Structure

The McAfee Doctor of Ministry Degree program is a 33-hour program developed to concentrate on the content of the program’s various components. Students remain in their fields of service for the entire program, coming to McAfee for classes and focused collegial interaction, for individual study at the library, or to engage in consultation with the student’s faculty supervisor.

Faculty Supervision

Each student in the D. Min. program will work with a Faculty Supervisor in their area of specialization. Supervisors provide advising in the program process, collaboration on experiential learning modules integrating research and ministry, and supervision of the Project Thesis. A faculty supervisor will be suggested in consultation with the student and the Associate Dean. All students must be assigned to a faculty supervisor prior to beginning the program. Changes may be made in Faculty Supervision if the student’s Project Thesis proposal changes or requests are made to the Associate Dean. Normally, Faculty Supervisors may teach only one D.Min. seminar in an academic year and are limited to a supervisory load of five students per year.

Experiential Learning Units

A variety of learning experiences to enhance one’s knowledge and practice in ministry are completed as a core part of the degree. These units are completed in the student’s place of ministry and do not require an on-campus presence. Students will participate in one of the three options below:

Seminars

Students will attend three on-campus D.Min. seminars of two weeks’ duration each. The seminars will normally be scheduled for the last two weeks of May each year, but may be scheduled at other times of the year depending on enrollment in the program. Each seminar will be a combination of core requirements of reading, reports on readings, written presentations integrating the seminar subject with one’s ministry, and additional readings and assignments negotiated with each student. Students are encouraged to focus their reading, presentations, and other assignments upon their specific areas of specialization. A variety of assignments may be expected including case studies, research papers on a ministry topic, or examples of ministry from one’s setting (sermons, verbatim, organizational analyses, contextual studies, coaching process, issues of spirituality, etc). All students are required to register for two hours of Seminar Preparation in the semester prior to the scheduled seminar with completion of the core preparation about two months prior to the scheduled seminar. The additional student-negotiated research and writing for the seminar will be complete on a schedule approved by the seminar faculty leader.

Students in the Christian Spirituality specialization have a different seminar structure from all other students in the program. The seminars in Christian Spirituality are described below.

Seminars may be completed in any sequence. Normally each student will complete one seminar each year of the three-year program. The three seminars and their course descriptions are listed below. A common syllabus has been developed by the faculty for each seminar and will be available to the student at the beginning of the semester of each unit of Seminar Preparation.

Project Thesis

The culmination of the D.Min. program is the completion of a Project Thesis. The Project Thesis should reflect the research skills learned in the program and demonstrate the student’s capacity to integrate biblical, theological, historical, and contextual research with a specific ministry project that is practical and reflective of the student’s abilities as a leader and minister.