ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Doctor of Ministry in Urban Ministry
D.Min. credential
Lead a congregation in a dense, diverse, unequal city, through a professional doctorate in urban ministry.
Doctor of Ministry in Urban Ministry: 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 urban ministry is for urban pastors building ministry that stays as a neighbourhood changes. Urban ministry's hardest problem is staying. This ICAS-accredited Kingdom of Life University pathway covers the city theologically, reading a neighbourhood with data and ethnography, poverty and mercy ministry with the relief-and-development distinction taken seriously, migration and diversity, church property as an urban asset and liability, civic partnership, and the reasons urban ministers leave.
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 Urban Ministry 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: Urban Ministry - Doctoral Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) in Urban Ministry
- 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
Read a neighbourhood theologically and empirically at once
Choose between relief, rehabilitation, and development correctly
Steward church property as an urban asset and responsibility
Stay in an urban ministry long enough to be useful
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Synthesize doctoral-level theological evidence, research judgment, and ministry wisdom for faithful leadership
Produce a rigorous neighbourhood analysis combining data and ethnography
Design a mercy ministry matched to the need it actually addresses
Develop a property strategy serving both mission and viability
Complete a doctoral project evidencing sustained urban ministry outcomes
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Urban church pastor
City ministry network director
Community development minister
Urban ministry 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
Preaching and teaching in a transient, multilingual, educationally mixed congregation, where one register will not reach the room.
Doctoral Seminar: Old Testament Theology
The Old Testament's cities and its prophetic material on how a city treats the people at its edges.
Doctoral Seminar: New Testament Theology
The New Testament's urban mission, which is the whole of it, and the household churches that carried it.
Doctoral Seminar: Christian Doctrine
The doctrine of the city: created, fallen and promised, held together rather than resolved in one direction.
Doctoral Seminar: Theology of the City
The city in Scripture and Christian thought, covering judgement and promise and the theological readings that follow from holding both.
Doctoral Seminar: Reading an Urban Neighborhood
Reading an urban neighbourhood at doctoral level, covering data, ethnography, and the local knowledge that no dataset contains.
Doctoral Seminar: Poverty, Justice, and Mercy Ministry
Poverty, justice, and mercy ministry, covering relief, rehabilitation, and development, and the failure modes of each.
Doctoral Seminar: Migration and Urban Diversity
Migration and urban diversity, covering arrival, settlement, diaspora congregations, and the changing composition of a parish.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Doctoral Seminar: Housing, Space, and Church Property
Housing, space, and church property, covering cost, land, the use and disposal of buildings, and the church as a landholder.
Doctoral Seminar: Partnering With Civic Institutions
Partnering with civic institutions, covering councils, schools, and health services, and the terms and limits of such partnership.
Doctoral Seminar: Endurance in Urban Ministry
Endurance in urban ministry, covering transience, cost of living, burnout, and the reasons urban ministers leave.
Doctoral Seminar: Doctoral Urban Ministry Project
The doctoral urban ministry project, covering design, intervention, evaluation, and the written argument.
Doctoral Seminar: Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
The discipline of staying when cost, transience and need all argue for leaving.
Doctoral Seminar: Integrative Theology and Ministry
A doctoral urban project with neighbourhood analysis, intervention and evaluation of outcomes that outlast the funding.
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 Urban Ministry 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.