A doctorate helps you in ministry by strengthening both your theological understanding and your ability to apply it in real-world settings. Professional doctorates focus on practical ministry challenges, while research doctorates deepen biblical and theological expertise—both equipping leaders to serve more effectively.
Two Incorrect Views of Ministry
The answer to our questions, “How does a doctorate help me in ministry?,” depends on how we define ‘ministry’ and what we think that ministry should emphasize. Consider two concepts of ministry—both of which are wrong. One side says that ministry is about proclaiming the truths of God’s word with as much depth as possible., while the other side says that ministry is all about affecting real lives in real places.
The first view dismisses all professional doctoral studies because they emphasize how theology applies to real ministry settings. Professional doctorates certify expertise in identifying and addressing practical challenges like evangelism, financial stewardship, cross-cultural ministry, and biblical counseling. They are not primarily concerned with fine-tuning our view of what Scripture says and our systems of theological expression.
The second view dismisses all research-based doctoral studies, which emphasize advances in theoretical knowledge with little immediate concern for local ministry settings. Research doctorates certify expertise in areas like Old and New Testament exegesis, systematic theology, church history, ethics, and apologetics. Research doctoral study deals with the theory that supports practice but is not concerned directly with matters of implementation.
An alert reader will see the problem lurking behind both of these perspectives: they are one-sided and, in that sense, inaccurate accounts of what ministry requires.
What Professional Doctorates Contribute
It is easy enough to see how professional doctoral study can help someone in ministry, because helping someone in ministry is the whole point of that study. Professional doctoral research looks for improved ways of applying theological results to specific ministry settings. But notice what that statement implies. To apply theological results, professional doctoral candidates must know what those results are; and in this sense, these candidates find themselves learning more about biblical exegesis and Christian doctrine than they might have expected, with life-changing results for themselves and others.
What Research Doctorates Contribute
Likewise, years of theological research yields comparable ministry benefits. Henry J. S. Smith (1826-1883) once celebrated the autonomy of his discipline by saying, “Pure mathematics, may it never be of any use to anyone,” and perhaps a few readers have the same view of research doctoral study. Seminars and dissertations may deal with matters so obscure that no regular person could even understand them, much less benefit from them. But what we find in the Old and New Testaments is the underlying belief that theology always matters. What we think about God and his ways in Christ, both past and present, affects everything that we say and do in our churches. Our thoughts affect what we preach and how we preach. They affect how we interact with lost people and the methods chosen to reach them. They affect how we serve the people within our churches and even our sense of what their deepest needs are. Theology always matters. The ideas of Scripture have consequences.
How Doctoral Study Transforms Ministry
Perhaps it is becoming more clear how doctoral study can help someone in ministry. Professional doctoral study can help someone in ministry by developing advanced skill in the relevant kinds of diagnosis and treatment. Professional doctoral students learn to identify problems in ministry settings that non-experts might overlook. They learn to address these kinds of problems systematically, having defined what success will look like and having devised a plan to achieve that success. Because it involves biblical interpretation and precise communication, professional doctoral study also has the side-effect of improving these skills even though it does aim directly at these outcomes. Graduates of MBTS professional doctorates—i.e., the DMin, DEdMin, and EdD—would attest to these benefits.
Research doctoral study can help someone in ministry by giving that person a richer, more vivid understanding of who God is and what he has done for us in Christ. This kind of study may call for intensive study of the Scriptures in their original languages. It may call for reflection on how
God has acted in history and how the church has responded to false teaching and seismic cultural change. It may require commentary on recent developments in medicine and technology. It may push the student into specialized theories of written and oral communication. The possibilities here are as wide as the Christian worldview itself; and yet, at every point, the same rule from Scripture applies. Theology always matters.
In considering the prospect of theological study at MBTS, we hope that our applicants will do so with a sense of optimism and adventure. The last word on these topics has not been said. We can always learn more and each candidate has the potential to show us something new—something that we had not seen before or something that we have seen but not in the best sort of way. Doctoral study is life-altering, and when done from a confessional vantage point, as is the case at MBTS, that alternation can lead candidates to serve their churches in ways that had never seemed possible. MBTS is also committed to making Christian doctoral programs accessible: our online and hybrid formats are designed for those who are figuring out how to pursue a doctorate while pastoring, and our tuition reflects a genuine commitment to affordable theological education.
