Doctor of Ministry
Purpose of the DMin Program
The mission of the DMin program is stated as follows: The TEDS DMin program serves the church of the Living God by strengthening the professional competence of persons in ministerial leadership through integration of advanced theory with contemporary practice.
 Dr. Martin Crain, Program Director |
As such, the Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program is a professional program intended for persons who are in full-time vocational Christian ministry, such as pastors, associate pastors, chaplains, Christian educators, missionaries, workers in parachurch organizations, and evangelists, both domestic and international. The DMin program is designed to enhance professional competence in ministry and therefore includes both research and practice in its purposes. In addition, Trinity is committed to maintaining high academic standards and a sound theological and biblical base for the practice of ministry.
The DMin program is designed as an in-service program enabling students to complete the degree while remaining in full-time ministry.
DMin Concentrations
In addition to the general Pastoral Ministry category, five concentrations are available that focus on particular areas of ministry.
- Preaching (PR) emphasizes the proclamation of God’s Word—exegetically sound, Spirit-empowered, and culturally relevant. Suitable for anyone whose role is primarily proclamation.
- Pastoral Care (PC) emphasizes the relational side of ministry—family life, crisis intervention, bioethics, and spiritual formation. It is suitable for church staff, counseling center staff, or medical chaplains.
- Leadership and Ministry Management (LM) emphasizes developing capabilities necessary to lead and organize ministry in areas of change, conflict, vision, core values, and motivation. It is suitable for various pastoral roles and those serving in ministry or missions organizational leadership.
- Missions and Evangelism (ME) emphasizes issues related to Christian mission—worldview, cross-cultural ministry, church planting, and the urban context. It is suitable for missionaries, church planters, parachurch staff, and others in evangelistic ministry.
- Military Chaplaincy (MC) is a special cooperative concentration between TEDS and the branches of the U.S. Military designed for career military chaplains who wish to focus on the chaplaincy. Detailed information regarding this concentration is available from the Admissions Office.
- The general Pastoral Ministries (PM) category allows students to select core courses from any of the PR, PC, or LM concentrations.
Nature of the DMin Program
Since the DMin is not designed to be a residential program, all classes are offered in one-week intensive class sessions. Each year classes are held on the Deerfield Campus in March, July, and November. These classes are preceded by personal study and followed by a project that applies course materials to the student’s ministry. Exceptions to the nonresidential nature of the program are occasionally made that allow for course work taken during the normal academic year. In these exceptional cases, students can utilize doctoral courses available in the PhD ICS or EDS curricula in addition to the regular DMin curriculum.