George Fox Evangelical Seminary

Lead Mentor

Len Sweet Photo album

Currently the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew Theological School (Madison, N.J.), and Visiting Distinguished Professor at George Fox University, Leonard Sweet is the author of more than 100 articles, 600 published sermons and 30 books.

Founder and president of SpiritVenture Ministries, Sweet is a frequent speaker and conversation partner at conferences both in the United States and around the globe. In both 2006 and 2007, he was voted "One of the 50 Most Influential Christians in America" (thechurchreport.com). His weekly free podcast is called "Napkin Scribbles," and a longer subscription-based weekly podcast is available from WiredParish.com.

Students in the Leadership in the Emerging Culture tracks:

• Establish a conceptual basis for leadership
• Refine one's thinking about strategies for effective leadership
• Explore how one's identification with the person of Christ impacts one's self-perception as a leader
• Engage in and reflect on a cross-cultural experience in order to "think globally and act locally" with regard to leadership issues in their particular ministry contexts
• Reflect on the essential intermingling of leadership and spiritual formation in corporate Christian contexts
• Synthesize a coherent theology of leadership in that will serve to inform one’s practice of leadership

Semiotics and Future Studies Track-Specific Emphases

Dr. Sweet will lead students in accomplishing the objectives above by especially focusing on the following themes:

• Explore what it means to be Jesus semioticians, namely, learning how to sense what Jesus is doing in the world today and joining him.
• Explore the contours of a new ‘operating system’ for the church to engage culture in a Google era. Whereas the modern/Gutenberg era gave us attractional, propositional, and colonial types of ministry, the Google-world requires the church to become increasingly missional, relational, and incarnational.
• Explore explore what is ‘working’ in the Google-world, namely, approaches to ministry that are increasingly "EPIC’ (experiential, participatory, image-driven and connective).

EPIC

The track features an approach to academics that engages a variety of venues that are experiential, participatory, image-driven, and connective. It utilizes a mentor-based, cohort-driven model that values relationship. As such, faculty, staff and cohort peers comprise the heart of the program.

Online

The delivery system for the track utilizes a hybrid delivery model. Students participate in several conferences, receive personal mentoring from Dr. Sweet and select faculty advisors, engage in ongoing online interactivity with cohort members and professors, and engage in reading, reflection, research, and writing.

Advances

The advances constitute a central learning experience in the program. Students participate in the research courses while on campus, connect with cohort members in person, and spend time with Len Sweet.

Students attend a total of three advances with Len:

• Orientation Advance: George Fox Evangelical Seminary & the Paramount Hotel
• Second Advance: Timberline Lodge
• Final Advance: Outlook Inn & the North Shore Cottages, Orcas Island

While on campus during the orientation advance, students are responsible for their own lodging. Otherwise food, lodging and valet parking are provided for each of the host locations with incidentals excepted. Wireless Internet connectivity will be available. Students, however, are responsible for all air travel and local transport (car rental, taxi, etc) for each of the advances.

All advances are five days and four nights in length, beginning mid-day Monday and coming to a conclusion by Friday at 2 p.m.

During the first two years of the program, students participate in three sets of courses over six modules:

• Research courses: DMIN 513, 523, 533, 543
• Customized courses: DMIN 516, 526, 536, 546
• Len Sweet's courses: DMIN 517, 527, 528, 537, 547, 548

Explore the course catalog for descriptions of specific courses

The table below outlines the course sequence for the program:

Research Courses

The research courses prepare students for the dissertation phase of the program by helping them gain greater competence in information literacy - the art of knowing when one needs information, where to get it, how to access and evaluate it, and how to incorporate that information into one’s work. Students meet face to face for the first two days of each advance for DMIN 513, 523 and 543.

Customized Courses

The customized courses are designed to give students greater flexibility to pursue subjects of interest to them. Students are assigned a faculty advisor during the orientation advance who oversees and evaluates their work in these courses. The customized courses include three major elements:

• Learning Plans: Written up at the beginning of the module and approved by their faculty advisor, students propose a course of study for each module that includes a reading pool, conference and essay thesis.
• Conferences: Students attend a conference for modules 01, 02, 03 and 04 appropriate to their topic of study. Faculty advisor approval is required.

