It takes...
A Plan. “This is what I needed. I had been pastoring for 15 years, leading up to the D.Min. program. I wasn’t burned out. I wasn’t tired. I was just ready to be re-shaped again.” —Ken Nash
There’s a difference between amateurs who dabble at their hobbies and serious crafters who stake their reputations on the quality of their work. God takes seriously the shaping of a leader’s life. No mere tinkerer, God is intimately involved in the crafting of each unique life. When God shapes a leader, it is with a distinct vision and the use of His own hands. He carefully fashions our lives into patterns and uses that stand the test of time. He intends to make a masterpiece every time. When God shapes a leader, the workmanship consumes His full attention. He takes His time, never rushing the necessary, needful, or essential. Rather, each piece—the bright and shapely ones, as well as the broken and shattered ones—becomes something beautiful when touched by the Master’s hand. Through such workmanship, God reveals light and life to the world.
A Plan. Deep Formation • 30 semester hours of structured action-reflection, advancing the 10 Formative Priorities, as participants pursue a learning conversation in their cohorts.
Ministry as Overflow of Spiritual Intimacy • Core Courses: Transformative Habits and Transformative Mission foster inward-to-outward movements that have marked lasting ministry.
Holistic Learning Model • Faculty and formational coaches collaborate to blend academic, formational, and community serving outcomes.
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
Ephesians 2:10
A Plan.
It takes...
Intensity. “The Doctor of Ministry Program basically fans the flame and ignites whatever spark there is in the pastor and the ministry in the local church, heats it up and launches that pastor back into ministry. It propels the ministry in the local church and the pastor as a leader.�
—Matt Poole
Artists who use their hands know this truth: exerting just the right amount of pressure can yield spectacular results. But they know also, too much or too little pressure, and disastrous results can occur. Realizing a design requires a skilled touch, focused attention, and immense concentration. It’s the kind of hard work that separates those who dabble in crafts as mere hobby and those who give themselves to a skillful trade that demands years of disciplined investment. Every amateur knows that quitting is always an option whenever something more interesting comes floating along. Those who would be formed by mastery, mastered by a vision of excellence, know that the only way to deep satisfaction is to give themselves to a calling higher than and beyond themselves.
Intensity. Leadership Feedback-Intensive • Coaches and faculty offer leadership observation and feedback around the program’s 10 Formative Priorities during simulations, field immersions, and peer leadership exercises beyond the classroom.
Field Immersion (Domestic and Abroad) • Participants learn and practice the analytical skills of anthropologists and sociologists.
Ministry Transformation Research Project • This project begins in the first cohort seminar and is completed in the last.
“He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.”
Malachi 3:3
Intensity.
It takes...
Experience. “The biggest thing I learned was how to think critically as a theologian and pastor. I learned how to deepen my love of God. I was able to learn more about the contemplative life and my preaching has improved, I believe, over the last four years because of these formational things. I also think that the program helped me become a doctor of the church and will allow me to contribute to the church, in various ways, for the rest of my life.�
—John Hatton
The myth of the self-made leader, is just that… a myth. Few women or men, who can today boast of significant achievement in their lives, would glibly say: “I got here by my own will and wits.” Instead, they usually boast of the fingerprints of mentors and teachers who have left their indelible marks upon them. The expertise of others, invested one teaching moment at a time, accounts for the very form and structure that makes up many lives. The best teachers are those who make time for us. These are the ones who made room for us as they went about their craft. These are the ones who invested years in obscurity to gain mastery in their learning and practice. These are the ones who are acknowledged in their guilds as bearers of the highest quality standards. Their ideas are time-tested. Their expertise is sought after. These are the ones who leave lasting impressions. And their works are built to last.
Experience. 40 Years of D.Min. Learning • The D.Min. was inaugurated in the U.S. in 1967. Asbury Seminary was one of the first evangelical seminaries authorized to offer it, opening its doors in 1971.
Deep Well of Faculty Expertise • Our D.Min. faculty team is selected from Asbury’s multicultural faculty, totaling 201 regular and visiting professors. We routinely invite well-known, ministry-thought leaders as guests to further enrich the classes.
Thought Leaders Influencing the Church • Faculty members are innovative practitioner-thinkers, sought-after speakers, rigorous researchers, and accomplished writers, publishing more than 109 books in 2011.
Designed by Career Leadership Educators • Asbury Seminary’s program is designed and facilitated by leadership education experts, church development coaches/practitioners, and seasoned theological faculty mentors.
“He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts…He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.”
Exodus 35:30-35
Experience.
It takes...
Tools.
