ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Doctor of Missiology in Missional Leadership
D.Miss. credential
Help a church or ministry look beyond itself, discover opportunities to serve, and bring people together around the gospel mission.
Doctor of Missiology in Missional 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
Doctoral study in Missional Leadership is for agency and denominational leaders directing sending. Congregations turn outward through their calendar, budget and staffing, not through exhortation. This ICAS-accredited Kingdom of Life University program covers discerning a specific context, designing structures that serve mission rather than absorb it, leading multicultural teams, partnership that is accountable without being controlling, and member care for the people you send.
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 Missiology in Missional 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
- Missional Leadership - Doctoral Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Doctor of Missiology (D.Miss.) in Missional 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
Align structure, staffing, and budget with a stated mission
Lead multicultural teams with awareness of differing norms
Build partnerships that are accountable without being controlling
Evaluate fruitfulness honestly, including what resists measurement
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Synthesize doctoral-level theological evidence, research judgment, and ministry wisdom for faithful leadership
Produce a contextual discernment process and act on its findings
Redesign an organisational structure to remove an obstacle to mission
Build a member care plan covering preparation, field, crisis, and re-entry
Design an evaluation framework and report its results honestly
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Missions director
Agency leader
Missional church pastor
Sending church strategist
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
Reading Scripture with a team rather than for one, since missional leadership is largely the work of forming other people's interpretation.
Doctoral Seminar: Old Testament Theology
The Old Testament's sending narratives and the prophetic vision of the nations, which set the direction the New Testament assumes.
Doctoral Seminar: New Testament Theology
The New Testament on the sent church, its structures and its decision-making under pressure of expansion.
Doctoral Seminar: Christian Doctrine
The ecclesiology that decides what a mission structure may and may not do, since most agency disputes are ecclesiological underneath.
Doctoral Seminar: Theology of the Missional Church
The missional church argument, covering its theological basis in the sending of God, and the criticism that it has become a label rather than a claim.
Doctoral Seminar: Discerning Context and Calling
Discerning a specific context and calling, covering listening processes, data, and the discipline of not importing a strategy that worked elsewhere.
Doctoral Seminar: Structures That Serve Mission
Designing structures that serve mission, covering the way governance, staffing, and budget quietly determine what an organisation can actually do.
Doctoral Seminar: Mobilizing and Sending
Mobilising and sending, covering recruitment, assessment, preparation, and the sending church's continuing responsibility.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Doctoral Seminar: Cross-Cultural Team Leadership
Leading teams across cultures, covering conflict styles, decision norms, language, and the specific failure modes of multicultural teams.
Doctoral Seminar: Partnership and Accountability
Partnership and accountability, covering memoranda, funding conditions, reporting, and the difference between accountability and control.
Doctoral Seminar: Member Care for Workers
Member care, covering pre-field preparation, on-field support, crisis response, re-entry, and attrition and its avoidable causes.
Doctoral Seminar: Evaluating Missional Fruitfulness
Evaluating fruitfulness, covering what can and cannot be measured, the distortions measurement introduces, and honest reporting to supporters.
Doctoral Seminar: Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
The leader's own formation, and the specific hazard of directing mission while ceasing to practise it.
Doctoral Seminar: Integrative Theology and Ministry
An organisational project aligning structure and mission, implemented and evaluated with honest indicators.
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 Missiology
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 Missional 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.