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2018-2019 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Ministry, M.A.M.
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 Return to: Majors and Minors
Purpose
The Master of Arts in Ministry degree program is intended to prepare students for specialized church ministry. The goal of the program is to increase students’ knowledge about the church and its ministries and to foster their ability to work meaningfully and creatively in a specialized area of church ministry. Presently, the M.A.M. program has eleven specialized ministry concentrations and the option for a custom concentration. All concentrations share a common core of required courses in theology, Bible, church history and the social context of ministry. The concentrations have additional specialized requirements and a supervised internship appropriate to the area of specialization
The concentrations are
- Christian Education: Intended primarily for those preparing for professional leadership as directors or as ministers of Christian education.
- Urban Ministry: Intended for those preparing to work in community ministries in urban and peri-urban settings.
- Social Justice: Intended for those preparing to lead ministries in congregations, communities, the public realm and other creative situations addressing systematic injustice.
- Evangelism and Mission: Intended for those preparing to lead congregations and Christian organizations to engage in evangelistic ministries and mission outreach.
- Christian Spirituality: Intended for those preparing to engage and reflect critically on Christian spirituality and to walk with others in ministries of spiritual formation.
- Custom Concentration: Intended to respond to individual student needs and goals while also providing a platform to ensure adequate foundational studies for ministry.
- African-American Church Concentration: Intended to broaden students’ understanding of African-American religious experiences as well as prepare for leadership in the African-American church or related social agencies.
- Church/Nonprofit Management Concentration: Provides high quality business education to students in tandem with critical theological preparation.
- Hispanic Studies Concentration: Intended specifically for students who want to prepare for ministry in a bilingual and bicultural setting.
- Pastoral Care Concentration: Allows Perkins students to concentrate on theory, skills and practices of pastoral care to equip them for specialized pastoral care ministries.
- Social Innovation and Nonprofit Engagement Concentration: Educates students to apply intellectual rigor and integrity to communication theory and practice research, strategy, consulting, and advocacy in light of critical theological inquiry.
- Women’s and Gender Studies Concentration: An interdisciplinary graduate-level concentration designed to enhance the lives of students, both female and male, by facilitating the integration of theories about gender and knowledge about the roles and achievements of women, both past and present, in the global society.
Learning Outcomes
- Interpret scripture. Students will interpret scripture effectively, using a wide variety of approaches informed by an understanding of biblical history, the social and cultural realities of ancient Israel and the early church, and the interpreter’s own context.
- Comprehension of history and culture. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the life and thought of the Christian community in its historical expressions and of the interrelations between Christianity and global culture.
- Theological and ethical reflection. Students will be able to engage in constructive theological and ethical reflection, informed by an understanding of the content of the Christian faith in its historical and contemporary articulations, as well as current Christian thinking on philosophical, scientific, political and cultural developments.
- Specialized leadership roles. Students will demonstrate the capacity to function successfully in various roles of church leadership, evidencing a critical awareness of the social context of their ministry and the capacity to have an impact on that context.
- Spiritual formation. Students will demonstrate familiarity with and appreciation for the church’s spiritual tradition and the disciplines of prayer and devotion, and exhibit a capacity to evaluate specific instances of spiritual practice from a theological standpoint.
Requirements for Admission
The number of new students to be admitted each year is determined by policies of selection established by the faculty. The following considerations are decisive:
- Seriousness of purpose, emotional stability and likelihood of satisfactory performance in the degree program and of responsible membership in the Perkins and Southern Methodist University community.
- Presence of and potential for growth in those emotional, moral and spiritual qualities requisite for the profession of ministry and the absence of patterns of personal behavior tending to be seriously disabling to ministry.
- Academic ability as shown by a minimum GPA of 2.750 (on a 4.000 scale) in a well-balanced curriculum. Normally, an applicant must hold the B.A. or equivalent degree from a college or university which is accredited by one or more of the organizations recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (chea.org). An applicant with a degree from an unaccredited school may be considered if the case is exceptional. It is particularly important that the student have an adequate liberal arts preparation.
- A reasonable program of financial support that will enable the student to be devoted properly to the main business of his or her theological training.
Persons who have already graduated from college or who are considering the ministry as a second career are given special consideration by the admissions committee, especially with regard to the adequacy of their pretheological curriculum.
Beyond the evidence of ability furnished by transcripts, applicants may be asked to demonstrate their preparation for theological study by adequate performance on either the GRE graduate school entry exam or the Miller Analogies Test.
To supplement the data furnished by transcripts, letters of reference and other written material, a personal interview with the director of student services or with a person designated by the director may be required of the applicant.
Requirements for Graduation
The M.A.M. degree requires 49 credit hours of academic credit, inclusive of a supervised internship. Students are also required to participate in a spiritual formation group for two terms, normally beginning during the first year of study, for one credit hour of credit earned in the spring term.
A minimum cumulative GPA of 2.000 is required for graduation. The same average is required for continuation in the program beyond the first year.
All requirements for the M.A.M. degree must be completed within five calendar years from the time of initial registration.
