Many who come to seminary are already engaged in world-changing service, shaping communities through love, organizing, and justice. Others dream of transformation but need the tools to make it happen. The Master of Arts in Public Ministry program will deepen your skillset and pair it with theologies that nurture social transformation.
Designed for both clergy and laity, the degree is equally well-suited for students pursuing ministry or leadership in non-profit organizations. A foundation in practical theologies is paired to personalized study, so you can learn what you need to flourish. Study beside colleagues committed to living out the gospel’s call to empower people and mend the fractures in communal life.
For 150 years, Garrett Seminary has been the leading voice in Methodist Deacon formation. Our roots trace back to the 19th Century Chicago Training School, which taught thousands to nurture social transformation. Today, we believe just as strongly that deacons are God’s hands and feet in the world. And with General Conference expanding deacons’ sacramental authority and responsibilities, there has never been a better time to pursue your call.
The Church is not contained within the walls of any parish, so Garrett is investing in leaders who feel called to bring the gospel into our streets, newspapers, and social media ecosystems. Find your voice to proclaim God’s love and justice into a world hungry for this gift. Study with professors who live out the connection between academic theology and public life, beside colleagues who will become your partners in that work.
Are you tired of fractured society? Exhausted by political polarization, and “solutions” that only seem to deepen this divide? At Garrett, we believe we can remain true to our convictions while simultaneously nurturing dialogue and partnerships. Learn skills for effective bridge-building and social repair, so you can lead a generation that will be known as repairers of the breach.
The Master of Arts in Public Ministry is a 39-credit hour program. Students can complete their degree as a residential student (primarily in-person courses on Garrett’s campus) or as a hybrid student (primarily online courses) or online only student.
Foundational Courses (24-credit hours)
Concentration and Elective Courses (15-credit hours)
Foundational Courses
Additional United Methodist Requirements (15)
**This degree is designed to meet the requirements of UM students seeking ordination as Deacons.
MAPM students complete 2 semesters of field education. Combining hands-on experience with peer group discussions, you will come to know approaches to ministry leadership, cultivate practical skills in context as you do the work of ministry with skilled church and community leaders, and engage in critical reflection on the Christian leaders you are called to be.
The Public Ministry Project is a capstone project that you will develop in the final year of your program. The project integrates your experiences in field education and your degree coursework.
MAPM students can complete their degree as a residential student (primarily in-person courses on Garrett’s campus) or as a hybrid student (primarily online courses) or as a completely online student.
Students in the Master of Arts in Public Ministry degree can choose between three concentration tracks that each have a prescribed set of courses. Concentration tracks include:
Students can round out their Master of Arts degree with the Master of Divinity degree. The MDiv/MA allows students to become specialists in the area of their MA degree while broadening their theological, spiritual, and leadership foundations through the Master of Divinity.
Garrett offers courses in a variety of course modalities to meet a variety of scheduling needs. Course options include in-person, online, hybrid, and more. While the program is taught by faculty of Garrett, students may also take courses at Northwestern University and at any of the Association of Chicago Theological Schools (ACTS) in the Chicago metropolitan area.
The courses [in the MAPM] helped connect theory and theologies of public social justice to methods and models for social change,” he says. “Once I better understood environmental racism, I was able to ask, “Where are they developing and at whose cost? How does this harm poor people? Who is in pain?”
Praveen Raj (MAPM 2024, current Ph.D. student in Theology and Ethics)
I’ve been exploring the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny and historical trauma. Not just on our legal systems, but the ways those forces traumatized indigenous communities and especially indigenous bodies. Healing and identity are rooted in nature as well as self, so healing bodies also means healing nature.
Jessica Hopkins, MAPM ’24
Students who graduate from MA in Public Ministry degree will be able to:
Read and interpret the dominant forces and trends shaping both local and global life.
Identify and analyze the interconnections between diverse manifestations of injustice, violence, and oppression.
Demonstrate a critical, spiritually-grounded, and practice-based understanding of self and others in preparation for transformative leadership.
Identify and analyze a variety of collaborative methods, movements and approaches for social change and transformational educational leadership.
Examine and communicate Christian traditions for the sake of realizing justice, critical awareness, and healing in diverse settings.
Investigate an orientating public concern for liberative praxis.
Propose a model of ministry based upon a creative application of diverse methods (e.g., participatory pedagogy, community organizing, ecological design) for social change.
Garrett-Evangelical accepts applications from students with a minimum GPA of 2.5 in a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university or from an AETH-certified Bible institute. Because our primary language of instruction is English, applicants be able to show English proficiency, as evidenced by a previous degree in English or completion of either the Duolingo or Test of English as a Foreign Language test.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. International student applications are due by February 1st.