  Listed below are a sample of conferences that students have attended in the past. Students are not required to participate in any of these conferences.

  • Off-the-map
  • Poptech
  • Soularize | 2007
  • Hitchhikers Guide to Evangelism 2009 Tour
  • NPC home
  • AAR Annual Meeting
• Essays: All learning experiences for each module are synthesized in a 4,000-word essay at the end of semester.

Courses Taught by the Lead Mentor

Len Sweet's courses are characterized by directed reading and self-organizing interaction. Following Len's lead, students explore various aspects of leadership in the emerging culture. Len's courses normally include the following elements:

• Reading: Len provides a reading list and schedule of books, articles and websites for students to explore and discuss.
• Asynchronous discussion: Students meet weekly in an asynchornous chat forum to discuss the assigned course materials.
• Chat: Students meet once a week for synchronous chat. Len faciliates the discussion.
• Advances: As a part of DMIN 517, DMIN 528, and DMIN 548, Wednesday through Friday of the advances, students meet face to face with Len.

Dissertation Options

The program includes the design and completion of a dissertation that addresses both the nature and the practice of ministry. Students begin working on their dissertation at the orientation advance in DMIN513 and continue to do so throughout the program. Although the third year of the program is devoted to completing the dissertation, students will have made significant progress by the end of the second year. Ideally, much of the research associated with the customized courses can be applied toward the production of the dissertation.

The dissertation can take two forms - Track 01 and Track 02:

• Track 01: This approach allows students to write a traditional-style dissertation that addresses a ministry problem in depth and the theoretical framework that underpins a proposed solution.
• Track 02: This approach allows students (individually or in teams) to implement an artifact utilizing audio, video, web or print to incarnate a practical, real-world solution to a stated ministry problem. The Track 02 Dissertation is composed to two parts — a Written Statement and the Track 02 Artifact.

To learn more about the differences between the Track 01 and Track 02 Dissertation options, see:

• DMin Dissertation

Process for Completing the Dissertation

The research courses are designed to enable students to advance their dissertations, equipping them with the necessary skills to complete their work during the third year:

• DMIN 513: Students are introduced to the tools used for study and research.
• DMIN 523: Students develop a topic proposal for their dissertations.
• DMIN 533: Students develop a design proposal for their dissertations.
• DMIN 543: Students explore the process of research, writing and mapping out how to complete their dissertations.

At the end the first year of course work, during the Summer 01 Module, students declare which track they wish to pursue and state their choice of topic and dissertation. At this juncture, students are matched up with a dissertation advisor and, later, an expert advisor (Track 02 only) who will oversee their dissertations and provide appropriate guidance.

• Dissertation Advisor: The dissertation advisor for the students' Track 2 dissertations, he or she is responsible to oversee student progress in the conception, development and implementation of their dissertations.
• Expert Advisor (Track 02 only): A person selected on the basis of his or her technical experience and expertise relative to the student’s chosen media venue. He or she is responsible to ensure that students adequately address the appropriate technical and design considerations when developing their artifacts.

During the third year, students turn in successive portions of their dissertation to their dissertation advisor for review and comment. Students who plan to graduate in the spring alert the Doctor of Ministry office by completing a "Declaration of Intent to Graduate" survey by early December. By January of the third year, the evalutaion draft of the disssertation is due. Students are to send it first sent to their dissertation and expert (Track 02 only) advisors for review before being passed along to their secondary advisor and Len Sweet for evaluation. The dissertation is evaluated on an "as is" basis and a formal pass/no pass evaluation is returned to the student. If they pass, students move on to their oral defense in March. The oral defense is attended by the dissertation, secondary and expert (Track 02 only) advisors, and Len Sweet. An archival copy of the the dissertation is due by April 1. Students graduate in April/May.

Students who are unable to complete their dissertation by January or who have to make substantial revisions to the evalutaion draft of their disssertation must consult with their dissertation advisor to determine the best course of action to expedite the completion of the dissertation.