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Course Requirements
The required 49 credit hours are distributed as follows:
Christian Education Concentration Courses
Electives
- Designated elective: 3 credit hours of concentration-specific courses
- Unrestricted electives: 15 credit hours
Urban Ministry Concentration Courses
Elective Courses
- Designated electives: 9 credit hours of concentration-specific courses
- Unrestricted electives: 12 credit hours
Social Justice Concentration Courses
Elective Courses
- Designated electives: 6 credit hours of concentration-specific courses
- Unrestricted electives: 9 credit hours
Evangelism and Mission Concentration Courses
Elective Courses
- Designated electives: 6 credit hours of concentration-specific courses
- Unrestricted electives: 9 credit hours
Christian Spirituality Concentration Courses
Elective Courses
- Designated electives: 12 credit hours of concentration-specific courses
- Unrestricted electives: 12 credit hours
Custom Concentration Courses
- 15 credit hours of concentration-specific courses
- 12 credit hours of unrestricted electives
Note
The Custom Concentration must be planned out at the beginning of the student’s career necessitating academic advising upon entry into the program.
African-American Church Concentration Courses
Elective Courses
12 credit hours of unrestricted electives
12 credit hours of concentration-specific courses from the following list:
Note
The African-American Church Concentration requires completion of an internship in an approved African-American church or related setting.
Church/Nonprofit Management Courses
9 credit hours of unrestricted electives
14 credit hours of concentration-specific courses from the following list:
Elective Courses
4 credit hours from any two of the following:
Hispanic Studies Concentration Courses
12 credit hours of unrestricted electives
15 credit hours of concentration-specific courses from the following list:
Note
The Hispanic Studies Concentration requires the completion of an internship in a Hispanic setting if possible, or, if that is not possible, serve an internship in which, by agreement, no less than one-third of the student’s working time is spent in a Hispanic congregation or project within the community. If neither of these is possible, the student must do a 40- to 60-hour interethnic experience in a Hispanic church under supervision arranged by the director of the Hispanic/Latin@ Ministries Program.
Pastoral Care Concentration Courses
15 credit hours of concentration-specific courses from the following list:
Elective Courses
6 credit hours of unrestricted electives
6 credit hours from any two of the following:
Note
Students in the Pastoral Care Concentration must:
- Complete a practicum in an appropriate setting.
- Submit a paper to the concentration adviser at the end of the program. This paper should explore the interdisciplinary nature of the pastoral care field, focusing on all four divisions within Perkins’ course of study. In this paper, the student is expected to articulate her or his biblical paradigm in pastoral care. The appendix to the paper should include a description of the student’s efforts/participation in proactive self-care activities related to spiritual, physical and emotional health. Counseling by staff at the SMU Memorial Health Center or a licensed therapist of the student’s choice is strongly encouraged as a part of the certificate program and as a means of self-care.
- Engage in an oral defense of the interdisciplinary paper. Faculty from divisions I, II and III will be invited on a rotation basis to participate in the oral defense. Students working on the concentration should prepare for this integrative exercise from their very first introduction to courses in Division I – The Biblical Witness, Division II – The Heritage of the Christian Witness in Its Religious and Cultural Context, and Division III – Interpretation of the Christian Witness.
Social Innovation and Nonprofit Engagement Concentration Courses
15 credit hours of concentration-specific courses:
Elective Courses
12 credit hours of unrestricted electives
12 credit hours from courses on the following list:
Note
The Social Innovation and Nonprofit Engagement Concentration requires the completion of an internship in an appropriate nonprofit setting identified and approved by the Intern Office.
Women’s and Gender Studies Concentration Courses
15 credit hours of concentration-specific courses:
Elective Courses
- 12 credit hours of concentration-specific courses that are Women’s and Gender Studies graduate-level approved core courses and Dedman College undergraduate departmental courses.
- 12 credit hours of unrestricted electives
Note
The Women’s and Gender Studies Concentration requires the completion a major research project that addresses issues concerning women and/or gender. A performance or exhibit may also constitute the major project, with approval of the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.
Students may substitute an internship for one of the four courses and the associated major research project. The supervised internship must involve an organization or setting that addresses issues concerning women and/or gender.
Total: 49 Credit Hours
Note: Those seeking ordination as a deacon in the United Methodist Church will also need to take a worship course (three credit hours), United Methodist studies courses (six credit hours) and an evangelism course (three credit hours). These hours replace all or part of the unrestricted electives listed above.
Spiritual Formation
All students completing the M.A.M. degree are required to register for the program in spiritual formation. Students are required to attend a daylong orientation held in conjunction with the new student orientation program and are then enrolled in formation groups. These groups meet weekly throughout the fall and spring terms during the first year of the program.
Led by facilitators in groups of five to 10, students share in a formative experience designed to provide them with the framework of a common experience, emphasizing the following:
- The opportunity to explore the vital connection between spiritual formation and ministry.
- Opportunities to explore the central genius of spiritual traditions.
- The development of a critical capacity that will allow the student to evaluate those traditions theologically.
