Earn Your Doctor of Ministry in 21st Century Teaching

YouTube, texting, podcasts, mobile everything, and that’s not to mention changing views on everything from sexual orientation to shared values. Pastors and church leaders need culturally relevant knowledge and strategies to reach and engage people with the Gospel. AU’s Doctor of Ministry in 21st Century Ministry will equip you with the vital knowledge to preach, teach and serve in our new age.

What You’ll Study

In this 35-credit-hour program you’ll study leadership, church structure and ministry teams, discipleship, pastoral ministry and evangelism. But you’ll study these subjects through the lens of our era’s dramatic cultural change. Your seminars will include the following topics:

• Contemporary Church Models
• Expository Preaching & Today’s Church
• Dealing with Generational Change
• Leadership in the Contemporary Church Setting
• Ministry in a Multiethnic Setting
• Media, Communication and Ministry
• The Changing Face of Missions
• Evangelism in a Post-Christian World

Independent Study with Hybrid and Residential Seminars

Your program will include both hybrid seminars and residential seminars. Hybrid seminars are completed primarily online, with four two-hour interactive class meetings held early in the semester. In residential seminars, you’ll complete reading and writing assignments at home, then attend classes for four days on campus. The seminars are coordinated so that students taking both seminars in a semester can come to campus for one week, with one day spent on the hybrid seminar and four days on the residential seminar.

Assignments in residential or hybrid seminar: reading and reflection papers on multiple books relating to the seminar topic. They may also include preparing a seminar presentation on a related topic to present to the group.

Research workshop, project and dissertation: Following completion of the eight seminars, students attend a one-day project methodology workshop, complete a significant ministry project, and submit a dissertation based on that project. For example, a student may perform a demographic analysis of population shifts in their community and develop a strategic plan for the church’s outreach over the next decade.

Twenty-first Century Ministry

Jesus’ ministry was marked by radical change within first century Jewish society. Whether you’re a pastor, missionary, denominational leader, or other thoughtful Christian worker, with the DMin in 21st Century Ministry you’ll be equipped to follow the Lord as an agent of change.

Innovative AU Community

While most Doctor of Ministry programs focus on ministry areas, from preaching to evangelism, we take a futurist approach: how does ministry need to adapt to be effective in light of demographic and cultural change? As a student at AU, you’ll be connected to an institution with a national reputation for innovation. U.S. News & World Report recently listed AU as the seventh “Most Innovative School” among Regional Universities in the South.  Our dean, Dr. Michael Duduit, has been a thought leader in ministry for more than three decades as a national speaker, the founder and executive editor of Preaching magazine, and director of the National Conference on Preaching. 

And unlike most seminaries, nearly all of our professors have joined AU straight out of pastoral ministry and bring a strong practical element to the classroom. So professors such as Dr. Tim McKnight, not only teaches and writes about ministering to Generation Z, he’s done it.