Normally, to be considered for admission to the Acadia DMin program, you must:

• Be currently serving in a paid Christian ministry position. The Doctor of Ministry program is designed to help Christian ministry professionals grow without having to leave their ministry contexts.
• Have completed a Master of Divinity degree (or its educational equivalent) from a seminary accredited by The Association of Theological Schools in the United States or Canada.
• Have completed a minimum of three years of paid vocational ministry experience.
• Have earned a minimum 3.00 Grade Point Average on a 4.0 scale (or “B” average) in your Master of Divinity or equivalent educational program.*
• Show evidence of strong writing ability.

If you do not exactly match the above criteria but think that you may be eligible for admission, please get in touch with Dr. Jody Linkletter or Dr. Benjamin MacDonald.

Degrees from institutions outside of North America may be accepted provided schools can demonstrate that they meet the Standards of the Board-approved degrees for admission.

*Equivalency is calculated on the basis of credit hours (72 graduate semester hours), content of previous education, GPA, accreditation of the educational institution. If students do not meet equivalency to enter into the DMIN, they will have the opportunity to work with the DMIN team to select the courses at ADC to help meet that equivalency.

We consider transfer students into our DMin program. If you have completed some doctoral studies at another recognized seminary or university and are considering transferring to Acadia, we would be pleased to review your transcript and discuss what you would need to complete to earn an Acadia DMin. Contact Dr. Jody Linkletter or Dr. Benjamin MacDonald to arrange an individual consultation.

By the end of this program participants should be able to:

1. Critically discuss and research advanced biblical and theological understandings pertinent to developing enhanced ministry practice.
2. Show an advanced contextually and culturally aware understanding and integration of ministry in which theory and practice interactively inform each other.
3. Demonstrate skills and abilities, including methods of appropriate research, that enable effective ministry leadership at a high level.
4. Critically reflect upon various personal, professional, vocational, and spiritual, values, attitudes, emotions, and competencies as witness to maturing faith.
5. Contribute to the understanding and practice of ministry through the completion of a doctoral level thesis / project that contributes new knowledge and understanding to the practice of ministry.

* Tuition is a 4-year program fee and students are billed each term over the course of their 4-year program, following a trimester payment system of September, January, and May. In year four, the payment of the program fee will be made in two installments (September and January). This fee is subject to an annual increase.

** Students choosing to take more than four years to complete the program will be charged an annual continuance fee, which is currently $922. The continuance fee is payable annually if the Thesis-project extends beyond one year, until the degree is completed.

***Graduates of the Acadia Doctor of ministry program, or those who hold a doctoral degree in ministry or theology from another recognized school, are welcome to audit classroom-based courses, subject to available space.

Updated Aug 2022

Scholarships & Bursaries

Unlike most other DMin programs, Acadia offers qualifying DMin students generous financial assistance. According to the Association of Theological Schools, Acadia has the highest per-student endowment of any seminary in Canada. Because of this, and the generosity of supporters, DMin students are able to apply to receive significant financial assistance.

Acadia Doctoral Scholarship:

The Acadia Doctoral Scholarship is currently valued at up to a total of $3,000 (up to $750 each year for each of the of four years).

It is awarded automatically on admittance on the basis that the following conditions are met:

• You maintain a course load of 9 credit hours per academic year (September-August).
• You maintain a “B” average. If your average falls below a “B”, you will lose your scholarship beginning the next academic year.

International Student Scholarship:

Students from outside North America will be eligible for an International Student Scholarship.

This scholarship is valued at $1,000 and is awarded on the same basis as the Acadia Doctoral Scholarship above.

Students have to successfully complete 30 credit hours of course work in order to enter the DMin writing stage and then successfully complete a supervised 12 credit hour DMin project.

A Cumulative Grade Point Average of 3.00 (on a 4.33-point scale) must be achieved for candidates to be eligible to receive the DMin degree.

No course with a grade of less than B- (2.67) may be presented for the degree.

If a student receives a mark below a B- in a course, they may be allowed to re-take (re-sitting) a course in the same discipline. Students only have this option available once during their degree program in addition to the Comprehensive Evaluation.

A successful supervised project requires to be researched, written, submitted, defended, and pass examination at the required level.

The statute of limitations for the degree is a maximum of six (6) years.

The ADC DMin is not a streamed program. Students are expected to take a variety of offered courses in Bible, Theology, and Ministry that prepare them with the transferable skills for writing a thesis/project. A directed study, the candidacy evaluation, and the thesis/project allow students to research and write in an area of particular area of interest and study.

Current thesis/projects include:

• What is the value of Henri Nouwen’s spiritual identity of the “Life of the Beloved” in youth ministry?
• How can an analysis of selected Easter sermons (2010 – 2019) of Dr. Andrew Stirling inform our understanding of the role of rhetoric in preaching?
• How do multiple generations in one congregation respond to different approaches to narrative preaching?
• What are the operational implications of the role of the family in the work of Canadian Baptist Ministries field-staff operating in cross-cultural collectivist cultures?
• How might a postmodern pneumatology aid Christians navigate the epistemological doubt-certainty gap as influenced by the postmodern condition in a variety of contemporary ministry contexts?

All participants will be required to take two courses at the Wolfville campus at the start of their program. The remaining DMin courses can be completed in a dynamic online format involving both asynchronous and synchronous times.

DMin courses are offered in a rotation with DMin Writing and Research in the Summer along with Ministry Courses, and 1 Bible or Theology in the Fall and one in the Winter.