Wesley Theological Seminary

Login | No account? Sign Up
Home :: Academics :: Doctor of Ministry Tracks

Doctor of Ministry Tracks

Print This

Applications now being accepted for May 2008. Application deadline February 15, 2008:

2008 D.Min. tracks:

Projected D.Min. tracks for 2009 and 2010:

Current D.Min. tracks and tracks which may be offered again in the future:

Missional Evangelism

Subject of Focus: Biblical and theological foundations that motivate the church to focus on making disciples of Jesus Christ as well as give substance to contemporary best practices: ones that are sensitive to post-modem sensibilities, take local church story, size, and context into account, and manage to combine ancient passion and vision with twenty-first century awareness.

Core Courses:

  • Missional Evangelism
  • Historical Models of Missional Evangelism
  • Salvation in the New Testament
  • Preaching to Those on the Edge of Faith
  • God's Welcome: Hospitality for a Gospel-Hungry World
  • Making Disciples Across Class and Culture
  • Project Seminar
  • Leading Fruitful Congregations

Spirituality and Story

Subject of Focus: Narrative as a category of spirituality and as a tool by which pastors participate in the work of weaving human stories into the fabric of God's story.

Core Courses (for the 2007 track; projected for the 2009 track):

  • Spiritual Biography and Autobiography
  • Theology as Story
  • Life Story and Spiritual Practice
  • A Word of Silence: Narrative Spirituality and Preaching
  • Narrative Collapse and Restoration: Story and Healing
  • African-American Novel as Theological Source.
  • Spirituality through Negotiating Religious Otherness
  • Project Seminar

Church Leadership Excellence

Subject of Focus: Personal issues and public practices of those called to lead the church. A serious engagement with contemporary secular leadership studies is held in tension with contemporary theologies of the church.

Core Courses (for the 2007 track; projected for the 2009 track):

  • Effective and Visionary Leadership
  • Leading God's People: Lessons from the Old Testament
  • Leadership Diversity for the 21st Century
  • Paul and Church Leadership
  • The Cultural Dynamics of Leadership
  • The Art of Leadership Improvisation
  • Project Seminar
  • The Leader as Communicator

Campus Ministries

Subject of Focus: The unique challenges of the mission field of the college or university campus: working in the shadow of secular science, witnessing in a pluralistic faith environment, meeting the respective needs of traditional and non-traditional students, connecting with local congregations, and long-term financial support.

Core Courses:

  • Ministry to Young Adults and Non-Traditional Students
  • Give a Reason for the Hope: Campus Ministry and Apologetics
  • Education for Stability and Change: Biblical Perspectives
  • The Life and Vision of Howard Thurman
  • Best Practices in Leadership and Administration for Campus Ministers
  • Moral Discernment in the Context of Pluralism
  • Project Seminar
  • Worship for Campus Ministers and Chaplains

Wesley and the Poor

Subject of Focus: Providing church leaders with a new vision and new tools for leading the church in ministry to and with the poor. Note: January case study of St. John's Downtown takes place in Houston, TX.

Core Courses:

  • John Wesley and the Poor
  • The Church and the Poor: A Study in Social Location
  • Hearing the Voice of the Poor in the Bible
  • Pastoral Theology and Economic Justice
  • St. John's Downtown, Houston, TX: A Case Study in Ministry to and with the Poor
    (6 credit hours)
  • Teaching the Church's Moral Tradition on Wealth
  • Project Seminar

Faith and the Health of Communities

Subject of Focus: Leadership capacities of religious professionals working on the boundaries of faith and public health practices. Uses the combined resources of Wesley Theological Seminary, the Interfaith Health Program of Emory University in Atlanta, and Methodist Healthcare of Memphis

Core Courses:

  • Dynamics of Power and Health
  • Salvation, Health and Community
  • Biblical Faith and Human Health
  • Health as Urban Ministry
  • Faith, Flesh, Health Alignment
  • Building Religious Leadership Competencies for Serving
  • Project Seminar
  • Religion as an Asset for Health: The Social Science Perspective

The Arts and Theology

Subject of Focus: Use of artistic and theological resources to unfold theological truth, to recognize the glories and claims of creation, to articulate the depths of suffering, and to enhance the proclamation of the gospel of the Incarnate One in the congregation and the public arena. The venue for this doctor of ministry track will rotate between classroom, studio, stage, museum, and church.

Courses may include:

  • Spirituality and Creativity
  • Integrating the Arts into Worship
  • The Hebrew Bible and the Arts
  • Songs of Zion: Ancient and New
  • The Jazz Tradition: An American Treasure and Theological Resource
  • Redemption and Reconciliation in Contemporary Drama
  • Project Seminar

Pastoral Theology, Care, and Counseling

Subject of Focus: Designed to equip ministers with the theoretical and practical tools necessary for more effective and reflective ministry in care and counseling. It will include a strong emphasis on biblical and theological foundations combined with current theory and best practices. Participants will grow in both theological and clinical competencies, in the ability to reflect as pastoral theologians and in the ability to respond to pressing human needs as skilled caregivers. Four hundred clinical hours in an AAPC affiliated or accredited center or two units of ACPE-recognized CPE are required.