“Asbury’s Doctor of Ministry Program allows you to learn from choice men and women of God who are mature. They have been in the ministry a long time. They simply facilitate and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work of God in your life. The program has many ways of training you or allowing God to transform you. They do not want you to sit in a class only. They want you to experience what is on the ground.”
—Sitali Kakungu
Look around the weathered workbench of a serious crafter and you will undoubtedly find a few implements that have withstood the test of time. Mallets and awls, brushes and saws—these have been taken up by the ready hands of artificers for generation upon generation. While these take nothing away from those contemporary timesavers so readily available in any hardware store today, their durability in design, use, and effect is something that high quality crafters have come to rely upon as they do their art and work. You simply have to have the right tools for the job. When God is at work shaping the leader, the tools He will use are personal to Him. They are tried and tested. They achieve the desired effect every time. His tools are not like ours. Given that the leader’s life is the raw material upon which He makes His indelible marks, He will use a blend of people, pressures, places, and processes to get just the right effect.
Tools. Kindle, Notebooks, and Journal • Participants receive articles, handbooks, catalogs and select public domain resources on a Kindle, along with a course notebook and Legacy Leadership Reflection Journal.
Weekly Leadership Studio • Formation coaches facilitate executive leadership topics—strategic planning, situational awareness, hiring/firing, ministry diagnosis, change management, social media writing—one afternoon weekly during residency to surface best practice learning from practitioners.
L.E.A.D. Initiatives • “Leadership Evaluation And Development” initiatives are planned events—field trips, situational immersions, problem navigation, crisis simulations—designed to test and evaluate the leadership capacity of course participants. L.E.A.D. initiatives require focused commitment to leadership growth and an ability to receive formative feedback from peers and coaches. Peers learn to give and receive feedback around the 10 Formative Priorities of the Asbury Seminary D.Min. program.
“Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15
Tools.
It takes...
Conversation.
“One of the things that has really impacted me is to be in a global-hermeneutical society of Christian believers. I’m from Japan where there’s just a 1% Christian population. Our Christian community is much smaller, and sometimes we lose sight of the world and feel isolated and very weak. Through the Asbury Seminary D.Min. program, I saw many pastors from the U.S. and different parts of the world, and I was very encouraged that I am part of a big community of Jesus Christ.”
—Hatoko Inoue
We can do many things alone. In fact, when most of us think of our schooling years, our own performance in making the grade easily comes to mind. Individual performance equals individual reward. The image of isolated study, even personal and private spiritual disciplines, is all too prevalent in the contemporary scene. But this is not necessarily how God makes a leader—He also uses people. Like iron sharpening iron, God employs spiritual friends in the refinement of one another. Authors, professors, journey partners, family, and peers all make up the formative community that contributes to the crafting of the leadership soul. Like the artisan and trade guilds of old, in which masters cultivated apprentices and apprentices mastered their trade alongside peers, God expresses His own self-giving nature by making the church—called the community of the redeemed—to be His own formative expression in the earth. The words offered and whispered between mentors and peers become the ties that bind the isolated fragments of our lives into beautiful mosaics of diversity, contrast, and support.
Conversation. Journey Partners • Before and after residencies, participants consult with Journey Partners in their ministry communities to jointly examine how coursework matters to life and ministry.
Collegial Cohorts • Our Collegial Cohort Experience (15-20 students study with a faculty team to pursue one critical topic over a three-year course of study) seizes upon both the hottest “headline news” issues on the minds of church and society, while continuing to major on the enduring resources of ministry, faith, and witness—scripture, reason, experience and tradition—so that holiness, formation, preaching, evangelism, and service thrive.
Legacy Groups • The Legacy Group is the basic building block of the Asbury Seminary D.Min. experience. Relying on Wesleyan, formation-in-common practices, peers not only attend classes together, but study in reserved study spaces, cook, workout, and pray together.
“Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
Ephesians 4:11-16
Conversation.
It takes...
Time. “Asbury Seminary’s program is a ministry. It’s a ministry to people like me, who are attempting to give God their best. Who want to be empowered, who want to be able to influence lives.”
—David Bradley
If art that stands the test of time could be made quickly, then perhaps everyone would engage in it. But the making of the masterpiece takes time. Few artists who began to create a work could know at the time that their efforts would be rewarded with the attention and applause of thousands, or that their efforts would be featured on grand stages for many years to come. Some, however, at least intended for it to be so. They put their own signatures on such works. When God shapes a leader, He shapes him or her for a lifetime. Moments of acceleration are punctuated by moments of setback. Promotion and advancement can easily be interrupted by distress and disenchantment. Obscurity and notoriety can go hand-in-hand in the life of the same leader, when God is at work to create a masterpiece. It takes time to do intricate work. It takes time to do involved work. It takes time to do intentional work. It takes time to do lasting work.
