ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Gospel Mission
Ph.D. credential
Discover ways to share the gospel and serve your city through local relationships, church life, and compassionate community action.
Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Gospel Mission: 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 Urban Gospel Mission is for experienced urban ministers researching their own context. Cities concentrate everything — wealth, poverty, migration, loneliness, institutions — and ministry that ignores the concentration does not work. This ICAS-accredited Kingdom of Life University program covers reading a neighbourhood from data and from the pavement, the difference between relief and development, racial division, housing and work, and partnership with people who were there before you arrived.
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 Philosophy in Urban Gospel Mission 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
- Urban Gospel Mission - Doctoral Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Urban Gospel Mission
- 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 city theologically and empirically at the same time
Distinguish relief, rehabilitation, and development and choose the right one
Address racial and ethnic division structurally as well as relationally
Build partnerships in which local capacity is strengthened rather than displaced
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Synthesize doctoral-level theological evidence, research judgment, and ministry wisdom for faithful leadership
Produce a neighbourhood analysis combining data and local knowledge
Design a ministry response matched to whether relief or development is needed
Evaluate a community programme for dependency and local ownership
Negotiate a partnership agreement with a non-church institution
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Urban pastor
Community development director
Urban church planter
Christian nonprofit 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
Preaching and teaching to congregations that are transient, multilingual and mixed in education, where one register will not reach the room.
Doctoral Seminar: Old Testament Theology
The Old Testament's cities — Babel, Babylon, Jerusalem — and the prophetic material on how a city treats the people at its edges.
Doctoral Seminar: New Testament Theology
The New Testament's urban mission, since the whole of it happened in cities, and the household churches that sustained it.
Doctoral Seminar: Christian Doctrine
The doctrine of the city: creation, fall and consummation as they bear on a place that is both the height of human making and the site of its worst failures.
Doctoral Seminar: Theology of the City
The city in Scripture from Babel to the New Jerusalem, and the theological readings of urban life that follow from taking both judgement and promise seriously.
Doctoral Seminar: Reading the Urban Context
Learning a particular city: census and housing data, migration patterns, informal economies, and the neighbourhood knowledge that no dataset supplies.
Doctoral Seminar: Ministry Among the Poor
Ministry with people in poverty, covering benefit systems, debt, food insecurity, and the difference between relief, rehabilitation, and development.
Doctoral Seminar: Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation
Racial and ethnic division in the church and the city, including the history, the structural analysis, and the practices that make reconciliation more than sentiment.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Doctoral Seminar: Urban Church Planting
Planting in dense, transient, and expensive places, with attention to space, cost, mobility, and congregations formed of people who move every three years.
Doctoral Seminar: Community Development
Asset-based community development in practice: mapping capacity, building local leadership, and the failure modes of well-funded outside intervention.
Doctoral Seminar: Housing, Work, and Justice
Housing, employment, and wages as pastoral realities, and the church's options between direct service, advocacy, and enterprise.
Doctoral Seminar: Partnership With Local Institutions
Working with schools, clinics, councils, and other congregations, including the terms of partnership and the loss of control it requires.
Doctoral Seminar: Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
Staying: the spiritual practice of a long urban ministry when the cost of living, the transience and the need all argue for leaving.
Doctoral Seminar: Integrative Theology and Ministry
A neighbourhood project combining analysis, intervention and evaluation, written with attention to who owns the outcome.
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 Philosophy
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 Gospel Mission 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.