Notthemama1984
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
What type of career doors would a Dmin open? I waffle on grabbing a Dmin or a PhD. I know what doors a PhD would open, but just trying to weigh options.
Career after Dmin
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Polanus1561
Puritan Board Senior
Possibly teaching not too academic areas such as counselling in a seminary.
Notthemama1984
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Maybe homiletics in a seminary?
CasualWestminsterEnjoyer
Puritan Board Senior
Well, it's a professional, rather than academic, doctorate, in a world where not even a phd is considered sufficient for most professorships, so I think the answer is that it is insufficient for academic positions and excessive for the ministry, where an MDIV is enough.
In my opinion, DMin will not generally "open doors" outside of a church-setting. Within a church--congregation, Presbytery, denomination--having such a credential might raise your standing, might raise the possibility for your consideration for a pastoral or relevant-adjacent position, over someone else without the DMin. I knew a pastor who had an earned PhD-level doctorate, which he said was good for becoming useful in the church. That's all he ever really wanted.
I know of a professor who, like the famous John Murray of Westminister Seminary in the 20th century, brought a Master's degree to the USA from an elite UK school. The man I knew, given the demands on his time for teaching and other constraints, used one of this nation's DMin programs to pad his educational attainments. He was a "professional" in the field, always at work in the theological sphere, whose previous work had earned him both a highly respectable Master's degree and a teaching assignment (right time and place to be hired). Receiving the DMin--it's more than an honorary degree--allowed him to be respectfully addressed as "Doctor." But I tend to think that award alone would not have got him hired elsewhere, if another institution was seeking a man with a "doctorate" for a teaching position. He was already serving in place, so I suppose his situation was fairly unique.
Perhaps time will prove this thinking wrong. Perhaps a DMin from a certain highly regarded school could come to be thought of as preferential. But for the present time, I think a DMin is most likely to satisfy a qualified professional minister who desires not so much to be titled "Doctor," but loves the challenge of fulfilling all the demands of a challenging course of study with the honor of an appropriate terminal-degree award at the end of it. The PhD is the standard degree (as I understand it) for someone looking to teach those who are aiming at entering the ministry as a profession.
Polanus1561
Puritan Board Senior
Which seminaries are you thinking about?
Notthemama1984
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Puritan Reformed
Polanus1561
Puritan Board Senior
You want to teach homiletics at Puritan Reformed? I think it’s ambitious for a non HRC/FRCNA minister to consider that.
Notthemama1984
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Oh sorry. I thought you were asking which seminary I was thinking of attending.
I have zero thoughts on where to teach.
I have zero thoughts on where to teach.
iainduguid
Puritan Board Junior
As with PhD's, you have to want the DMin for its own sake rather than a stepping stone to something else. Most people will not be teaching afterward with either, though it can develop someone's skills usefully. Probably the majority of PT faculty at Reformed seminaries have DMin's. alongside pastoral experience. Counseling is less likely to have a DMin, though not impossible, especially in less integrationist schools.
In terms of the marketplace, there will be ever growing opportunities for adjuncting and serving online programs in the years ahead, as a side interest, not as a career. There will be steadily diminishing opportunities to teach full time in seminaries and Christian Colleges, whatever your qualifications.
It's also fair to say that not all DMin's are equal. I've read theses that would have sailed through a PhD program and others that weren't worth the paper they were written on. If you want to teach, you should aim to be closer to the former than the latter.
In terms of the marketplace, there will be ever growing opportunities for adjuncting and serving online programs in the years ahead, as a side interest, not as a career. There will be steadily diminishing opportunities to teach full time in seminaries and Christian Colleges, whatever your qualifications.
It's also fair to say that not all DMin's are equal. I've read theses that would have sailed through a PhD program and others that weren't worth the paper they were written on. If you want to teach, you should aim to be closer to the former than the latter.
Notthemama1984
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
I appreciate this
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