Students in this program will select one of two possible tracks for clinical training:

  • Pastoral Counseling - In this track, students will be required to complete 400 clinical hours in an AAPC (American Association of Pastoral Counseling) affiliated or accredited center. Normally, these client hours as well as additional supervisory and case conference meetings will occur over a period of two years.
  • Clinical Pastoral Education - In this track, students will be required to complete two units of ACPE (Association for Clinical Pastoral Education) recognized CPE from the time of entering the D.Min. program. These may be full time or extended units of CPE. Students will be responsible for securing their clinical settings in consultation with Wesley's D.Min. faculty. The clinical component fulfills 6 credit hours of this D.Min. degree. Students also may apply these clinical hours toward certification or licensure in various professional associations (e.g., AAPC, ACPE, and APC).

Courses may include:

  • Foundations and New Directions in Pastoral Theology and Practice
  • Assessment, Diagnosis, and Psychopathology
  • Theological Foundations for Pastoral Care and Counseling
  • Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counseling
  • The Bible as Source for Pastoral Care and Counseling
  • Ethnography and Transformation of Congregations
  • The Care and Counseling of Couples and Families
  • Project Seminar

Preaching in the 21st Century

Subject of Focus: new disciplines worth mastering, new insights from biblical interpretation, hermeneutics, and communications theory; renewing the church in our time through the act of preaching.

Core Courses:

  • Words and The Word: Theology and Rhetoric
  • Invigorating the High Holy Days
  • The Public Pulpit
  • Biblical Interpretation for Preaching to a New Generation
  • Sermon Series that Engage the Heart and the Mind
  • Harry Emerson Fosdick: A Case Study in the Preacher as Pastoral Care Giver
  • Preaching with Prophetic Imagination
  • Preaching and Multi-Media
  • Leading through Preaching
  • Project Seminar

Spirituality, Medicine, and Ministry

Subject of Focus: Pastoral care is so immediate and pressing that there is little time to reflect on its significance. New sources, tools, and perspectives for the conversation over the pastoral experience of those who are called and equipped to share news about a healing balm in Gilead. Participants will be encouraged and equipped for a more intentional, collaborative, and creative exercise of the gifts of healing.

Core Courses:

  • The Healing Ministry of Jesus
  • Pastors and Health Care Providers: Caregiving and the Meeting of Cultures
  • Spirituality and Medicine
  • Creativity and Play in Pastoral Ministry
  • Best Practices Combining Spirituality, Medicine, and Ministry
  • Providence, Evil, and Suffering
  • Ethical Issues in Medicine
  • Project Seminar

Life Together: Spirituality for Transforming Community

Subject of Focus: One of the most popular tracks at Wesley. This track looks to the transformation of groups (congregations, ministries, communities, the public) through the use of classical and contemporary texts and the spiritual disciplines of the church.

Core Courses:

  • Life in Community: Theological Reflection and Experiential Models
  • Exodus, Covenant, Exile: The Formation and Transformation of God's People
  • Howard Thurman
  • God's Welcome: Hospitality for a Gospel-Hungry World
  • Pilgrimage to the Alabama of the Civil Rights Movement, August 2009 (6 credits)
  • Listening as a Tool for Transformation of the Congregation
  • Project Seminar

Leadership in Multi-ethnic Ministry from a Wesleyan Perspective

Subject of Focus: Designed to form and equip church leaders who are committed to God's intention to bless the human race through racial and ethnic difference. Participants will receive both theological foundations for ministry in diverse settings and new insights for the practice of that ministry. The crucial role of the leader and the value of retooling leadership skills will be emphasized. It is anticipated that graduates will be catalysts for creative multi-racial and multi-ethnic ministry at local and regional levels.

Core Courses:

  • God of All the Nations
  • Leadership in Diverse Ministry Settings
  • Encounter, Exclusion, and Embrace
  • Pastoral Counseling and Care in Diverse Ministry Settings
  • Spirituality that Supports Leadership in Diverse Ministry Settings
  • Worship in Diverse Ministry Settings
  • Models for Creating and Sustaining Multi-ethnic Ministry
  • Project Seminar

Elective Course Offering: A People and Their Land: A ten-day immersion in Native American history, culture, and spirituality (January 2007)

Servant Leadership for Korean and Korean American Churches

Subject of Focus: To strengthen Korean and Korean American pastoral leaders for the work of challenging and equipping their parishioners for active ministry. Special attention is given to the model of the servant leader who finds strength in God and joy in helping others claim their ministries in response to God's grace.

Core Courses:

  • Biblical Perspectives on Servant Leadership
  • The Church Speaks to Power
  • The Theology of the Church
  • Immersion at Church of the Savior, Washington, DC
  • Wesleyan Spirituality
  • Gospel for the Oppressed
  • Servant Leaders and the Ministry of All Christians
  • Project Seminar
  • Evangelism
  • Effective and Visionary Servant Leadership

Spiritual Leadership for the Global Church: The Asian Track

Subject of Focus: Asian realities and mission challenges for the emerging global and local church. Faculty teams from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington and Methodist Theological Seminary in Seoul will introduce pastors to the impact of global awareness on the theological disciplines that sustain ministry.

Core Courses:

  • Mission for the Global Church
  • New Testament
  • Pastoral Care and Counseling
  • Preaching and Worship
  • Project/Thesis Seminar
  • Leadership
  • Old Testament
  • Spiritual Formation
  • Christian Formation and Discipleship
  • Christian Ethics

Academics

Apply Now

© Copyright 2008 Wesley Theological Seminary

4500 Massachusetts Avenue, NW • Washington, DC 20016  •  (202) 885-8600  • Fax (202) 885-8605

Powered by eResources