CTS began offering the Doctor of Ministry (DMin) degree in 1968, becoming one of the first ATS-accredited seminaries to do so. Since then, the program has graduated more than 300 distinguished students serving in a wide variety of ministry settings, including congregations, denominational and ecumenical ministries, chaplaincy, educational institutions, and not-for-profit organizations. After a significant revision to the program in 2015 to make it more affordable and accessible to ministry professionals, the program is thriving.
Prof. Scott Seay, Associate Professor of the History of Christianity and Director of Library and Information Services, directs CTS’s DMin program and recently oversaw the completion of a five-year evaluation of its recent revision. Following this evaluation process, Prof. Seay said that he is looking forward to building on the program’s success with a broader and deeper curriculum specific for DMin students and an even stronger cohort experience.
As of the Fall 2020 semester, the DMin has the the second largest enrollment of any degree program at CTS. Student satisfaction and retention in the program remain high, which Prof. Seay credits to strong faculty support for the program, robust learning communities organized into cohorts, and flexible learning opportunities. He explained, “The program offers students the opportunity to tailor their programs to meet individualized learning objectives, and most of its courses are offered as week-long intensives and independent studies with faculty experts, which are benefited by ever-increasing online support and resources.”
Prof. Seay considers it a privilege to work with the DMin students, whom he described as “hard-working, thoughtful professionals who are eager to learn new skills for even more effective ministry.”
The DMin program at CTS offers a rigorous and practical course of study for experienced professionals in Christian ministry. In addition to three required seminars, students take seven elective courses to focus their work (for a total of 30 credit hours). All of these courses combine academic study with their experience in ministry. The degree also requires a Project in Ministry, which culminates in a written dissertation that contributes to the growing body of scholarship on the practice of ministry.
Students in the DMin program have the opportunity to focus on one of four general areas of strength in the CTS curricula: preaching, prophetic leadership, pastoral care, and biblical studies for ministry. Depending on their focus, students are able to work with different members of the seminary’s faculty and have the opportunity to learn from CTS’s two clinically accredited counseling programs and its PhD program in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric.
Having spent 20 years in congregational ministry and 15 in graduate theological education, Prof. Seay brings considerable knowledge and experience to his role as director. Prof. Seay is an academic historian with a particular interest in the history of the Stone-Campbell Movement and related groups. As Director of Library and Information Services at CTS, he said that his work is moving in the direction of the intersection of information literacy and ministry. His forthcoming book is an edited and annotated collection of letters that span the 38-year career of Buena Rose Stober, a 20th-century Disciples missionary in the Belgian Congo.
Learn more about the DMin program here.
