Dr. John Nissley, Director

The Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) is designed to reinvigorate and encourage you, as you become a more effective spiritual leader while investigating and reflecting on the critical issues, challenges, and opportunities of contemporary ministry.  The D.Min. is a 32-hour, 4 year in-service degree comprised of course content, personal and professional development, research and writing.  Intensive one-week seminars are held twice annually on the seminary's Findlay, Ohio campus on the last week of January and the second week of July.  The Seminars are structured so that you will be engaged with peers and faculty during the morning sessions in theological, biblical, and spiritual reflection and in the afternoon sessions discovering the process for researching and writing your doctoral project.

The Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree program is designed to enhance the practice of ministry for persons holding the Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree or its equivalent, and who are currently engaged in positions of Christian ministerial leadership. The program is practical in nature and is designed to heighten professional competency.  Graduates will be equipped at a more advanced level of theological reflection and practice than that achieved in the foundational work of the M.Div. A program assumption is that the ministry of a local congregation or Christian ministry setting will provide the context for the course of study.  D.Min. graduates contribute new insights to the body of ministerial praxis through practical field research and qualitative writing.

The first two WTS Graduate D.Min. projects were completed in 2002. In the years following fourteen additional projects have been completed. Each one addresses a unique ministry issue with quality research and writing. All but one of these has been published by ProQuest UMI, a professional publisher of academic dissertations. Each project is protected by U. S. copyright law and is available here as a reference for D. Min. students.

Click here to access projects written by our D.Min. graduates.

• Intensive Week Seminars
• Community Peer Learning
• Individual Self-directed Learning
• Ministry Context Resource Group
• Doctoral Project

A unique feature of the D.Min. is that students begin to research and write the major doctoral project from the very beginning of the program, instead of waiting until the end as in other programs.  The goal of the D.Min. project is to challenge the student to think and act theologically and integratively by identifying a specific problem in ministry, organizing an effective research model, gathering appropriate resources, and evaluating the results.  The research should be conducted within the setting of the student's own context of ministry. D.Min. projects have emerged out of such areas as:

• Administration and Leadership
• Church Growth and Renewal
• Christian Education
• Counseling
• Discipleship
• Evangelism
• Missions
• Church Music
• Pastoral Care
• Preaching
• Spiritual Formation
• Stewardship
• Teaching
• Worship
• Youth Work

Project work should demonstrate doctoral level work and display how the student's competence in ministry has been strengthened or transformed.



For the latest D.Min. newsletter, click here.

For more information on the D.Min. curriculum, click here.

Click here to view the Doctor of Ministry Blog