MTh Ministry in an Urban World

This is a professional, in-service programme, structured around four residencies in two years, and a Research Project related to the student’s own urban ministry in year three.  It has been carefully designed with the express purpose of enhancing the effectiveness of the student’s ministry, equipping him/her to be an agent of personal and social change.

The programme provides students with theological, sociological and historical perspectives on the city, and through residency teaching and a series of Readers related to each aspect of the subject, equips them with critical tools with which their ministry can be analysed and developed. The programme utilizes the experience of ministry within each cohort as a vital learning tool and intentionally develops a group-learning approach which draws upon the knowledge, problems and challenges faced by the international group of experienced practitioners who make up each cohort. The programme is global in scope, with one residency taking place in a city in the Southern hemisphere.

In the first two years of the programme the cohort meet together in Glasgow for three ‘residencies’, with a visit to a European city (most recently Berlin) in order to learn from colleagues in different urban contexts. The fourth residency exposes Western students to the realities of urbanisation in global perspective, providing opportunity to experience the realities of life as it exists for millions of urban dwellers in the slums of Africa, Latin America and Asia, while also discovering the presence of spiritual vitality and real hope within such contexts.

The academic content of the programme is structured around four ‘tracks’:

The content of these tracks is delivered over the first two years, but assignments are devised in a manner that enables the learning gained from these materials to converge in preparation for the Research Project in the third, final year. The Project must be related to an aspect of the student’s own urban ministry and it will make concrete proposals for change and transformation within that ministry. It should be stressed that students do not pursue these studies without reference to the views and ideas of colleagues who share ministry with them. Participants must establish an active support group made up of people with an interest in the work and an ability to support them in these studies, and they are expected to consult with colleagues, especially in the final phases of the degree.

The Programme leader is Dr Wesley White who combines this role with on-going church-planting ministry in the West End of Glasgow.

Other staff include, Rev Peter Neilson, author of the Church of Scotland’s Church Without Walls report; Richard Tiplady, British Director of the European Christian Mission and author of Post-mission and other books dealing with mission and postmodernity; Graeme McMeekin who is part of ICC's Youth Work Department, and Rev Dr David Smith, who developed the programme over a number of years before his retirement in March 2009.  The programme also makes use of a wide range of experienced urban ministry practitioners in Glasgow, Nairobi and Berlin.