I began my Doctorate of Ministry (D.Min.) journey in August of 2024. In an effort to include you in my journey, this blog exists to reflect why I’m doing this, what I’m learning, and how this will impact our church.
Each post will have three sections: The Road Behind, The Present Road, and The Road Ahead.
The Road Behind
It has been over a year since my last post…life got busy! But let me share the good news up front: I have finished all my classes! The way the Doctorate of Ministry at Lipscomb is designed can be broken up into three phases: First, nine classes about ministry: Mission, Justice, Secularism, Leadership (two classes, one on understanding your own leadership, one on understanding influence), Dealing with Change, Personal Awareness, Conflict/Polarization, and The Holy Spirit. I’ve read 45 books for these classes! And many, many papers.
I also completed four residency trips, each 7-9 days where I spent time with classmates and professors discussing the various classes each semester and participating in spiritual retreats, a full day and one evening and one morning devoted to prayer, worship, meditation, conversation, and counseling.
The second phase is where I am now, listed below as “The Present Road”
The Present Road
Part two of the Doctorate of Ministry is completion of the prospectus (currently submitted my third draft, 41 pages) which is the outline and proposal for my Doctoral Project and Thesis and a single credit hour coach class where I’ll read a book on ministry call and have some conversations and do some research on future ministry ideas. For instance, right now I’m investigating what it would look like to do more Spiritual Content Creation, like Theological Book reviews or running a spiritual podcast.
The Road Ahead
Part three of the D.Min is the completion of a project and consequent write up called a thesis (similar to dissertation, expected length 125-175 pages. The thesis is more practical about what you DID in the project, and what you LEARNED by observation rather than what you read in books or theorized from academic research). My current proposal focuses on bringing in the English and Ghanaian church leaders into dialogue about faith and culture and determining if that is effective for deepening relationships. The plan is to do that beginning in August/September of this year, 2026.
For now, I ask you to keep me in your prayers to encourage me on this journey. I am immensely grateful for all the support, both financial and spiritual that members of this church have offered. I can joyfully share that through personal budgeting and saving and several private donations, I’ll be finishing my Doctorate degree without ever having taken a loan for the program (I have paid for 33/36 credits so far!) Thank you all, so much!