Graduate: Missional Leadership

Graduate—Missional Leadership

Many current ministry preparation degrees train ministers for settings that simply no longer exist. In our new and rapidly evolving cultural context, ministry preparation will need to be conceived differently in both content and delivery. The MRE in Missional Leadership is an attempt to provide faithful ministry preparation that takes our changing context seriously.

The MREML assumes that the congregation, not the classroom, is the primary learning context for missional leadership. This commitment requires students to have a primary ministry context in which they can develop their capacities as leaders. It also requires that the courses offered are delivered in such a manner that students can remain in their congregational setting.

This 36-hour degree includes 24-hours of online instruction. The remaining 12 hours take place in one-week intensive seminars on Rochester College’s campus. The student, therefore, can complete the degree from anywhere as long as one week per semester can be spent on Rochester’s campus.

Because the degree is delivered in such a unique fashion, the MREML can provide key resource people beyond Rochester’s outstanding resident faculty. We have recruited some of the key leaders in both the missional and emerging church movements as faculty. Additionally, missional leaders from around the world have agreed to serve as online coaches for MREML students.

The degree is cohort based. Students will move through the two-year curriculum with 14 other students, developing Christian community, encouraging one another in spiritual formation, and learning from each other’s experience. Each student will take 12 hours in Biblical text, 12 hours in missional leadership, and 12 hours in theology/history. While these categories may seem traditional, the design of each course is focused on actual leadership tasks in missional congregations. All courses are integrated and sequential so that all courses build on what has come before and anticipate what will come after. Each course also contributes to the student’s e-portfolio, a collection of student work through the program, which the student defends for degree completion.

For information about RCML, contact Dr. Love at missional@rc.edu or 248.218.2300.