Loading ...Application to Harding Graduate
This week I sent off my application for the Doctor of Ministry program at Harding Graduate School. After a lot of prayer, I thought it best to work on the Ministry program over the Ph.D program. I do not have the desire to be a professor in a university. I love doing ministry in the local church context more. But I have been tempted to do the Ph.D program but another 60 hours instead of 30 hours just seems like a lot now. For the goals that I have, the D.Min program seems best. Doing Greek parsing has never been a discipline that provides fire for the soul. I am glad I have the skill to do this academic work, but I have the passion to help churches grow. The only teaching capacity that I would like to engage in is maybe doing some adjunct work in ministry classes. I would like to teach the next generation of ministers on how to have a healthy ministry. This is why I am working on a thesis that deals with “The Discipline of a Godly Minister.” I never had anyone in my family teach me about ministry. Did not even grow up in a church. I had to learn to do ministry the hard way. Fortunately I have had some good men teach me some valuable lessons throughout the years. I am excited about this next step in my schooling.
Related posts:
- Heading to Harding Graduate
- Reflections from Harding Graduate
- Why Go to Harding Graduate
- Preparing for 1 Corinthians at Harding Grad.
- The Future of School
About The Author
Congratulations on your decision Matthew. I pray the Lord blesses your service and that your passion for serving Him will never diminish.
Thank you, and I will pray for your work too.
You will be blessed. I hope they require you to take theological hermeneutics with John Mark.
Bobby V
Good for you!
God bless, HUGSR is a great school.
Thank you gentlemen, I look forward to this next step.
Expanding our knowledge is a blessing indeed. Looking forward to see and reading your growth in God’s word.
Cool decision! I imagine that will be a lot of work! At least it will be cheap…
Since finishing grad school, I too have been considering the doctoral degree. My top pick right now is Johns Hopkins because they offer a DrPH (Doctorate of Public Health) in addition to the PhD in Public Health.
I am leaning toward the DrPH because I want to put the degree to work in the healthcare industry, not just academia. Though I eventually want to teach, I want to practice first and I can still eventually teach with a DrPH. SO I totally understand your thought process here, and I agree with your decision.
I hope you get the results you want. Good luck!
Doing Greek parsing has never been a discipline that provides fire for the soul.
Not for you, perhaps.
But seriously, best of luck to you. I hope it goes well. I am still wrestling with what to do when I finish my M.Div, a lot of which will be incumbent on whether I decide to go in a more academically- or ministry-oriented direction. Thank the Lord I have a couple of years yet before I need to decide.
Did you have any courses with Lee Camp at Lipscomb?
Jason, are you saying that parsing is a passionate experience for you? Thank you for the posts on the site, and yes I plan on mentioning the pacifism in the movement. We changed from an anti-government movement to a nationalistic movement during the time of WWII.
I forgot to mention that I did not have any classes with Lee at Lipscomb, but he was there when I was there.
Well, ok, the parsing itself is not necessarily the passionate experience. It’s more like I anticipate the joy of being able to put the text together and read it fully, and so parsing is a part of that. It’s rather like when I’m recording and I spend 4 hours trying to get the right EQ mix on my vocal tracks, which is taxing but I know the end product will be greatly rewarding. And I do find real joy in the process as well – but no, I probably wouldn’t sit around parsing verbs just for the passionate experience.