Master of Divinity Degree

• A cohort model with classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays because we learn best in a thriving community.
• Because master-level education should build upon a solid foundation, the curriculum features advanced courses while avoiding the repetition of undergraduate introductory courses.
• Students study the Bible, Theology, and Practical Theology in paired courses across disciplines because real-life ministry requires integrated thinking.
• We have an engaging flipped classroom approach for biblical languages because we learn best in safe spaces of trial and error.
• Students develop their leadership skills in three apprenticeships, serving under a ministry leader and gaining over 450 hours of hands-on experience because practitioners need intentional practice.
• Students are able to meet for a weeklong intensive course with senior scholars and community pastors/leaders because we believe academic theology belongs to the church.

* Gospel of John, for example, is co-taught with Worship and Discipleship.

** In 2020, for example, the course Lament: Then and Now brought together senior scholars, local ministers, counselors, and community leaders, to reflect theologically in the areas of worship, discipleship, counseling, and community engagement. In 2015, the course Epistle of James and an “Urban Plunge” brought together New Testament studies and theological reflection, as students traveled to Miami to explore how ministries are serving the disadvantaged, displaced, and vulnerable.

MDiv students have a unique opportunity to develop and integrate theological knowledge and pastoral skills in a wide variety of clinical contexts through Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), including:

• Hospitals
• Extended care facilities
• Social-service organizations
• Social-justice organizations
• Congregational settings

Dr. Brittany N. Melton

Assistant Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies

http://cambridge.academia.edu/BrittanyMelton

Dr. Ryan Gladwin (PhD, Edinburgh) is the author of Streams of Latin American Protestant Theology (Brill) and the forthcoming Towards a Liberating Latin American Ecclesiology: The Local Church as a Transformative Historical Project (Pickwick). He has numerous chapters in edited books and has broad research interests that include Latin American and Latinx religion and theology, Anabaptism, Pentecostalism, Christian ethics, and practical theology. He has served with the Mennonite USA South Eastern Conference among the Latinx community and in activism for issues of immigration and racial reconciliation. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Christian Ethics, and the Latin American Theological Fraternity. Dr Gladwin is also the Coordinator of the BA, Ministry (Spanish) and the Christian Social Ministry Program.

Dr. Kathy Maxwell (PhD, Baylor) teaches students the biblical storytelling technique as a fresh approach to critical study, as well as for reaching a wide range of people with the story of God. She is a member of the Network of Biblical Storytellers International, for which she was the annual keynote speaker in 2019, and she contributes to Biblical Performance Criticism. For eight years, she served on the Steering Committee for the SBL Section on Performance Criticism and the Bible and Other Ancient Texts. Locally, she is on the planning committee for PBA’s national Art of Storytelling Conference, in its third year, which focuses on different modes of storytelling (e.g. fiction, non-fiction, painting, sculpture, dance, journalism). Area churches and community groups regularly invite Dr. Maxwell to tell biblical stories and to train others to do the same. She attends Community of Hope, the fastest growing UMC church in America.