The Doctor of Ministry (DMin) degree program at CTSFW is designed for the working pastor, meant to help him pursue advanced study applicable to his ministry while he continues to serve his people. The cost of tuition will be going up in the fall of 2020; for any pastor who applies to the program by March 15, 2020—exactly one year from now—with the intention of starting before the fall of 2020, CTSFW will lock in the current cost of the program, $350 per credit, for four years. This is one of the most affordable rates in the country for graduate programs.
The program offers a hybrid structure of online study paired with weeklong intensive classes on the CTSFW campus three times a year to serve our pastor-students. “The program minimized the logistical difficulties of continuing education and maximized the integration of that education into practical parish ministry,” said the Rev. Peter A. Speckhard of Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Munster, Indiana, who recently defended his thesis and will graduate this May. “I enrolled in order to give some structure and accountability to my study.”
It offers three concentrations: Pastoral Care and Leadership, Teaching and Preaching, and Mission and Culture. “This program helped me to focus my studies in a way that I could not have done on my own,” explained the Rev. Brent Klein of Trinity Lutheran Church in Northfield, Minnesota, who also will be graduating this May. “I learned from the readings, the time spent with colleagues during the intensive weeks, and the assignments for the classes. What I appreciated most was that some of the classes I took directly and immediately benefitted my congregation. Even before I had finished the classes, I applied what I had learned for the blessing of the people I serve.”
The Rev. Adam Filipek, also a spring graduate, spoke on how it has increased his skills in preaching, teaching, the biblical languages, and pastoral care, as well as the benefits he saw in his dual parishes, Holy Cross Lutheran Church and Immanuel Lutheran Church in Lidgerwood, North Dakota. “It has aided in cultivating, in the saints, a deeper love for the one true God, and a desire to dwell with Him here in time, in the Divine Service, and daily through confession and absolution, witness, service, and acts of mercy in the assumption of their respective vocations.”
To learn more about the program or to begin the application process, visit www.ctsfw.edu/DMin. You can also contact our Graduate Studies Department directly with questions about the program at graduatestudies@ctsfw.edu or by calling (260) 452-2203.
