Mission in a Secular Age (D.Min.)

Program Overview

The Doctor of Ministry in Mission in a Secular Age is for leaders ministering where Christianity is no longer the default and often no longer even a live option. In much of Europe, North America, and the Pacific, the church faces neighbours who are not hostile but uninterested, who have inherited a vague memory of religion and a strong intuition that meaning is self-authored. Methods designed for a culture that assumed the gospel do not reach them. The program begins with diagnosis rather than technique. Students read serious accounts of secularization — the disenchantment of the world, the immanent frame, expressive individualism, the therapeutic turn, institutional distrust — and test them against their own context's data. From there the work turns constructive: apologetics that addresses plausibility rather than only argument, preaching that assumes no biblical literacy, liturgy and beauty as entry points, hospitality and friendship as the ordinary means of witness, catechesis for adults converting from nothing, and forms of church that can grow among people with no religious habits. Students also examine the failures: attractional strategies that consume the converted, cultural mimicry that dissolves distinctiveness, and defensive postures that mistake grievance for faithfulness. The applied project tests one initiative in the student's own setting — a new congregation, an adult catechumenate, a public-facing forum, a revised approach to preaching — and evaluates it honestly. Graduates lead churches and plants in secular settings, train others, and advise denominations attempting mission where Christendom has ended.

Core Courses

• SEC 801 — Diagnosing the Secular Age (6 credits)
• SEC 812 — Contextual Analysis of a Post-Christian Community (6 credits)
• SEC 824 — Preaching and Apologetics Without Assumed Faith (6 credits)
• SEC 836 — Hospitality, Beauty, and Friendship as Witness (6 credits)
• SEC 848 — Adult Catechesis and Formation for Converts (5 credits)
• SEC 860 — Applied Research Design for Missional Ministry (4 credits)
• SEC 899 — Doctoral Ministry Project in a Secular Context (24 credits)

Admission Requirements

• Master's degree in divinity, ministry, theology, or a closely related field
• Three or more years of pastoral, chaplaincy, or ministry leadership experience
• Statement of purpose describing the ministry setting and the problem you intend to address
• Endorsement from a church, denomination, or ministry organization
• Current resume or ministry profile
• Official transcripts from prior institutions when available