Research Methods

Focuses on congregational and contextual analysis, approaches to leading change, and the thesis project. Effective pastoral leadership requires the ability and means for sustained reflection and evaluation upon the practice of ministry, and the application of pastoral imagination to the challenges and opportunities of ministry today. The course is intended to strengthen skills necessary for and point toward the doctor-of-ministry thesis project, even as it fosters a pattern of thinking and reflection on ministry that should become an intellectual trait of pastoral leaders concerned with improving the quality of their ministerial practice.