Master of
Divinity

This course engages salvation, the church, and last things through primary dogmatic and exegetical sources, focusing on contested debates such as justification and the millennium. Rather than asserting a position, students learn to defend one. The course addresses leaders who can state their tradition's view on these questions but have never built a scholarly argument for it. Students complete a graduate research paper defending a position on one soteriological or eschatological question, paired with a pastoral teaching plan for their own congregation — leaving with both doctrinal conviction and the ability to teach it responsibly.

This course studies the Old Testament as a unified theological corpus through the discipline of Old Testament theology — covenant, canon, and critical-introduction questions — engaging a major OT theology directly. It addresses leaders who know the Old Testament's storyline but have never engaged its theological and critical questions at a scholarly level. Students produce a graduate research paper on one Old Testament theological theme, along with a canon-wide teaching framework grounded in a major OT theology text, closing a real gap between narrative familiarity and theological depth.

This course studies the New Testament as a theological and historical corpus, adding New Testament theology and critical-introduction scholarship — questions of authorship, dating, and canon formation — at a research level. It addresses leaders who know New Testament content well but cannot engage the scholarly questions raised about its formation. Students complete a graduate research paper defending a position on one New Testament introduction question, along with a teaching guide applying the conclusion pastorally, building confidence to engage critical scholarship rather than avoid it.

This course engages historical-Jesus scholarship and Gospel-harmonization method directly, producing a research-grade defense of the historical and theological Jesus. It addresses leaders unequipped to answer historical-Jesus skepticism or harmonization objections raised in academic and interfaith settings. Students complete a graduate research paper defending the historicity of one contested event in Christ's life — such as the resurrection — paired with an applied teaching or evangelistic brief. By the end, students can meet serious historical objections about Jesus with real scholarly grounding.

Building on delivery and style, this course adds rhetorical theory and a guided study of historical master preachers as primary sources for developing a personal preaching voice. It addresses preachers with sound content whose delivery and rhetorical craft have never been measured against a historical or theoretical standard. Students preach, record, and rhetorically self-evaluate a sermon, and build a five-year preaching development plan and calendar defended before faculty — leaving with a preaching voice that is both authentic and grounded in real craft.

This course studies worship as cultural and liturgical formation, engaging liturgical theology and cultural-formation scholarship at a graduate level. It addresses worship leaders who plan services capably but have never accounted theologically for how liturgy shapes desire and belief over time. Students produce a graduate worship philosophy and a five-year worship formation plan grounded in liturgical-theology scholarship, defended before faculty — equipping them to lead worship that is intentional, not just functional.

This course requires intermediate Greek grammar and syntax proficiency, moving students from lexical lookup to original syntactical argument. It addresses graduates who can look up Greek words but cannot construct an original argument from the Greek text itself. Students produce a graduate-level Greek exegetical paper built on original syntactical analysis, concluding in a teaching or preaching outline for real use — engaging the New Testament in its original language with genuine independence.

This course examines the philosophical schools of apologetic method — classical, evidentialist, and presuppositional — requiring students to defend one methodological position rather than simply reciting arguments. It addresses apologists who know the arguments but have never examined the assumptions behind them. Students produce a graduate research paper defending one apologetic method, applied through a worked case study of an actual objection from their own ministry setting — leaving with both a chosen method and the reasoning behind it.

This course requires engagement with Christian ethical theory — deontological, virtue, and natural-law frameworks — as the foundation for pastoral positions on today's most contested issues. It addresses leaders who hold correct positions on contemporary questions without a coherent ethical framework behind them. Students produce three graduate pastoral position papers, each grounded in an explicit ethical framework, addressing the most urgent contemporary issues in their own context — building both theological courage and pastoral gentleness.

This course treats organizational stewardship as a theological discipline — structures, budgets, and systems understood as expressions of gospel stewardship, not neutral management technique. It addresses administrators who can build a budget or org chart but have no theological account of why structure serves mission. Students produce a research-grounded five-year organizational strategic plan and budget framework, defended before faculty with an explicit theological rationale for its structures — grounding practical administration in real conviction.

This course requires direct engagement with a primary historical source — a church father, a reformer, or a movement document — and situates the Majority World and Global South church as a central historiographical strand, not a modern footnote. It addresses graduate leaders who can name historical eras but have never engaged a primary document firsthand. Students produce a graduate research paper built on direct engagement with one primary historical source, drawing three transferable lessons applied to their own ministry setting.

This course engages pastoral theology as a discipline in its own right — the historic “cure of souls” — through primary and contemporary pastoral-theology scholarship. It addresses pastors whose sense of calling and risk of burnout have never been examined against this historical discipline. Students produce a research-grounded five-year pastoral ministry plan that includes a personal self-care covenant, grounded in the cure-of-souls literature and defended before faculty — pairing pastoral longevity with real scholarly grounding.

This course requires Hebrew syntax proficiency, producing an original exegetical argument on grammatical grounds rather than lexical tools alone. It addresses graduates who can look up Hebrew words but cannot build an original syntactical case from the Hebrew text. Students complete a graduate-level Hebrew exegetical paper built on original syntactical analysis, concluding in a sermon or lesson for their own church — direct, independent engagement with the Hebrew Bible.

This course engages family-systems theory and the theological ethics of marriage at a graduate counseling level. It addresses family ministers who apply techniques without a research-grounded theology of marriage, singleness, and family systems behind them. Students produce a research-grounded five-year family ministry plan with marriage, parenting, and crisis-care components, defended before faculty — equipping leaders to serve families in crisis with both compassion and real theological grounding.

This course engages missiological theory — paradigm shifts and contextualization debates — behind current mission strategy, rather than simply adopting current models. It addresses mission strategists who use popular models without understanding the theory behind them. Students produce a research-grounded five-year missions mobilization plan connecting their own church to an unreached people or region, defended before faculty with explicit missiological rationale — grounding mobilization in real strategic thinking.

This course requires a theology of technology and digital culture, producing a research-grounded technology strategy rather than a production plan alone. It addresses leaders adopting digital tools without a theological account of how technology shapes attention, community, and worship. Students produce a research-grounded five-year church technology plan with an explicit theological rationale, defended before faculty — treating technology as a tool to be stewarded deliberately, not adopted by default.

Offered only in the M.Div, this course extends addiction ministry into graduate biblical-counseling method, engaging the sin/disease paradigm debate at a scholarly level. It addresses recovery ministries built on borrowed secular protocols without a defended biblical-counseling rationale. Students produce a research-grounded five-year church recovery ministry plan, including a defended biblical-counseling protocol, referral network, and group design, defended before faculty — equipping graduates to lead recovery ministry with real theological and clinical care.

Offered only in the M.Div, this course engages graduate pneumatology and heresiology, requiring primary-source work with both cessationist and continuationist positions and with classical heresiology. It addresses discernment exercised without either rigorous pneumatological argument or historical awareness of how the church has identified heresy and counterfeit movements. Students produce a graduate research paper defending a position on continuationism or cessationism, plus a discernment framework applied to a real case using classical heresiological method — closing the program with real doctrinal and practical discernment.