Time. A Three-Year Degree • Courses completed in 3 annual residencies—Each one is 2 weeks long. The Ministry Transformation Project is scheduled during one of three annual research colloquia hearings before faculty and peers.
A Cohort Process • 4 Cohort seminars over 3 years, staged as progressive learning conversations.
One Day a Week • Most leaders will need to dedicate 8–10 hours weekly to pursue doctoral studies.
Eight Months Per Course • Course preparation begins at home 90–120 days before the campus-based residency. Postsession fieldwork lasts 90 days following, making each course experience 7 to 8 months.
Classroom, Plus • Campus-based residencies include conventional 5-day class lectures along with required weekend field immersion experiences.
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13
Time.
A Message from the President
Over the years I have taught many students in a wide array of programs. However, working with D.Min. students has been the most professionally rewarding experience of my teaching career. Our new cohort-based D.Min. Program provides you with many options for study, as well as lifetime ministry companions. The blending of academic instruction with ministry application is almost without parallel, enriching the student experience. Thank you for considering the D.Min. Program at Asbury Theological Seminary. I hope to see each of you soon!
President Timothy C. Tennent
Quick Facts
“The Whole Bible for the Whole World”
STUDENT DIVERSITY Men
Women
AMERICAN INDIAN / ALASKA NATIVE
4
4
ASIAN
43
15
BLACK / AFRICAN AMERICAN
40
56
HISPANIC / LATINO
26
17
INTERNATIONAL
74
16
NATIVE HAWAIIAN / PACIFIC ISLANDER
2
0
6
9
WHITE / CAUCASIAN
701
347
UNKNOWN ETHNICITY
88
64
984
528
TWO OR MORE RACES
TOTAL
30 +272320 30%
20% AGES 50+
AGES 20-29
27%
23%
AGES 40-49
AGES 30-39
TOP DENOMINATIONS 93 represented African Methodist Episcopal Baptist Christian Church Christian Missionary Alliance Free Methodist Korean Methodist Nazarene Non-Denominational Pentecostal Presbyterian United Methodist Wesleyan
FACULTY DIVERSITY Our faculty made 25 teaching trips to international seminaries and universities in 18 countries during the past two years. The teaching faculty collectively hold degrees from 37 institutions. We have 201 regular and visiting faculty members, and our 154 adjunct professors hail from 31 states
Men Women
1
1
ASIAN
5
1
BLACK / AFRICAN AMERICAN
2
1
HISPANIC / LATINO
44
9
WHITE / CAUCASIAN
and 4 countries. In 2011, Asbury Seminary faculty published 109 works.
9,000+ ALUMNI 6 CONTINENTS · 65 COUNTRIES · 22 TIME ZONES 50 U.S. STATES · 144 DENOMINATIONS
600+
DOCTOR OF MINISTRY GRADUATES SINCE YEAR 1973
The World, Our Classroom The world is our classroom. However, lifetime leadership doesn’t come with finals week. Instead, it is tested moment by moment, situation by situation. What you have within you at the moment, and your reflexes, is what counts most. As a core feature of the Asbury Seminary Doctor of Ministry Program, we locate participants in various leadership learning contexts and experiences.
Field Immersions Throughout the length of the program, participants are immersed in a variety of experiential learning moments. Whether ziplining on a ropes challenge course, navigating at the helm of a sailboat, or praying quietly in a monastic retreat center, all are designed to enhance the leadership capacity of participants in the Doctor of Ministry Program. Participants travel to locations of the cohort’s choice, domestically and internationally to achieve this aim.
L.E.A.D. Initiatives
(Leadership Evaluation & Development Initiatives) Leaders must understand the social, spiritual and organizational dynamics that affect outcomes. In the Asbury Doctor of Ministry Program, we aim to sponsor key initiatives that allow participants to practice their leadership before, beside, and for their peers. L.E.A.D. Initiatives rely upon structured feedback and are based on practice and evaluation, not merely conceptual leadership learning.
Legacy Groups We seek to grow ministry leaders as whole persons. Legacy Groups serve as a meeting place of the discipleship journey with the academic program. These groups provide the opportunity to deepen authenticity, invite connection, and bear one another’s burdens. Legacy Groups give participants an opportunity to experience the Wesleyan value of community formation.
