Program Structure - D.Min. Biblical Preaching

In particular, five elements of the program structure enable it to meet its goals and objectives:

1. Cohort Model

Candidates enter, work, and graduate as a class/cohort, thereby promoting the accountability and encouragement necessary to flourish in advanced professional study.

2. Summer Residency

The program revolves around three three-week summer residencies. Each residency is comprised of:

• Core Requirement taken in the first week that relates to the central curricular strategy (see below).

• Elective taken in the second week that allows participants to pursue their particular interests.

• Colloquy in the third week where, with the other members of their cohort, they reflect back on the learning of that residency and look forward by planning the work and project (or thesis) expected in the year to come.

3. Contextual Engagement

Each residency is followed by significant work carried out in the participant's contextual site and with the support of the participant's sponsoring community. (Candidates must have the endorsement of, and pledge of support by, some community of faith, most often the congregation the candidate is serving). This work consists of:

• Two sermons, and related work, connected to the Core and Elective courses of the residency.  These receive extensive feedback from the instructors.

• Year-end project that draws from the learning of the residency and the sermons and that anticipates the participant's doctoral thesis.

Both the sermons and the project (and in the third year the thesis) are planned and executed in consultation with a group from the congregation convened for this purpose.

4. Collegial Involvement

Throughout the year, participants have the opportunity to interact with colleagues from their class via Web-based forums relating to their course work, contextual projects and thesis, vocational and professional development, and spiritual well-being.

5. Projects and Thesis

For each of the first two years, participants conclude their year's study by completing a project that draws from the previous residency and relates both to their particular context and their intended thesis. In the third year of the program, candidates complete a doctoral thesis that draws together the insights of the previous projects, residencies, and sermons and that both relates to a particular area of the candidate's interest and reflects his or her concrete ministry context.