Master of Ministry

  • Entry Requirements
  • General Information
  • Course Objectives
  • Course Regulations
  • Course Structure
  • Rationale
  • Cycle of Offerings by year & semester 2008-2009
  • Scheduled Unit Outlines 2008

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Rationale

 

The Master of Ministry is focused on the study of the practice of ministry. There is still reflection on one's ministry practice, so that the dialogue partner of ministry experience continues to be heard. However, the conversation is directed towards an integrated perspective on ministry. The focus is on learnings about ministry in the light of the whole Christian tradition, and the goal is mastery of what Christian ministry is.

Building on previous studies in theology and ministry, completed at graduate diploma level and/or through an undergraduate degree in theology, the Master of Ministry provides students with the opportunity to continue, at a more advanced level, their critical reflections on the nexus between ministry and theology, their own ministry praxis, and the further enhancement of their own ministry. The course places particular emphasis on the development of an integrated perspective on ministry, with students required to critically analyse and synthesise a broad range and complexity of ideas about ministry in the light of the Christian tradition. The culmination of the program is a 15-20,000 word thesis in which the student researches a significant issue in the theory and practice of Christian ministry.

In conjunction with the graduate certificate and graduate diploma courses in ministry, the Master of Ministry supports the attainment of student outcomes implicit in the overall rationale for the BCT's postgraduate courses in ministry. Consequently the skills identified in the rationales for the Graduate Certificate in Ministry and the Graduate Diploma in Ministry are further refined in the masters course:

  • development of the ability to respond analytically and constructively to the critical conversation which takes place between theology and the practice of ministry
  • development of the ability to engage in sustained critical reflection on their own practice of ministry
  • development of the ability to evaluate and apply to one's own ministry practices new learnings and insights into theology and the theory and practice of ministry
  • development of a personal theology of ministry embracing the issues faced in the student's own ministry and ongoing evaluation of the student's assumptions about the meaning of the Christian faith and the foundations of ministry.

Key additional skills which emerge from successful participation in the Master of Ministry program include:

  • mastery of the genres of writing employed in academic discourses about ministry
  • development of an understanding and appreciation of ministry-oriented research
  • mastery of the skills required to undertake graduate-level research into the theory and practice of Christian ministry.

On successful completion of the Master of Ministry, students who have completed a high quality thesis are eligible for entry into research higher degree programs in ministry at Griffith University.