Over the years I have wanted to be part of a doctoral program that prepares pastors already in ministry to re-shape/guide their existing churches/minsitries into a Missional orientation. This is easier said than done. Having been through our share of transitions here at Northern in our D.Min leadership, I’ve seen first hand the issues involved in structuring a D. Min program that can be both a.) manageable by the student and yet b.) substantive enough to lead him/her through the theological, Biblical and contextual issues necessary to truly engage ministry challenges. These two issues become doubly important for those of us who seek to train and engage the church into God’s Mission because we don’t want to extract the student out of his/her context for too long – that would defeat the purpose of what we’re doing. And yet substantive training in theology, Scripture and contextual engagement is so important because of the changes any Missional re-orientation will demand.
For all these reasons, I think we have put something together here at Northern. We are bringing together Al Roxburgh, Craig Van Gelder and myself to teach a Doctor of Ministry in Missional Church. I will be covering the theological and ecclesiological aspects. Al will cover the various transitional and leadership aspects. And Craig will cover the various issues of cultural engagement. In reality all of us will be covering all four of these areas as they intersect in what we’re doing. This is huge. The midwest has needed this kind of program for Missional church studies. There are seven courses in total and a Doctoral thesis. Three of the courses are research methodology and orientation within the disciplines. It’s compact yet thorough. Are you interested!! Contact me via Northern’s website or Randy Tumblin in admissions via e-mail at rtumblin@seminary.edu. We’ll be taking approximately the first twelve to join up. Blessings on your journey!!

SPECIAL THANKS!! to Len Hjalmarson who posted about the program at his blog NextReformation, Todd Littleton who did the same  at his blog,  Jamie Arpin Ricci here at his blog Living Alternative and  Brad Brisco, Rick Meigs and Brad Sargent. Thanks for helping get the word out!!