ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Doctor of Biblical Studies in Biblical Exposition
D.B.S. credential
Understand a passage of Scripture and share its message clearly with a church, a small group, or a classroom.
Doctor of Biblical Studies in Biblical Exposition: Your Grant Price
Applications are free. Eligible applicants receive their admission and Grant decision before any one-time program fee is requested.
Published tuition
$24,900.00
$649.00 Registry & Assessment Fee
$149
Doctoral Degree
2026 Life in Christ Grant is active
Ministry Experience, Evaluated Against Academic Standards.
Documented prior learning may be considered when it aligns with program outcomes; every credit decision follows academic review.
Program Overview
About this program
Doctoral study in Biblical Exposition is for experienced expositors who now train other people to do it. This ICAS-accredited program is about the distance between understanding a passage and getting it across. You do the exegesis, then you do the harder part — finding the shape that lets a congregation hear what the text says rather than what you have decided it ought to say. Kingdom of Life University treats that second half as a craft to be taught.
Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
Recognition of demonstrated learning in theology and ministry
Experienced ministry practitioners demonstrate competencies developed through years of service, theological study, and continuing learning. The assessment connects that learning with the published outcomes of the Doctor of Biblical Studies in Biblical Exposition through biblical understanding, theological reflection, research, and ministry judgment.
70
Audited questions in this pathway bank
30
Questions drawn for each sitting
60 minutes
Time available for the knowledge component
24 hours
Interval before reassessment
Theological knowledge and degree outcomes
- Published bank title
- Biblical Exposition - Doctoral Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Doctor of Biblical Studies (D.B.S.) in Biblical Exposition
- Question construction
- 14 pathway subject-bank sources contribute 5 questions each, producing the complete 70-question bank.
How completion is reported
- The knowledge component contributes 40% and assessed ministry experience contributes 60% to one weighted result.
- The reported result is no lower than 80%, matching the 80% degree pass mark.
- Reassessment draws a fresh question set and is included in program access, with no additional fee or limit on sittings.
- The integrated assessment covers the published degree plan; separate course assessments, a capstone paper, and a dissertation defense are not required.
Program Objectives
What you will achieve
Integrate advanced theological inquiry and ministry judgment in service to the church and its mission
Derive a sermon's central claim from the text's own structure and argument
Preach each biblical genre according to the way that genre communicates
Move responsibly from an Old Testament passage to its fulfilment in Christ
Plan and sustain expository preaching across a book or a church season
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Synthesize doctoral-level theological evidence, research judgment, and ministry wisdom for faithful leadership
Produce an exegetical brief and a sermon outline in which the second follows from the first
Preach a narrative text without reducing it to a moral example
Explain and defend the route taken from a given Old Testament text to Christ
Deliver a sermon that a congregation can follow, remember, and act on
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Preaching pastor
Bible teacher
Homiletics instructor
Church planting leader
Major Subject Areas
The fourteen subjects you study, and the ones the ministry assessment draws on
Foundational and Major-Core Subjects
Four foundations every pathway shares, then four that belong to this field.
Doctoral Seminar: Biblical Interpretation
Establishing what a passage says before deciding what to do with it, and the discipline of separating the text's claim from the preacher's prior intention.
Doctoral Seminar: Old Testament Theology
Preaching from the Old Testament without moralising it: narrative that does not tell you its own point, law that is not addressed to your congregation, prophets who are not talking about next year.
Doctoral Seminar: New Testament Theology
The New Testament as material to expound — following an argument in Romans, handling a parable that resists application, preaching a gospel that has three other versions.
Doctoral Seminar: Christian Doctrine
The doctrine that has to be right before the exposition can be, since every sermon teaches a theology whether or not the preacher chose it.
Doctoral Seminar: Exegetical Method for Preaching
The exegetical work that precedes a sermon: establishing the text, its structure, and its central claim, and distinguishing what the passage asserts from what the preacher wishes it asserted.
