ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership
D.Min. credential
Develop your long-term pastoral leadership through a professional doctorate focused on the life and mission of churches and ministries.
Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership: 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
The Doctor of Ministry in church leadership is for senior leaders researching organisational health and change. Senior leadership fails in patterns, and most of them are structural rather than personal. This ICAS-accredited Kingdom of Life University pathway covers leadership theology assessed rather than borrowed, organisational systems in congregations, change that survives your departure, conflict at institutional scale, succession, resilience, and the honest measurement of organisational health.
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 Ministry in Church Leadership 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
- Doctor of Ministry: Church Leadership - Doctoral Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) in Church Leadership
- 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
Assess leadership literature theologically rather than adopting it uncritically
Explain congregational behaviour in systemic rather than individual terms
Plan change that survives your own departure
Steward institutions, including through succession
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Synthesize doctoral-level theological evidence, research judgment, and ministry wisdom for faithful leadership
Produce a systems analysis of a congregation or agency
Design a change process with institutionalisation and succession built in
Evaluate organisational health with a defensible instrument
Complete a doctoral project that evidences durable organisational change
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Senior pastor
Executive ministry leader
Denominational executive
Leadership educator
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
Exegesis of the texts leadership literature most often misuses, done carefully enough to stop the misuse.
Doctoral Seminar: Old Testament Theology
The Old Testament's institutional history — monarchy, priesthood, prophecy — as a study in how offices corrupt.
Doctoral Seminar: New Testament Theology
The New Testament on authority and church order, including what it does not settle and later polities had to decide.
Doctoral Seminar: Christian Doctrine
The doctrine of power and accountability, which is the theological core of everything else in this pathway.
Doctoral Seminar: Leadership Theology
Leadership theology at doctoral level, covering the theological assessment of leadership literature and the account of authority it presupposes.
Doctoral Seminar: Organizational Systems in Ministry
Organisational systems in ministry, covering systems thinking, anxiety in congregations, triangulation, and structural rather than individual explanation.
Doctoral Seminar: Leading Sustained Change
Leading change that lasts, covering sequencing, institutionalisation, and the reasons change commonly reverses after the leader's attention moves.
Doctoral Seminar: Conflict and Reconciliation at Scale
Conflict and reconciliation at institutional scale, covering mediation, process design, and situations where reconciliation is not achievable.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Doctoral Seminar: Succession and Institutional Stewardship
Succession and institutional stewardship, covering planning, handover, founder transitions, and the obligations of a leader to a successor.
Doctoral Seminar: Leader Resilience and Formation
Leader resilience and formation, covering the evidence on ministry attrition, the specific hazards of senior office, and sustainable practice.
Doctoral Seminar: Evaluating Organizational Health
Evaluating organisational health, covering instruments, their validity, and the difference between measuring health and measuring activity.
Doctoral Seminar: Doctoral Leadership Project
The doctoral leadership project, covering design, intervention within a real organisation, evaluation, and the written argument.
Doctoral Seminar: Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
The senior leader's formation and isolation, and the accountability that has to exist before it is needed.
Doctoral Seminar: Integrative Theology and Ministry
A doctoral leadership project intervening in a real organisation, evaluated for durable rather than announced change.
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 Ministry
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 Church Leadership 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.