ACU’s Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) is an advanced professional degree to enhance your practice as a ministerial leader. Our professors nurture your deep spiritual formation to sustain a God-shaped ministry in diverse cultural contexts. Combining academic rigor with praxis, the D.Min. serves scholar-practitioners in a wide array of leadership roles such as congregational ministry, missions, church planting, chaplaincy and nonprofit organizations.

Our program is flexible, with residency periods occurring just twice a year in Abilene or Melbourne, Australia. This allows you to remain rooted in your home and ministry.

This 33-credit hour resident graduate program in ministry is designed to be completed in three years. It offers four tracks to choose from: Generalist, Christian Spiritual Formation, Leadership for Missional Renewal and Preaching for Community Transformation.

Explore the history, language and texts of ancient and Eastern Christianity to gain insight into rich and profound traditions, theology and people. Though the program has a broad focus on exploring the roots of religion, it offers a specific focus in learning about the Christian East.

Primarily suited for students preparing to pursue doctoral study, this program equips you with advanced academic foundations in historical research with an emphasis on the languages you need to conduct such research. Take part in intensive reading of primary historical and theological works.

This 48-credit hour resident graduate program in ministry is designed to be completed in two years. It offers coursework in the history of Christianity, theological explorations, Christian missions and more.

ACU’s Master of Arts in Christian Ministry is a flexible degree program designed to equip you for competent leadership in youth and family ministry, children’s ministry and education ministry. This M.A. degree is ideal if you’re looking to deepen your theological knowledge for a career outside ministry, such as education or social service. The many elective hours allow you to personalize your degree plan to match your particular passions and interests.

This 48-credit hour resident graduate program in ministry is designed to be completed in two years. It offers:

• Four tracks to choose from: Spiritual Formation, Ministerial Leadership, Ministry and Bible, and Student and Family Ministry.
• Courses can include Biblical Exegesis, History of Christianity, Systematic Theology and more.

Deepen your understanding of historic expressions of Christianity from the 16th to the 21st Century. They have seen fascinating and complex development of global Christianity. ACU’s Master of Arts in modern and American Christianity is a research-oriented degree that deepens your understanding of historic expressions of Christianity, specifically from the 16th to the 21st Century.

Take the opportunity to dive into research projects with guidance from experienced historians, and engage with others in the field by publishing and presenting your findings at regional and national scholarly societies. This program is solid preparation for pursuing a Ph.D.

This 48-credit hour degree program is designed to be completed in two years. It offers coursework in the history of Christianity in America, global Christianity, advanced restoration history and more.

The Master of Arts in New Testament improves your ability to interpret the New Testament texts, understanding them within their larger cultural and theological contexts. Our academically rigorous program trains you in how to think, not what to think. You gain proficiency in appropriate exegetical tools and languages as well as a broad understanding of textual and theological issues.

This 48-credit hour resident graduate program in ministry is designed to be completed in less than three years. It offers coursework in intermediate Greek and exegetical seminars in the Gospels, Acts, Epistles and more.

Improve your ability to interpret the Old Testament texts, growing in your understanding of their larger cultural and theological contexts through the Master of Arts in Old Testament. This program offers academic rigor that engages you with the hard questions, teaching you how to think, not what to think. With the appropriate exegetical tools and languages, you develop a broad understanding of textual and theological issues.

This 48-credit hour resident graduate program in ministry is designed to be completed in less than three years. The coursework includes intermediate Hebrew, Old Testament theology, the Pentateuch and more.

The Master of Arts in Theology develops you as a reader, researcher, writer and thinker through critical and constructive engagement with the Christian tradition and contemporary scholarship. Cultivate your skills and knowledge to engage and deploy the resources of the Christian tradition through the church, academics and society.

This 48-credit hour resident graduate program in ministry is designed to be completed in two years. It’s courses include systematic theology, contemporary religious thought, theological explorations and more.

ACU’s Master of Arts in Global Service prepares you for ministries that require living, working and communicating in the intercultural contexts typical of today’s global society. Drawing upon theology, sociology, anthropology, history and communication theory, the M.A. in Global Service challenges you to analyze contemporary global concerns, formulate Christian perspectives and explore solutions to intercultural challenges.
Our innovative online global service degree includes four one-week campus residencies, combining web-based course work with face-to-face learning to create an incredibly flexible educational experience.

This 48-credit hour program in ministry is designed to be completed in less than three years. Coursework includes philosophy of religion, witness in a global context, reading and engaging contemporary cultures and more.

The Master of Divinity (M.Div.) is the most comprehensive, formational degree for ministry that ACU’s Graduate School of Theology offers. It embodies our shared mission to serve the church by equipping our students.

We believe ministry preparation cannot be classroom-only learning. The M.Div. offers you a firm grounding in scripture, history and theology with experiential training in practical ministry skills such as spiritual formation, preaching, teaching, pastoral care while navigating culture, people and conflict. Be prepared to enter into all forms of ministry or expand your current vocation; it is a solid foundation for further study in Ph.D., Th.D. and D.Min. programs.

Our faculty are internationally noted scholars who have a profound commitment to the formation of students. They are accessible and responsive to students’ needs and hospitable to their ideas and voice. Weekly mentoring groups provide an informal setting for prayer and discussion among your peers and faculty mentors.

This 72-credit hour program in ministry is designed to be completed in less than four years. It offers coursework in New Testament theology, introduction to Hebrew, theology of ministry and more.

Prepare for effective ministry in missions in a diverse and globalizing world. The Master of Divinity in Missions is the traditional breadth of the Master of Divinity degree with an extra focus on culture and issues relating to the gospel. This degree prepares you for a wide range of career paths, such as church planting, leadership in faith-based NGOs, chaplaincy, missions ministry at a local church and general mission work around the world. It also provides a solid foundation for further study in Ph.D., Th.D. and D.Min. programs.

ACU was named the Top Mission Minded Christian College of 2017 by Christian Universities Online. This title is largely due to the opportunities for our students through Halbert Center for Missions and Global Service here at ACU.

This 72-credit hour on-campus program is designed to be completed in less than four years, offering courses in theology of missions, witnessing in global contexts, leadership in intercultural contexts and more.

Pursue your D.Min. without an M.Div. degree. If you are interested in a D.Min. and hold an M.A. or other theological master’s degree, M.Div. Equivalency provides an avenue for you to gain the necessary requirements for entry into the D.Min. program without starting from scratch on an M.Div. degree.
We will review your graduate transcripts to determine which courses you’ve already taken will fit into the M.Div. equivalency plan, granting you as many credits of your credits as possible.

Abilene Christian University’s Graduate School of Theology is accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada to award its master’s and doctoral degrees.

ACU’s Graduate School of Theology is accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. Contact the Commission on accrediting at 10 Summit Park Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15275 or call 412-788-6505 for questions about accreditation.