- Broad-based exposure to a variety of spiritual disciplines.
- Experience in prayer and devotion.
Students are evaluated and given credit by the group facilitators on the basis of attendance and engagement with the subject matter of the formation process. Students should register in both the fall and spring of the first year. Exceptions to this rule must be requested in writing from the director of spiritual life and formation.
Internship
The M.A.M. program requires the satisfactory completion of a supervised internship in a church or agency setting appropriate to the student’s area of specialization. The internship is nine months long, over the fall and spring terms of one academic year, and it carries six credit hours of academic credit. While the student registers for three hours of internship course credit during each of the two consecutive terms, the internship degree requirement is satisfied only upon completion of the six credit hours.
ST 6301 – Interpretation of the Christian Message I is a prerequisite for the Internship course. The following courses are recommended in preparation for the internship course: XS 6310 - The Church in Its Social Context , two courses in biblical studies, spiritual formation and at least one of the foundational courses for the student’s specialized degree concentration.
All internships are coordinated through the Perkins Intern Office. The placement process begins in September when a prospective intern is invited to apply for an internship that would begin in August of the following year. A student completes an application and interviews with the intern faculty who will determine throughout the placement process the student’s readiness for internship. If at any point during the placement process, the student exhibits patterns of behavior that suggests that the student needs further preparation prior to participating in an internship, the intern faculty may conclude that a student is not ready for an internship. The intern faculty will engage in a consultative process to determine appropriate measures to help the student become prepared for internship.
If a student declines two faculty-approved intern placements in a year, the Intern Program will remove the student from the placement process for that year. A student who is removed from the placement process is encouraged to re-apply for an internship the following year; however, the student must accept a subsequent faculty approved intern placement.
A student demonstrating readiness for an internship is encouraged to pursue placement possibilities for discussion in the initial interview with the intern faculty. Internship placements include church, agency and hospital chaplaincy settings. During the placement process serious consideration is given to the student’s denominational preference.
The M.A.M. internship is part-time, requiring 20 hours per week (inclusive of the internship seminar) of work in the internship setting. All interns receive a stipend.
Master of Arts in Ministry students may complete the Perkins internship requirement (six credit hours) by successful completion of either:
- An introductory unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (Level 1), or
- An extended unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (Level 1). In most cases the unit schedule is 20 hours per week, between seven and nine months, within the span of August and May.
Master of Arts in Ministry students who choose either option to fulfill the Perkins internship requirement may not also receive academic credit for PC 7639 – Basic Clinical Pastoral Education .
An intern faculty member will be assigned to the CPE intern and will consult with the CPE certified educator regarding satisfactory completion of the internship requirement.
During the internship course, students do ministry under supervision and reflect theologically on their experiences. As the interns become more competent and self-confident in carrying out the tasks of ministry and gain theological, emotional and spiritual maturity in their understanding of it, they prepare themselves to provide resourceful, faithful Christian leadership in the world.
The design of the Perkins Intern Program assumes interns to be adult learners who can assess and value their past experiences and vocational goals and build on these creatively and systematically in pursuing the learning opportunities offered at their particular internship site. To that end, the internship course curriculum specifies a set of required competencies under each of three categories (be aware, think theologically and lead faithfully), tailored to the student’s particular degree concentration.
The Perkins Intern Program faculty partners with staff and laity at congregations and agencies and with mental health professionals experienced in church family systems to provide supportive supervision for students during internship. The mentor pastor and lay teaching committee assigned to each intern receive orientation and training as part of the intern program.
A student’s internship begins with a required two-day Intern Orientation conducted in August by the intern faculty.
Admission to Candidacy
M.A.M. students will be reviewed for admission to formal candidacy for the degree in the fall term following the completion of 18 credit hours of academic work. A student will be admitted to candidacy provided that he or she is not on probation and is not disqualified for having given insufficient evidence of fitness for ministry (described in the Fitness for Ministry section below). Admission to formal candidacy signifies that the student is proceeding satisfactorily in her or his work and may be considered for the degree upon completion of all the requirements, but does not obligate the seminary to grant the degree.
Fitness for Ministry
Beyond the formal academic requirements, each student is expected to show evidence of personal fitness for ministry. This fitness may be defined positively as the presence of emotional, moral and spiritual qualities requisite for the profession of ministry. A lack of fitness for ministry may be demonstrated by patterns of personal behavior that inhibit effective ministry. Examples of such patterns include irresponsibility in social and/or professional relations and emotional instability. Formally, the presence of patterns of personal behavior tending to be seriously disabling to ministry may be grounds for the faculty to disqualify a student from graduation with the M.A.M. degree, or, if the prognosis justifies it, to defer awarding the degree until such time as the disabling pattern is overcome.
It is to be emphasized that personal fitness for ministry is not defined narrowly in terms of a particular form of piety or style of personal behavior. Nor does Perkins assume the role that belongs properly to those agencies of the church that evaluate candidates for ordination or for professional service to the church. When asked, it assists such agencies in their evaluation of candidates.
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Return to: Majors and Minors
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