Doctoral Seminar: Expository Sermon Design
Moving from exegetical outline to sermon form. Shape, proportion, transitions, and the discipline of letting the text's own structure govern the sermon's.
Doctoral Seminar: Preaching the Old Testament Narratives
Preaching from Old Testament narrative without moralising it: handling plot, character, narrator's viewpoint, and the gap between an ancient story and a present congregation.
Doctoral Seminar: Preaching the Epistles
Preaching Paul and the General Epistles, where the unit is an argument rather than a scene, and where following the logic is the main homiletical task.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Doctoral Seminar: Preaching Poetry and Wisdom
Preaching Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, forms that resist propositional flattening and ask the preacher to let lament, protest, and paradox stand.
Doctoral Seminar: Preaching Christ from All Scripture
Christ-centred preaching examined rather than assumed: the legitimate routes from an Old Testament text to Christ, and the shortcuts that misrepresent the passage.
Doctoral Seminar: Teaching Series Planning
Planning a preaching series across a book or a season, with attention to pacing, congregational diet, and the cumulative effect of sustained exposition.
Doctoral Seminar: Delivery and Congregational Hearing
What happens when the sermon is spoken: voice, pace, presence, manuscript use, and the listening congregation as a partner rather than an audience.
Doctoral Seminar: Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
The exegete's own soul: reading Scripture for yourself when it has become your working material, and the long vocational question of preaching to people you know.
Doctoral Seminar: Integrative Theology and Ministry
A full expository unit — a book or an extended passage — carried from exegesis through series design to delivery, with the reasoning at each step written up.
Admission Requirements
What you need to apply
- Master's degree in theology, ministry, or a relevant field from an accredited or recognized institution
- Official graduate transcripts demonstrating advanced academic preparation
- Research statement identifying a proposed area of theological or ministry inquiry
- Scholarly or ministry-focused writing sample
- Current curriculum vitae documenting relevant research, church, or ministry leadership experience
- Three ministry or academic recommendations and a faculty interview
Degree Completion Requirements
Requirements for the Doctor of Biblical Studies
Graduation Requirements
- Complete at least 60 doctoral semester credits in the approved degree plan
- Pass the Competency-Based Ministry Assessment for the degree
- Satisfy every doctoral-core, research-methods, specialization, elective, and Competency-Based Ministry Assessment requirement group
- Integrate theological knowledge with assessed ministry experience under the published result-weighting policy
- Recognize demonstrated learning against every published degree-plan requirement
Culminating Experience
Demonstrate doctoral-level theological synthesis, research judgment, and ministry leadership through Competency-Based Ministry Assessment, combining theological knowledge with assessed ministry experience.
Credit Distribution
| Requirement Area | Credits | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Doctoral Core | 24 | 8 courses. Doctoral theory, disciplinary foundations, and scholarly leadership. |
| Research Design and Methods | 12 | 4 courses. University-wide doctoral preparation in quantitative, qualitative, measurement, and research-ethics competencies. |
| Area of Specialization | 15 | 5 courses. Focused doctoral inquiry supporting the learner's research agenda. |
| Doctoral Elective | 6 | 2 courses. Any doctoral-level major course from any school that is not already part of this degree plan. |
| Competency-Based Ministry Assessment | 3 | 1 course. Integrated doctoral theological knowledge and assessed ministry experience, recognizing demonstrated learning across the published degree plan. |
| Total Degree Credits | 60 | All requirements must be completed within the approved degree plan. |
Program Details
Program Length
Self-Paced
Self-Paced Learning
Total Credits
60 credit hours
Up to 30 Transfer Credits
Published Degree Plan
20 courses
Across 5 required curriculum groups
Format
Flexible Study
Assessment Format
Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
Selected Degree
Doctorate
School
School of Theology and Ministry
Institutional Status
ICAS Accredited
Ready to Begin Your Accredited Biblical Exposition Degree?
Applying costs nothing, and the work you have already done may count. Have a look at what this pathway asks for before you decide.