Doctor of Philosophy in Pastoral Ministry

Dissertation Guidelines:
The candidate's dissertation idea should be submitted in writing as soon as possible. The Biblical Studies student may wish to focus on a book or passage of scripture or theme in scripture. The dissertation should be written in such a way that it would be worthy of public distribution. Every dissertation submitted will be considered and read with the prospects of publication. While no student is required to publish the dissertation it is certainly a worthy way of preserving the student's work and utilizing the book in future ministry.

Email your dissertation idea to schoolassignment@aol.com. Simply tell us your working title for your dissertation and give us some brief sentances as to what you think you want to say about this theme.  Upon approval of your theme we will email you with your dissertation theme approval.


Purpose:
To enable the doctoral candidate to do an overall study of research and practice in the realm of Pastoral Ministry. The doctoral candidate will show in the writing dissertation the results of the research and what has been learned during the candidacy program. The average dissertation is between 60 to 125 pages. A bibliography should be a minimum of  twenty books that the candidate has referred to in the preparation for writing the dissertation.

Degree Requirements:
The doctoral candidate must have a Bachelor's and Master's degree approved by our seminary before admission into the program is granted. The student must prove that he/she possesses the academic background capable of pursuing the Doctoral degree. After consultation and review the administrative faculty will determine if the candidate qualifies for admission. All course work may be emailed to schoolassignment@aol.com or mailed to the school address at:

Newburgh Theological Seminary
P.O. Box 1238
Newburgh, Indiana 47629

Assignments mailed to the school should always be accompanied with a self addressed stamped envelope so that the work may be returned.

Curriculum:
Six core courses of study related to the doctoral field and one research dissertation paper will complete the requirements for this degree program.  These books should be selected from our suggested textbooks. Your books may all be ordered at one time, however, students are encouraged to take one course at a time. Each book constitutes five hours of credit or one course. The student may suggest up to three alternate textbooks to be approved by a faculty advisor. Alternate books must be in line with the approved dissertation theme. The seven core textbooks may be any of the seven on this page. Please submit them in any order. Please write ten to fifteen pages of summary about the textbook. Tell us in the summary paper what the book is about and what you learned and how you can apply the material to your life and ministry. You may want to write close to one page per chapter as a writing guide. These books do not include the student's list of books that will be used in writing the dissertation project.  However, these six books may be used in the Bibliography if they are referenced in writing the dissertation. The Bibliography should be twenty references with appropriate endnotes. Follow Turabian or MLA in dissertation preparation. 


Email your dissertation idea to schoolassignment@aol.com. Simply tell us your working title for your dissertation and give us some brief sentances as to what you think you want to say about this theme.  Upon approval of your theme we will email you with your dissertation theme approval.

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Each book may be ordered at Amazon. com or your local bookstore.

              PMIN 810  Ministerial Ethics: Being a Good Minister in a Not-So-Good World by  Joe E. Trull and James E. Carter

              PMIN  820  Pastoral Ministry according to Paul: A Biblical Vision by James W. Thompson

             PMIN 840    Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry by Thomas C. Oden

              PMIN 850 Reforming Pastoral Ministry: Challenges for Ministry in Postmodern Times by Erwin W. Lutzer, John H. Armstrong, Mark Coppenger, and Joel R. Beeke

             PMIN 860 Christian Counseling That Really Works by Dan Montgomery

             PMIN 870 Shepherding God's Flock: A Handbook on Pastoral Ministry, Counseling and Leadership by Jay E. Adams

           PMIN 880 Criswells Guidebook For Pastors by W. A. Criswell

 

 

  • The doctoral program may done at your own pace. However, we do encourage the completion of this program in two years.

    All papers should be typed, double-spaced without grammatical or spelling errors.

    For each book write a ten to twenty page paper summarizing the book. The following is simply a guide. Our graders want to see that you read and learned something from the text. We are looking for a good summary of the material.
  • List up to ten principles presented by the book.
  • Summarize at least one chapter of the book and explain why this chapter was meaningful to you.
  • What was the strength of the book?
  • What was the area of less interest to you that you read in the book?
  • Explain what the overall theme of the book was about if it has one.
  • How, if any, will this book be useful to you in your future work or ministry?
  • Write up to three pages giving an overview of the book.


The Paper for each book may be submitted to schoolassignment@aol.com or mailed to the school address at Newburgh Seminary, P.O. Box 1238, Newburgh, Indiana 47629. Assignments mailed to the school should always be accompanied with a SASE so that the work and grade may be returned.

 
 


Newburgh Theological Seminary
and College of the Bible

Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 1238
7899 Bell Oaks Drive
Newburgh, Indiana 47629
Telephone 1.812.858.3920
"Christ-centered, Biblically sound, Affordable"

Email: NewburghSeminary@aol.com