Words from the Field Our Doctor of Ministry students travel the world, visiting Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Bob Kaylor, ’12 D.Min. graduate, traveled with his cohort to Africa. These are words from his ministry blog. I’ve done a lot of church visits during my years in the Doctor of Ministry Program at Asbury Seminary. We’ve visited mega-churches, hipster churches, downtown churches, wealthy churches, impoverished churches, and churches without buildings. Nowhere, however, have I seen what I saw today.
We headed to Nairobi Chapel this morning for a visit with the staff. They are the church that meets in tents and their offices are housed in a really dingy old building surrounded by mud along the Karen Road. What we found there, however, is a major key to the revitalization of the church.
The Nairobi Chapel team described in detail their vision for what God wants to do with their church and they have a methodical process to get them there. From the moment someone attends until they become a ministry leader, the church marks their progress along the way with clarity, evaluation, and encouragement. It’s a really powerful version of what I think Wesley was trying to do with the early Methodists— a discipleship process that is unapologetic about high commitment, spiritual disciplines, and engagement in transforming society.
Most impressive, however, was the way in which the staff articulated the vision of the church. There was no cult of personality around the senior pastor, though he is clearly the vision architect here. There was also none of the bombastic self-aggrandizement you often see from American churches that believe they have cornered the market on how to do church. The Nairobi Chapel staff humbly told us that they have had many failures and experiments on the way and that they struggle in some areas, but they are crystal clear about what they are trying to achieve. I was impressed with their quiet passion for the work. Spend a few hours with these folks and you’ll never need to go to another church growth conference again.
Kaylor received his Master of Divinity from Asbury Seminary in 2005 and his Doctor of Ministry in 2012. His dissertation went onto be published that same year, “Your Next Move.”
Program Overview Program Phases Asbury Seminary’s D.Min. program uses the concept of “formative stages” as a way to move experiences toward a culminating and unified developmental experience. Four formative stages, plus an entry stage, are outlined below. The D.Min. team partners with the faculty to focus on key formative tasks applicable to that stage, such as retreats, field trips, assessments, online interaction and gate-specific resource notebooks.
Foundational Stage Once admitted, participants prepare for the first visit through a thirty day Ignatian Examen exercise of self-examination. This will be coupled with the first 720° review (by yourself and journey partners), course readings and other assessment tools.
Exploration Stage Residency occurs each year for two-four weeks during each of the first two years of the program. It includes learning experiences organized around classes that incorporate conversational lectures, case studies, retreats, field trips, journals, online chats and blogs, site visits, resource notebooks, and research direction.
Year One (8 Credit Hours) First Residency. Participants will join their cohort in the first two courses based on their cohort theme and the first core course.
Year Two (8 Credit Hours) Second Residency. Participants gather in year two to experience the second course based on their cohort theme and the second core course.
Immersion Stage All participants visit a “metaphor site” that represents key models, current trends, and issues based on the cohort’s theme. Special emphasis is given to situational, systemic, and socio-cultural exegesis of the selected context as a ministry leadership competency.
Year Three (8 Credit Hours) Third Residency. Participants practice “Situational Awareness” on the topic supporting the cohort’s learning objectives.
Culmination Stage (6 Credit Hours) Participants execute and evaluate a transformation project. The writing assignments from the coursework, plus the transformation project evaluation and a publishable article, make up the final document. The culminating experience entails presenting the publishable article at a closing colloquium. The program has three parts: core courses, cohort courses within professional concentrations, and the D.Min. Transformation Project. Participants begin their studies in a cohort, which begins each January or July.
Beginning of your Doctor of Ministry Education
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• Core Course: Transformative Habits • Cohort Seminar I • Leadership Formation Portfolio • Research Prospectus
IMMERSION
EXPLORATION
• Cohort Seminar III • Cohort Seminar IV • Cultural Immersion • Research Data Collection/Analysis
• Core Course: Transformative Mission • Cohort Seminar II • Research Literature Review
Re s i
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: Yea
r Two
Th
FOUNDATION
• Transformation Project Colloquium • Research Report • Graduation
One
CULMINATION
ear I: Y
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Campus visits include a 2 week visit annually, plus a presentation on their topic before mentors and peers in the colloquium and a graduation visit. In the third year of study, students travel on an immersion experience to a location of the cohort’s choice.
Leader Is, Leader Does Every sermon, every decision, every leadership act is evaluated by listeners, peers, and followers. However, leaders are often the last to know what the true evaluation is in the minds of their peers and audience. For this reason, the Asbury Seminary Doctor of Ministry Program prioritizes structured evaluation as the gift that we give to one another.
DOCTOR OF MINISTRY Leading a Legacy
asbury.to/dmin 800.2ASBURY | asburyseminary.edu