The Master of Arts in Christian Leadership degree program is designed to prepare students for personal and organizational leadership roles in a wide variety of church, parachurch, missions, and marketplace contexts.
The MACL program at DTS is designed to help men and women learn who God has uniquely gifted them to lead in whatever ministry setting they are called to serve.
The Curriculum
The 2-year MA programs at DTS have a common core of Bible and theology coursework along with specific training in leadership skills that you can apply in your ministry context.
Biblical Exposition
BE5101 Bible Study Methods and Hermeneutics
BE5102 Old Testament History I
BE5103 Old Testament History II & Poetry
BE5104 Old Testament Prophets
BE5105 The Gospels
BE5106 Acts & Pauline Epistles
BE5107 Hebrews, General Epistles, and Revelation
BE5109 Ruth, Psalms, Jonah, and Selected Epistles
Systematic Theology
ST5101 Theological Method and Bibliology
ST5102 Trinitarianism
ST5103 Angelology, Anthropology, and Hamartiology
ST5104 Soteriology
ST5105 Sanctification and Ecclesiology
ST5106 Eschatology
Communication and Leadership
EML5101 Designing and Leading Effective Ministries
EML5105 Teaching Process and Media Presentations
EML5331 Personal Leadership Development
EML5332 Organizational Leadership Development
INT5150 MACL Ministry Formation Internship
PM5101 Christian Life and Witness
Electives and Spiritual Formation
SF5100 Spiritual Formation
Elective – 9 credits
Immersive Learning
See the many ways students are prepared for a lifetime of fruitful ministry.
![image of people sitting at a table with a notebook](data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="2560" height="1707"><rect width="100%" height="100%"><animate attributeName="fill" values="rgba(153,153,153,0.5);rgba(153,153,153,0.1);rgba(153,153,153,0.5)" dur="2s" repeatCount="indefinite" /></rect></svg>)
Financial Aid
Through our donors and Foundation, we are able to offer hundreds of scholarships to students every year.
![image of cross](data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="2560" height="1920"><rect width="100%" height="100%"><animate attributeName="fill" values="rgba(153,153,153,0.5);rgba(153,153,153,0.1);rgba(153,153,153,0.5)" dur="2s" repeatCount="indefinite" /></rect></svg>)
Ministry Residency
Qualifying MACL students may complete a ministry residency at a local church, which includes two week-long intensives on the Dallas campus. This replaces the internship requirement.
Stories from our community
God has placed our graduates in a variety of settings including traditional church work, parachurch ministries, and schools, as well as in corporations and homes.
Dr. Josh Bleeker – Serving Leaders in Washington DC
Meet Dorothy Burton, Founder of Christians in Public Service
Chinzo Jargalsaikhan’s Passion to Bring Jesus to Mongolia
Program Details
Common Goals for Professional MA Programs
Students in all of professional MA programs at DTS will be able to:
- demonstrate a general knowledge of the Bible, including a synthetic understanding of the major books;
- evidence an understanding of the historical development of theology, a knowledge of premillennial theology, and an ability to support their theological views and apply them to contemporary issues; and
- evidence an increasing likeness to Christ as manifested in love for God, love for others, and the fruit of the Spirit.
Goals for MA in Christian Leadership
In addition to the goals common to all professional degree programs at the seminary, students in this program will be able to:
- develop a biblical philosophy of Christian leadership;
- appraise the leadership needs of an organization;
- design a leadership development plan for an organization; and
- demonstrate transformational leadership skills within an organization.
Course Requirements
Sixty-six credit hours of coursework are required as a minimum for graduation. Of those hours, 22 are in prescribed Bible Exposition courses, 18 hours are in prescribed Systematic Theology courses, 17 hours are in Leadership courses, and 9 hours are in elective courses. The MACL requires 4 courses (i.e., 4 3-hour courses for a total of 12 hours) be completed in real-time.
Spiritual Formation
Because DTS values Christlike character and spiritual maturity, MACL students are required to register for and participate in Spiritual Formation groups for four consecutive fall and spring semesters at either the Dallas, Houston, or Washington DC campus. (MACL students who are not planning to move to Dallas, Houston, or Washington DC for four consecutive fall and spring semesters must contact the Spiritual Formation Office and apply for an alternative program for completing their Spiritual Formation requirement.)
In the Spiritual Formation curriculum, small groups of five to seven students focus on identity, community, integrity, and fidelity. The groups also provide an atmosphere for prayer, fellowship, and the integration of learning with life and ministry.
Because students participate with the same group during four consecutive semesters, they should plan their schedules so they may meet on the same day and at the same time each semester. Spiritual Formation is a noncredit, transcripted experience. Internship prerequisites include successful completion of SF5100-1, EML5101, and completion of half of their DTS course work.
Additional Spiritual Formation courses focusing on leadership may be taken as electives.
Students in the MA in Christian Leadership (MACL) program are required to take MinistrySafe’s Sexual Abuse Awareness Training.
Mobile MACL
The Mobile MACL is designed to allow qualifying students to stay in their current ministry while completing the requirements for the degree. The Mobile MACL is a cohort delivery model that allows students in a particular locale to go through the program together. DTS partners with local church and parachurch ministries to offer the degree. Locations are approved by the seminary as needed and when a sufficient number of students to comprise a cohort are enrolled in the program. DTS currently operates the MACL throughout the world. The seminary continues to consider new locations at which to offer the Mobile MACL.
The model includes a combination of residential (majority face-to-face) courses at the mobile location, residential courses in Dallas (or at another approved location), and online courses. In order to minimize time away from work and ministry, the residential courses in Dallas are special week-long courses at four different times during the degree program. During these weeks students complete online work before coming to Dallas, fulfill the residential requirements for courses in one week at Dallas, and complete online work after returning home. In the end, students spend a total of four weeks in Dallas over the course of the program.