonstration of practice, an exploration of applied reflections, or creative work rather than a test submitted to prove competency. One copy of the Doctoral Project, in its final form, must be submitted to the Foundation by February 1 prior to graduation.

Non-Project Option

The NPO is available for this degree program. For information on the NPO, please Click Here.

Graduation Requirements

Viewing of the Foundation's instructional Orientation video.
Completion of four Units of Study at any approved educational institution.
Submission of four response papers of 1,750-2,500 words (7-10 pages) on topics related to the units completed.
Selection of a Project Consultant.
Completion of the Doctoral Project (or NPO) and submission of one copy including the Project Consultant’s evaluation forms. All academic requirements must be met by February 1 prior to graduation.
Attendance at the Convocation/Graduation. (Non-US residents are exempt from this requirement.)

Specializations available for the Doctor of Ministry

Degree candidates must commit themselves to the specialized course of
study for all four Units of Study. The Doctoral Project must also focus
upon the chosen specialization.

Applied Ministries

Though some students prefer to seek a concentration or a specialization in their Doctor of Ministry degree program, most prefer to broaden their professional experience by taking each of the four required Units of Study in a different area of ministry training. This is the Applied Ministries program. Doctor of Ministry in Applied Ministries students are at liberty to pursue various topics, either from the concentration or specialization list, for the completion of their degree requirements, and, unlike the concentration and specialization programs, the topic of the Doctoral project is open to the student's own choice.

Creative Arts in Ministry

The concentration in Creative Arts is designed for those in ministry who are seriously engaged in the fine arts — poetry, prose, music, dance, painting, sculpture, graphics, liturgical design — and who see this involvement as integral to their commitment to ministry. The specialization conceives of the role of the arts in relation to theology, spirituality and pastoral practice as active creativity, not merely interpretation, pedagogy, elaboration or embellishment. The artist-astheologian and minister-as-artist is the positive focus of the
concentration.

Ecumenical Ministries

The concentration in Ecumenics is designed for those ministry professionals whose responsibilities are addressed primarily to the developing and nurturing of multi-level dialogue among various faith communities and their leaders, both inter-Christian as well as among Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus.

Franklian Psychology (Logotherapy/Existential Analysis)

The degree in Franklian Psychology is specifically designed for the experienced counseling practitioner who would benefit from an academic study of Viktor Frankl and his logotherapeutic theory and methodology. For those desiring to specialize in Franklian Psychology, the Foundation requires the completion of the Diplomate Certification from the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy and a letter from the Institute verifying that the applicant is in good standing. The Diplomate Certification and the letter fulfill all requirements for the Doctor of Ministry degree with a specialization in Franklian Psychology. Please see the P.R.I.M.E. section for information on this degree and the Viktor Frankl Institute for Logotherapy.

Health Care Ministries

The degree in Health Care Ministries focuses upon interfacing and integrating spirituality and health care with particular attention given to the spiritual nurture of the care giver and the spiritual direction of the care recipient. Close attention is paid to the need for interfacing effectively the health care environment (spiritual-social-professional) and the health care institution itself (hospital - nursing home - detention center). Admission is restricted to those with a bachelor's degree and master's degree in a cognate field of ministry such as the M.S.N., M.S.W., M.P.H., or equivalent. Applicants should have at least five years in such ministries as nursing, social work, social services, juvenile detention, or health care administration. In this program there is a recommendation for the student to attend one full session of the Westberg Symposium in addition to the four Units of Study. The website for the Westberg Symposium is www.ipnrc.parishnurses.org. Contact information: International Parish Nurse Resource Center, 475 E. Lockwood Ave., St. Louis MO 63119, (Tel) 314 918-2559, (Fax) 574-918-2558.

Hispanic Ministries

The degree in Hispanic Ministries is specifically designed for those ministry professionals and pastors that are called upon to serve communities of faith who embody the life and culture of Spanish speaking peoples, with special attention to the unique issues and opportunities opening up in the U.S. in view of this rapidly growing community. Coursework completed for this program must specialize in studies in the field of Hispanic ministry and, to facilitate this specialization, the Foundation maintains relationships with several leading national institutions in this field of ministry.

Liturgy in Ministry

The concentration in liturgy is designed for those charged with responsibilities for liturgical education and planning, and the conduct of liturgy on the congregational or diocese/synod/conference levels. It is assumed that candidates are well advanced in both technical study and praxis.

Management Ministries

The concentration in management has been developed specifically for the ministry professional who is primarily responsible for the various management components of a religious community or institution. This program concentration encourages students to take some work in Christian Management Association approved and sponsored seminars or equivalent sessions at other approved venues (Recognized and Endorsed and Approved Venue Sites.)

Pastoral Care in Ministry

The concentration in Pastoral Care addresses the broad spectrum of ministry within, and service to, communities – parishes, specialized chaplaincies, and a variety of worshiping communities. Of special interest at this time in many church bodies is the emergence of new forms of ministry, ordained and non-ordained, to meet the new contexts of, and challenges presented by, both secular and religious communities.

Pastoral Counseling

The degree in Pastoral Counseling is specifically designed for already practicing professional counselors and pastors who are led into greater and deeper involvement in counseling as an expression and extension of their pastoral vocation and who seek to broaden and strengthen their training and understanding of the psychological dimensions of human behavior. All four residency units of this program must specialize in studies in the field of pastoral counseling, with optional concentrations in either Clinical or Management. The pastoral counseling candidates may use no more than two units of Clinical Pastoral Education toward the D.Min. degree.

Realizing there are over one hundred professional bodies recognizing, certifying, credentialing, or validating those in pastoral counseling practice in the United States, institutions listed on this site have had a close relationship with the Foundation and are now recognized with no further documentation required from the student. Pastoral Counseling candidates are encouraged to join at least one professional body.

Scripture in Ministry

The concentration in Scripture focuses on the place of the Scriptures in the community of faith and worship in liturgy, the life of faith, religious education and spirituality. A background in the study of the texts allows for the emphasis on praxis which is being pursued in the active ministry.

Spiritual Direction

The degree in Spiritual Direction is designed specifically for those professionally engaged in spiritual direction as a ministry of guidance, nurture and support to serve those seeking growth and deepening of the inner life of the Spirit. The program is exclusively committed to the advanced professional education of spiritual directors, retreat directors and religious counselors already in practice. It presumes the candidate has already completed the appropriate theological studies, skills training and forms of supervised practicum or the equivalent. It is also presumed that the participant will have been under a spiritual director at some time in the past. Ignatian Spirituality is available as a concentration. If a concentration is desired, the student must complete two Units of Study in Ignatian Spirituality at an approved training center and the Doctoral Project must focus upon some aspect of Ignatian Spirituality in order to qualify as a concentration in the Doctor of Ministry program.

Jewish Spiritual Direction

Jewish Spiritual Direction is available as a specialization in affiliation with Lev Shomea, a P.R.I.M.E. institution. Please see the P.R.I.M.E. section for information on this degree and Lev Shomea.