Family Ministry

2010 Cohort
2014 Cohort

Mission

Changing the people who change the world, the Doctor of Ministry (DMin) Family Ministry Concentration prepares men and women to fulfill the teaching and discipling mandates of the gospel commission, impacting families for the Kingdom.

The DMin Family Ministry Concentration prepares one for a proactive ministry of preaching, teaching, and working with groups to develop the positive family and relationship skills needed in today's culture. It is designed to sustain pastoral excellence by attending to the (1) pastor's personal life, (2) the pastor's own family, (3) families in the congregation, (4) the congregation as a family, and (5) the congregation as a partner in service to the community.

Competencies

The DMin Family Ministry concentration seeks to create competency in four areas related to the discipline:

1. Family Life Education: to help participants acquire knowledge of current issues and empirical findings related to the field of family life education.
2. Spiritual, Theological, and Personal Formation: to reflect theologically on the lived experience of families, to help participants integrate their spiritual and theological perspectives into the practice of ministry. To help participants become aware of their strengths and limitations (background, emotional state) and to realize the impact self-awareness and self-understanding may have on ministry.
3. Research and Praxis: to help participants learn and acquire basic research skills pertinent to their practice in the field of family life education and family ministry within the context of church and community. Based on the current research develop and deploy a relevant, field-based project intentionally addressing family ministry in the local context.
4. Professional: to help participants gain knowledge of the professional field including family life education, family ministry constructs, family law and public policy. To help participants acquire ministry skills pertinent to their practice in the field of family life education within the context of ministry.

Learning Modalities

The following five learning modalities will be included in the concentration's pedagogy:

1. A professional portfolio: including a ministry development plan, journaling, and relevant learning artifacts
2. Learning groups/mentoring: including collective assignments, consultations, and accountability
3. Classroom consultation: including didactic and experiential learning, as well as networking, with top educators and experts in the field of family life education
4. Research: including perusal of the current literature, assigned readings, and developing empirical constructs for family ministry interventions
5. Praxis: including implementation of family life education interventions in the context of ministry

Outcomes

Upon completing this program, you will be able to:

• Exhibit growth toward personal and family health and wholeness;
• Tap the rich resources of family ministry for sermons, seminars, church programming, evangelistic events and pastoral counseling;
• Identify, access, and network with support resources for families in your community;
• Demonstrate leadership skills in family life education and enrichment that are adequate for facilitating events, such as seminars, retreats, and evangelistic meetings;
• Obtain professional certification level II from the Adventist Association of Family Life Professionals;
• Progress toward the academic credential of Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) offered by the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR)

Coordinator

Dr. Ron Flowers serves as coordinator for the Family Ministry concentration. He can be reached at ronaldmflowers@gmail.com.

Cohort participants will take these courses/study modules:
 

Ordering books
 

Ordering books

For dates and locations of courses planned for cohorts in other concentrations, see the four-year DMin Program Planner.

You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) software loaded on your machine to access any pdf documents referenced on this page.

10/8/2012