Denver Seminary

Denver Seminary is a Non-denominational Evangelical Protestant Seminary committed to glorifying God by equipping leaders to think biblically, live faithfully and lead wisely for a lifetime. To be an effective leader in today's ever-changing world, Christians must focus on fully comprehending the Bible, living a life of character and integrity, and leading in a global environment.

Under the expert guidance of Dr. Jan McCormack, we intentionally equip you to be that kind of leader within the full range of diverse chaplaincy contexts. Dr. McCormack is a Board Certified Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC), is pursuing ACPE (Association for Clinical Pastoral Education) Supervisory Certification, and is a retired Air Force Chaplain. Her experience also includes hospital, police, prison, business and industrial, crisis and trauma and NASCAR and Drag racing chaplaincies. She serves on the national boards of the ACPE, the Military Chaplains (MCA) and the APC. Chaplain McCormack is the co-author of The Work of the Chaplain. Under her mentorship, students are well prepared for a calling to chaplaincy as a vocation.

Our graduates are serving successfully as chaplains in the military, healthcare, sports and recreation, transportation, crisis and trauma, hospice, prisons, police and fire departments, business and industry, and eldercare settings. Whether you are exploring or committed to chaplaincy as a vocation, already a chaplain wishing to gather more extensive chaplaincy skills, a retiree looking for a meaningful specialized ministry or wishing to obtain post-graduate doctoral work, Denver Seminary is the place where chaplaincy is highly valued as a primary form of ministry.

Click here to see our chaplaincy students in action

Hear more about chaplaincy

One of Denver's local radio stations, AM91, recently conducted a weeklong interview series with faculty, students and alumni of Denver Seminary's chaplaincy program. You can listen to or download the talks below:

• Dr. Jan McCormack: stream | dwnld
• Brad Kenney: stream | dwnld
• Kathy Bird: stream | dwnld
• Ken Webb: stream | dwnld
• Naomi Paget: stream | dwnld
• Steve Reed: stream | dwnld

Watch a short video about chaplaincy:

Chaplaincy Certificate of Completion

This 10 semester-hour certificate program is ideal for students wishing to pursue a volunteer chaplaincy position; a chaplaincy vocation where the criteria for employment is not as standardized or credentialed; for persons wishing to "try out" the vocation before committing to a long-term educational, clinical and religious judicatory commitment; or for a retiree looking for a new "specialized ministry" vocation.

The successful completion of this certificate program can be applied to degree requirements in either Denver Seminary's MDiv or MA-Counseling Ministry degrees with a chaplaincy concentration.

MA in Counseling Ministries with Chaplaincy Concentration

click here for general information about this degree

This MA 62 SH degree integrates theology and Bible courses with practical counseling courses. The MA degree is designed for those who intend to pursue a volunteer chaplaincy position or vocation where the MDiv degree is not required such as eldercare, hospice, sports, local prisons, police or fire chaplaincies. Qualifications for military or federal prison positions require an additional 10 SHs.*

*Be sure to check with your own religious judicatory for any and all chaplaincy endorsement requirements and the particular place of employment to assure this degree would meet all requirements.

 *Choose one: CO 551 Crisis Counseling, CO 552 Marital and Premarital Counseling, CO 555 Addictions and Counseling, CO 647 Grief and Loss Counseling or CO 657 Counseling Responses in Crises & Disasters

# Choose one: PR 501 Defending the Christian Faith or PR 664 Religious Pluralism

MDiv with a Chaplaincy Concentration

click here for general information about this degree

This 97 SH degree prepares graduates for ministry in the church, the military, and federal prison system, hospitals and all other forms of paid and volunteer chaplaincies. As the "gold-standard degree, the MDiv fulfills the education requirement for licensing/ordination, endorsement to the specialized ministry of chaplaincy and for certification with various professional chaplaincy organizations.* It also prepares students for doctoral-level studies in many theological schools.

*Be sure to check with your own religious judicatory for any and all chaplaincy endorsement requirements.

* Choose one: CO 551 Crisis Counseling, CO 552 Marital and Premarital Counseling, CO 555 Addictions and Counseling, CO 647 Grief and Loss Counseling or CO 657 Counseling Responses in Crises & Disasters

DMIN Church and Parachurch Leadership Track

The DMin program offers students the ability to gain a terminal practical ministry degree. It is designed for the person who desires to pursue personal, academic and ministerial excellence in a disciplined, strategic, interactive learning environment. This program is perfect for a practicing chaplain who has been in ministry a minimum of three years, is moving from being a chaplain clinician to a supervisory chaplain, is already a supervisory chaplain, or wants to become an ACPE Supervisor or APC Board Certified Chaplain. The DMin combines required seminars with electives and independent studies to customize the program for personal educational and career goals.

We are in the process of researching for the purpose of establishing a Chaplaincy Concentration in our Leadership Track. As a first step we are holding a chaplaincy seminar which includes the opportunity to participate in a focus group to help us plan the chaplaincy concentration. This pilot seminar, "Institutional Leadership: Effective Chaplains Lead From Where They Are", will be offered July 20-24 2009 under the instruction of Dr. Dayne Nix, Commander, Chaplain, USN (Ret) and Dr. Jan McCormack, BCC, Chaplain, Lt Col, USAF (Ret). Students accepted to participate in this seminar will receive a tuition incentive for also participating in the focus group. Prospective DMin Chaplaincy students will not want to miss this opportunity to be in on the creation of their own future degree program!

Even now DMin Leadership students are able to customize the Leadership degree to meet their current personal, educational and institutional career needs, beginning with a choice of two additional Leadership Seminars and three Open Elective Seminars. There are eight total seminars in the degree program. Up to two seminars total may be taken as a combination of DMin transfer credits and/or Independent Studies (IS). Two ISs are available to those not transferring in any non-Denver Seminary DMin credits; one IS for those transferring in only three credit hours and no IS when transferring in six credit hours. ISs may be used by students for transferring in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). In that case, students may apply two units of CPE to one IS for up to six credit hours. Other IS ideas might be to design seminars concurrent with CPE Supervisory Candidate requirements, certification in a professional organization or military Command and Staff/ War College courses.

The one week seminars in January and July are on the Denver Seminary campus. Extensive reading and special assignments both precede and follow the sessions. Seminars include faculty instruction, peer-group interaction, self-analysis, theological reflection, independent research, and practical projects. A minimum of three years and a maximum of six years are available for completion of the degree.

Current Church and Parachurch Executive Leadership Concentration Seminars

*Note: Students can compete DMC 801 "Institutional Leadership: Effective Chaplains Lead From Where They Are" as one of their two additional Learning Seminars.

For more information

If you are interested in learning more about any of these degrees, please contact Denver Seminary at or 800-922-3040.

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