KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Midwestern Seminary is introducing a Doctor of Ministry (DMin) concentration in Biblical Theology to equip pastors and ministry leaders to connect close study of Scripture with faithful ministry in the local church. The concentration will emphasize understanding individual biblical texts within the unfolding story of redemption and applying that understanding to preaching, teaching, discipleship, and leadership.
“We are delighted to offer this new concentration in Biblical Theology, which brings the strength of our doctoral faculty to bear on the crucial task of equipping of pastors for the everyday work of pastoral ministry,” said President Jason Allen. “Our aim is to equip pastors and ministry leaders to read the whole Bible as one unfolding story fulfilled in Christ, and to faithfully lead, preach, and disciple their people in light of it.”
Drawing on the work of biblical theology, the concentration will help students consider how the Bible’s unified message shapes both the goals of ministry and the means of pursuing them.
Rustin Umstattd, assistant dean of doctoral studies, stated, “The goal of the Doctor of Ministry in Biblical Theology is to help you become equipped to teach your people this unfolding story of Scripture, so that they would have a greater love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a deeper understanding of His revelation in the Bible, and a greater appreciation of the mission that He has us on.”
Thor Madsen, dean of doctoral studies and vice president of academic initiatives, explained that the concentration responds to a growing interest in biblical exegesis that allows Scripture to establish the questions interpreters ask and considers each passage within its broader biblical context.
That approach involves reading individual texts in light of both an author’s body of work and the storyline of the entire Bible. Rather than beginning with abstract questions imposed on a passage, students will seek to understand the text on its own terms and allow that understanding to inform ministry decisions.
“At Midwestern Seminary, we serve the church by pursuing biblical goals using biblical means,” Madsen said.
He explained that both ministry goals and the means used to pursue them must arise from biblical exegesis. Biblical theology serves that task by helping interpreters understand more fully what God has revealed.
“Biblical theology is well suited to a DMin degree, as it is well suited to work in the classical disciplines, because its purpose is to refine the process of exegesis,” Madsen said.
In announcing the concentration, Umstattd described its relationship to the work undertaken in Midwestern’s Ph.D. in Biblical Theology. While the Ph.D. engages Scripture in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, the DMin concentration brings the fruit of that study to bear on ministry in the local Church.
“The Doctor of Ministry in Biblical Theology takes the work that’s being done through the Ph.D. in Biblical Theology and says, how do we apply this to the local church in our preaching, in our teaching, in our discipleship of our members?” Umstattd said.
He traced the biblical storyline from creation and the fall through God’s work with Abraham, Moses, and David, emphasizing that these developments find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The concentration seeks to equip ministry leaders to help their congregations understand that unified narrative rather than approach the Bible as a collection of disconnected ideas.
Jason DeRouchie likewise emphasized the importance of biblical theology for understanding Scripture’s witness to Christ.
“Pastors and ministry leaders will honor God and serve themselves and Christ’s church by engaging in biblical theology, for it is the discipline that wrestles with how the whole Bible progresses, integrates, and climaxes in Christ,” DeRouchie said.
He noted that this understanding has implications across the work of ministry, including preaching, teaching, discipleship, leadership, and counseling.
“Ministers of the new covenant must understand and apply the gospel rightly in preaching, teaching, discipleship, leadership, and counseling,” DeRouchie said.
For DeRouchie, that work requires understanding the whole counsel of God, reading Old Testament texts faithfully, and recognizing their relationship to Christ and the gospel. Deeper training in biblical theology serves ministry leaders as they guide others through the message of the whole Bible.
Students in the Biblical Theology concentration may pursue either the Applied Ministry Track or the Strategic Ministry Track. Madsen explained that the tracks share the same foundational curriculum and diverge at the dissertation stage.
“The two tracks part company at the point of dissertation research and composition, not before that time,” Madsen said. “Their foundational curricula are the same.”
The distinction concerns the rationale for pursuing a particular ministry goal in a particular way and for a larger purpose. Within the Biblical Theology concentration, close attention to Scripture will inform the reasoning behind proposed changes in local ministry settings.
Madsen described the ideal candidate as someone seeking to grow in theological reflection and the strategic planning or leadership that follows from it.
“To the extent that candidates are energized by close readings of the biblical text, followed by specific ministry application, the DMin in Biblical Theology is ideal for them,” Madsen said.
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Learn more about the DMin in Biblical Theology.
