Why I Chose the Doctor of Ministry

On finishing a degree, the work it required, and what comes next

On December 16, I completed my Doctor of Ministry.

The final requirement was a public presentation of the project as a whole. I walked through the question that shaped the work, the research design, the setting, and the outcomes. The focus of that moment was coherence. The project needed to hold together from beginning to end. When it did, the work reached its conclusion.

With that, the degree is complete. I am now a Doctor of Ministry.

I chose this path because I wanted a doctoral process that stayed close to ministry. The questions that led me into the program came directly from chaplaincy. Years of walking with people in crisis eventually clarified a single question: If my role is spiritual care, then what exactly is the spiritual need I am caring for?

The work became a research study involving human participants. It followed a qualitative phenomenological design, utilizing descriptive statistical analysis. The research required attentiveness, ethical oversight, and methodological care. It required time with people rather than distance from them.

This is where the Doctor of Ministry mattered. The degree allowed theology, research, and formation to remain integrated. It supported human-subjects research that aligned with pastoral practice. It required scholarship that remained accountable to real people and real outcomes.

I am proud of what I completed. I am proud that the work was careful, researched, and carried out with real people. I am proud that it stayed close to ministry and did not require stepping away from it. And I am proud that it produced something that can be used, taught, and examined beyond the life of the degree itself.

I see this project not as finished business, but as finished groundwork.

Over the next year, I hope to share this work more widely. Portions of the research are being prepared for publication in chaplaincy and pastoral-care journals, and some chapters will be adapted for my Substack readers here. The framework itself will continue to be used and refined in my work at Open House Ministries, as it moves from a completed project into the ongoing life of ministry.

That work now extends beyond the boundaries of the degree that shaped it. And with that, this season comes to end.