Doctor of Ministry

Credit Hours and Course Delivery

For each of the DMin tracks, a total of 32 credit hours is required for graduation: 26 awarded for the successful completion of a combination of a course on strategies and resources for online learning, six three-credit classes and related colloquies, and a further six for the successful completion of the final project.

Though course delivery will be predominantly online, all three years will include time on Candler’s campus. In the first year, this will involve general orientation and meeting cohort members in the fall. In the third year, the fall visit is constructed to help equip students for the design of their final project and the spring Festival of Learning includes formal presentation and review of the final project. One further residential component falls in the middle of the second year: a track specific residential course offered in the January term.

Final Project

DMin students will be assigned a mentor who will assist in designing the final project required for the degree. Courses in each track are structured so students make steady progress on the project’s planning and design throughout the program.

The heart of the final project consists of crafting an innovation in ministry practice in the student’s location of choice. The design will build upon the issues and questions that arose during coursework, and the final product will serve as an ideal example of how Candler prepares real people to make a real difference in the real world.

Some past sample final projects:

• Racial inclusivity in college chaplaincy setting
• The efficacy of the district superintendent role in United Methodist history and polity
• Adult education and formation in a local church
• The role of “boundary leaders” in chaplain ministry
• The decline and possible revitalization of Wednesday evening suppers in a local church context
• How to help a local church better deal with issues of race and class
• How to help African American congregations become a more hospitable environment, especially to visitors
• Developing and teaching a college course strengthening town/gown relations
• Working with a church and a local elementary school to develop a program that reduces bullying
• Developing a training program to mentor at-risk children in church community
• Developing an interactive, communal approach to preaching
• The prophetic aspects of the pastoral task and the role of preacher
• The question of Christian authority in consumer culture, especially in an age of social media
• The role of the Magnificat in the rise of women leadership in the Alliance of Baptists
• The doctrine of resurrection in relation to the problem of church decline in North America
• The role of violence in the understanding of the peaceful God of the Bible
• Church revitalization in the Ninth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
• Helping a local church become more missional and more sensitive to interreligious dialogue
• Developing a program to help Christian professionals (especially business executives) unite faith and occupation
• Studying and implementing a program of contemplative prayer in a local church
• Church revitalization in a local church setting, particularly around the implementation and assessment of new Eucharistic worship service
• Studying the efficacy of the narrative lectionary for deeper biblical literacy, especially in African-American worship communities

Residence

The DMin is designed to be completed in three years. In extraordinary circumstances, a student may be allowed to complete the Final Project during a fourth year. When such a program extension is granted, a student enrolls in DM799– Doctor of Ministry Library Use and must pay the residency fee (currently $85 per semester) as well as other mandatory student fees for the fall and spring semester of the fourth year. Projects are then presented at the Festival of Learning at the end of the fourth year.