Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.)

Portland

• Gateway studies 6

  • PTS 711 Foundations for Ministry & Mission 3 The course focuses on two areas: the assessment of students' strengths, weaknesses, ministry and relational skills; and the exploration of pastoral ministry from a historical and theological perspective. The aim is to give students a solid theological foundation on which to build the rest of the doctoral courses. 3 credits.
  • PTS 712 Research Design & Methodology 3 This is a core doctoral course covering research and design methodologies. Students will learn the basics for research at a doctoral level, including the use of library and internet, writing skills, and selection of methodology for ministry application and dissertation completion. Students will become familiar with proper form and style, and will be prepared to write a dissertation proposal. 3 credits.

• Restricted electives: 18

  Select any six courses from the PTS7xx series, including courses like... 18

  • PTS 732G Increasing Relevancy and Clarity in Your Preaching 3 The goal of the course is to increase a speaker’s ability to develop messages which are true to the biblical text, clear and well-organized, interesting to listen to, and specifically relevant to the listener’s needs. Particular attention will be given to relevancy and clarity. Students will learn (a) how to determine the specific applications of a biblical passage and (b) how to help listeners follow the unfolding of the message. Though students will not preach in class, these practical skills will be developed through instruction, examples, group interaction and personal use. 3 credits.
  • PTS 732K Biblical Revival and Contemporary Ministry 3 Revival is crucial in pastoral ministry, as is evident from the Puritans, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Haddon Spurgeon and many others. But avoiding the legalism of self-started false revival requires a gospel-hermeneutic sometimes missing in preaching from the Old Testament. This course is for preachers and pastors who desire the unusual blessing of God upon their churches through preaching the Old Testament with a Christ-centered hermeneutic. 3 credits.
  • PTS 732L Peculiar Speech: Proclamation and Theology 3 How is Christian preaching a theological endeavor? This course will focus upon a theology of preaching – how does Christian theology empower, authorize, and sustain Christian proclamation? And there will also be consideration of the function of our theologies in preaching. How do our claims about God inform and give substance to our sermons? 3 credits.
  • PTS 737I The Shaping of Things to Come: Rethinking Mission for the 21st Century Church 3 It has been around 15 years since Lesslie Newbigin and David Bosch said that the church is not to ‘undertake’ mission, but to be consumed by the missionary nature of God. According to the emerging missional church, mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God. The mission of God (missio Dei) is believed to inform the character and lifestyle of his people. Indeed missional churches believe that to be the people of God the church must be people in mission, that is, sent into the world as ambassadors of Christ. The mission of the church, then, according to this view, is more than a call to evangelism or social action, though this will be included. The mission of the church as portrayed by the missional church is the call to embody or incarnate the very nature of the missionary God. This will also have implications for how we understand worship, leadership and spirituality. This course will explore a missional ecclesiology for the church in the post-Christendom era of the 21st century. 3 credits.
  • PTS 737L Leading a Missional Church in a Post-Christian Age 3 How do we accomplish the mission of Jesus in a post-Christian society which is increasingly individualistic, lonely, and depressed, where the primary goal is to fulfill every desire? Instead of preaching a mere personal relationship with God, Jesus followers need to engage the whole person in their whole context with the whole gospel. Reformissional churches combine solidly orthodox theology with culturally relevant methods and practice without succumbing to the twin pitfalls of syncretism (being so culturally irrelevant that you lose your message) and sectarianism (being so culturally irrelevant that you lose your mission). The goal is to renew churches so they combine attractional and incarnational, moving from seeking decisions to making disciples who minister the gospel of Jesus as missional communities. 3 credits.
  • PTS 737R Cultivating Missional Imagination and Praxis for the 21st Century Church 3 This course will involve a comprehensive exploration into the internal and external dynamics of rapidly expanding, highly transformative, Jesus movements in history. We will explore the phenomenology of two significant movements in history (namely the Early Christian Movement and The Underground Chinese Church) in an attempt to identify what factors must come together to create catalytic, exponential, growth. This is not primarily an historical study. Emphasis will fall on the interpretation of apostolic dynamics for the missional situation of the Church in the West—particularly with implications for the Emerging Missional Church. We will explore the implications at the level of philosophical systems, theological paradigms, as well as dealing with practical issues facing local churches. 3 credits.
  • PTS 737S Incarnational Leadership: The Pastor as Preacher and Leader 3 This course will be devoted to the study of incarnational leadership which finds expression in the work of the pastor/preacher. Primary attention will be given to the examination of incarnational leadership by looking through the lens of religious experience, theological formulation and hermeneutical construction. Research will be conducted through a consideration of various leadership methodologies and sermon models that exemplify the pastor/preacher as an incarnational leader. 3 credits.
  • PTS 737U Leading from the Gut 3 Leading today (and tomorrow) occurs in a context where the leader does not have ready access to all the answers, solutions, or direction. This is because static situations have ceased and we’ve entered a context of near constant flux and blur. In this reality, leaders must rely on processes of discovery more than skills of delivery. In this four-day course, participants will focus learning on (1) Considering the leadership shifts needed in a context that is dynamic,(2) Coaching as a mindset, skill set, and resource set for a dynamic context,(3) Identifying the leader’s core strengths, story, and patterns of high performance for leading well in a dynamic context, (4) Aligning the leader’s identity, the organization’s needs, and the needs of a dynamic context to map key actions and commitments in the life of the leader. 3 credits.
  • PTS 747H Evangelism and Discipleship in the Contemporary Context 3 It is becoming something close to common knowledge that we live in a “post” culture: postmodern, post-Christian, post-secular, post-hype, etc. All these posts add up to a worldview. Some Christian commentators dismiss postmodernism. Others take it seriously. In this course you will learn that every world view—pre-modern, modern and post-modern—all have inherent within them both opportunities and threats regarding the Gospel. This course will lead you on an interactive learning journey aimed at showing you how to avoid contemporary traps while maximizing the present opportunities for evangelism and discipleship. 3 credits.
  • PTS 752K The Pursuit of God: An Historical and Contemporary Look at Christian Spiritual Formation 3 This course will examine historical models of spiritual formation with a view toward contemporary application. We will study what it means to pursue God, to be loved by God, to build a life of devotion and service toward God, and to help others to do the same. Our emphasis will be on a biblical and historical understanding of spiritual experience, character transformation, and growth in Christlikeness. 3 credits.
  • PTS 752L Sacred Families 3 For centuries, some of the most engaging Christian classics were written by monks and nuns and for monks and nuns, the implication being that a serious pursuit of God required living as a celibate. This thought is being challenged today as many believers are discovering that the relationship of marriage and the journey of raising children are inherently heart-forming and soul-shaping. Rather than the domestic life being a hindrance to our ministry and faith, these God-ordained relationships are being recaptured as dynamic avenues of discipleship. This course will explore this evolution of family life as a spiritual pathway of spiritual formation. This is not a “how-to” course, in the sense of “how to have a better marriage” or “how to be a better parent,” but rather an examination of how the process of being married and raising children produces spiritual benefits in the life of the believer—and how we can recapture these holy callings in the light of a more biblical perspective. 3 credits.

• Dissertation project 6

  • PTS 791 D. Min. Dissertation 1-6 Application is conducted and evaluation made of ministry-related materials developed during the course. The product demonstrates the strengthening of the actual practice of ministry. It includes planning, doing, assessing, and reporting of ministry effectiveness. 1-6 credits.

Total Credits 30