ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Doctor of Ministry in Preaching
D.Min. credential
Strengthen the preaching that shapes your congregation week by week, through a professional doctorate in the preaching ministry.
Doctor of Ministry in Preaching: 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 preaching is for those examining the whole task across a long ministry rather than a single sermon. A preaching life is different from a preaching skill: it has to survive twenty years, several hundred sermons, and the point where the work stops being interesting. This ICAS-accredited Kingdom of Life University pathway covers the theology of proclamation, the weekly route from text to sermon as a sustained discipline, delivery, the formation a congregation receives, and honest self-evaluation.
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 Preaching 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: Preaching - Doctoral Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) in Preaching
- 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
Sustain a preaching discipline over decades rather than seasons
Cover the canon rather than a comfortable portion of it
Assess what your preaching has actually formed in a congregation
Keep learning as a preacher rather than plateauing
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Synthesize doctoral-level theological evidence, research judgment, and ministry wisdom for faithful leadership
Audit a preaching corpus for canonical and doctrinal coverage
Evaluate a preaching ministry using listener evidence and recorded review
Design a personal study and development plan for a preaching life
Complete a doctoral project that changes preaching practice and evidences the change
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Preaching pastor
Teaching pastor
Preaching mentor
Homiletics instructor
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
The weekly exegetical discipline examined honestly, including the shortcuts that started as expedients and became method.
Doctoral Seminar: Old Testament Theology
Preaching the Old Testament across its whole range, with attention to the books your congregation has never heard from you.
Doctoral Seminar: New Testament Theology
Preaching the New Testament, where an argument has to be followed rather than summarised, and where paraphrase is the standard failure.
Doctoral Seminar: Christian Doctrine
The cumulative doctrine your preaching has taught, audited across years rather than judged sermon by sermon.
Doctoral Seminar: Theology of Christian Preaching
What the church has claimed for preaching, covering the doctrine of the word, the preacher's authority, and the expectations that claim warrants.
Doctoral Seminar: From Text to Sermon
The weekly route from text to sermon, examined as a discipline sustained over decades rather than as a method learned once.
Doctoral Seminar: Preaching Across the Canon
Preaching across the whole canon, covering the genres and books a long ministry must cover and the ones preachers habitually avoid.
Doctoral Seminar: Voice, Delivery, and Presence
The physical act of preaching, covering breath, pace, gesture, manuscript use, and the recovery of presence when delivery fails.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Doctoral Seminar: Preaching and Congregational Formation
What years of preaching form in a congregation, covering the cumulative theological diet and the gaps it leaves.
Doctoral Seminar: Sustaining a Preaching Life
Sustaining a preaching life, covering reading, staleness, plagiarism pressure, and the disciplines that keep a preacher learning.
Doctoral Seminar: Evaluating a Preaching Ministry
Evaluating a preaching ministry, covering listener research, recorded review, and honest assessment of your own long-term patterns.
Doctoral Seminar: Doctoral Preaching Ministry Project
The doctoral project in preaching ministry, covering design, intervention, evaluation, and the written argument.
Doctoral Seminar: Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
Reading, prayer and staleness across decades, and the reasons preachers plateau rather than improve.
Doctoral Seminar: Integrative Theology and Ministry
A doctoral project in a preaching ministry: intervention, listener evidence, evaluation, and a written argument.
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 Preaching 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.