Doctor of Ministry: Spiritual Formation and Leadership
The Doctor of Ministry in Spiritual Formation & Leadership is meant to empower graduates in impact churches, organizations, clients, and communities through practical ministry projects, publications, and a specific focus on leadership development.
Program Goals
- Prepare students to integrate spiritual formation with biblical interpretation, church history, and Christian theology.
- Prepare students to enact personal and corporate practices of Christian ministry reflective of holistic and mature spiritual formation.
- Prepare students to formulate spiritually- formative strategies for furthering justice and cultural engagement in today’s church.
- Prepare students to demonstrate a proficient understanding of specialized course content, which will be instrumental in providing additional relevancy to varying areas of influence within the ministry of spiritual formation and leadership.
Degree Requirements
The DMin consists of 32-33 semester hours with a continuing relations Ministry Capstone Project. The capstone project may last from one to three semesters. Students who completed the Master of Arts in Clinical and Mental Health Counseling degree at Richmont can transfer credits for DMIN7113: Helping Relationships, DMIN8113: Relating Faith & Spirituality in Counseling, and DMIN8123: Theodicy and Trauma Counseling assuming those students were required to take the courses that the School of Ministry considers equivalent at the time of their enrollment.
DMin students are able to select specialization within their degree programs. Students must take all courses within a concentration and are unable to "mix and match" content from multiple specializations.
- 1. Pastoral Counseling Specialization
- DMIN7113: Helping Relationships
- DMIN8113: Relating Faith and Spirituality in Counseling
- DMIN8123: Theodicy and Trauma Counseling
- 2. Ignatian Spirituality Specialization
- DMIN7313: Basics of Ignatian Spirituality
- DMIN7323: Intermediate Ignatian Spirituality
- DMIN7823: Advanced Ignatian Spirituality
- 3. Trauma, and Theology Specialization
- DMIN8313: Trauma-Informed Theology
- DMIN8323: Hermeneutics, History, & Legacies of Trauma
- DMIN8333: Church as Trauma-Sensitive Community
Program Sequence
Fall Semester I: 6 hours
Spring Semester I: 6 hours
| DMIN7223 | Spiritual Formation and Culture | 3 |
| DMIN7713 | Foundations of Doctoral Research and Writing | 3 |
Summer Semester I: 3 hours
| DMIN7233 | Spiritual Formation and Theology | 3 |
Fall Semester II: 6 hours
| DMIN8213 | Spiritual Formation and the Gospel of Grace | 3 |
| DMIN8113 | Relating Faith and Spirituality in Counseling | 3 |
Spring Semester II: 6 hours
| DMIN8123 | Theodicy and Trauma Counseling | 3 |
| DMIN8223 | Spiritual Formation and Mission | 3 |
Summer Semester II: 3 hours
| DMIN8713 | Capstone Ministry Project Proposal | 3 |
Final Project (2-3 semesters)
DMIN8721: This course can be repeated up to 3 times.