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Church and Community

The Master of Arts in church and community prepares students to lead congregations and ministries within diverse communities, responding to issues like racism, immigration and generational poverty to foster greater community health and sustainability. This program equips servant leaders to minister in ways that bring about greater community engagement, health and reconciliation.

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Upcoming Start Dates:

Online:
Jan. 28, 2025

Trevecca’s Master of Arts in church and community focuses on using a local congregation approach to provide community healing. Students train to lead congregations and ministries within diverse communities, responding to issues like racism, immigration, generational poverty and changing neighborhoods while working toward reconciliation.

Program Benefits

  • Complete your degree online in 24 months with no residency requirements.
  • Continue to work and focus on your other priorities while earning your degree, taking one course at a time with all materials delivered to you.
  • Utilize a built-in support system and complete your degree alongside others who are working toward similar goals through Trevecca’s cohort model.
  • Engage in optional face-to-face offerings like conferences, spiritual formation retreats and intensive summer classes in the U.S. and abroad.
  • Learn from faculty who possess the highest degrees in their fields and have relevant and valuable real-world experience.

What to Expect

With spiritual formation woven into every course, Trevecca’s Master of Arts in church and community can equip you to be a faith-filled servant leader in your local church and community. The program teaches you to critically evaluate and respond to contemporary societal issues from a Christian perspective. You’ll learn methods proven to help urban, rural and multicultural churches and communities flourish. This degree also equips you with deep theological insight and prepares you to engage in and minister to diverse communities with cultural sensitivity.

With our optional summer intensives, you’ll have the opportunity to study immigration and refugee ministry in Atlanta; the church in a post-Christian context in England; issues of underserved communities such as gentrification, food deserts, and homelessness in Nashville; and church planting in a multicultural context in Nashville or Florida.

Why Choose Trevecca?

Founded in 1901 and a leader in online education for more than two decades, Trevecca helps students discover and pursue an individual calling by providing innovative instruction; cultivating a supportive, Christ-centered community; and establishing relationships that open doors.

2024 #2 Online College in Tennessee, intelligent.comRecognized nationally and locally for academic quality, Trevecca has earned a reputation for providing the world with servant leaders, problem solvers and difference makers. Trevecca’s holistic approach to education encompasses intellectual, social, emotional, physical and spiritual growth.

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Course Descriptions

Get details on all the courses you’ll complete as you work toward this degree at Trevecca.

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Financial Aid & Costs

Financial Aid & Costs

Nearly every student at Trevecca receives some form of assistance in paying for college. Learn all about the affordability of a TNU education and options for receiving aid.

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Here’s a look at the approximate tuition rates you could expect for this program at Trevecca, including the cost per credit hour and the total tuition expense for the full degree program. Please note that rates and fees are subject to change.

Here’s a look at the approximate tuition rates you could expect for this program at Trevecca, including the cost per credit hour and the total tuition expense for the full degree program. Please note that rates and fees are subject to change.

Cost/Credit Hour

$463
Hours

32
Tuition Cost*

$14,816

*$150 Student Resource Fee assessed per course. $100 estimated book cost per course.

Admission Requirements

  • Bachelor's degree from an institution accredited by a CHEA-recognized regional accrediting agency or the Association for Biblical Higher Education. Students who do not meet these degree requirements may be conditionally accepted in accordance with the Conditional Admission Policy.
  • 2.7 cumulative GPA for all prior coursework
  • Photocopy of government-issued identification (e.g., driver's license, state ID, military ID, passport). This requirement ensures that Trevecca complies with the U.S. Department of Education expectations for student verification. (This is only required for students enrolled in an online program.
  • Some proficiency with computer technology and reliable access to technology throughout the program.

Upon admission, students must successfully complete Introduction to Graduate Theological Studies (THE 6005) before progressing through the remainder of the program.

Getting Started

  1. Complete the online application (it's free!). No GRE or GMAT scores required.
    Need help applying? Read the step-by-step instructions here!
  2. Fill out FAFSA to be considered for financial aid.
  3. Request official transcripts from your undergraduate institution.
  4. Submit your immunization records (online students exempted). Tennessee state law requires all colleges and universities to obtain immunization information from students. Please reference these instructions to properly submit your records.
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The program can be completed fully online, but there are optional face-to-face offerings that include conferences, spiritual formation events and retreats, synchronous sessions in courses and intensive classes that meet in the summer. Some of these summer intensives will be held on campus, but some will be part of domestic or international trips. These courses provide for learning in real contexts as well as face-to-face learning.

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Career Opportunities

With a Master of Arts in church and community, you’ll be equipped to be a servant leader in ministerial, community and nonprofit roles like these.

  • Senior pastor
  • Community outreach pastor
  • Lay leader
  • Missionary
  • Community partnership director
  • Community ministry leader
  • Nonprofit organization director

“I learned to engage in beautiful, tough topics – all through the framework of the gospel – in order to help those in my church do the same.”

Jacob Bell Trevecca graduate student

Our Faculty

  • Portrait for Kathryn Mowry

    Kathryn Mowry

    Professor, Intercultural Studies and Christian Education

    Kathryn is the J. P. Elizer chair of Christian ministry; professor of intercultural studies and Christian education; and program director for the Master of Arts in church and community. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in intercultural studies from ...

    Read Full Bio

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Course Descriptions

Get details on all the courses you’ll complete as you work toward this degree at Trevecca.*


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Cohort Schedule

View a sample schedule of the courses you will be taking when you enroll.

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Wesleyan Theology and the Life of the Church
THE 6400
An exploration of Wesleyan theology, hermeneutics and embodied Christian practice for today’s post-Christian contexts.
Credit Hours: 4
A Christian Theology of Place
THE 6410
An examination of God’s activity in relationship to place and the theme of place and land in Scripture and Christian history. Emphasis will be given to the unique Christian vision of God’s redemptive activity in particular places and a community-based (parish) model of Christian life and ministry.
Credit Hours: 4
Theology, Race, and Culture
THE 6420
This course examines a biblical vision of the human being, the image of God, the human relationship to sin, the tendency toward dehumanization and a vision for the redemption of humanity. Special focus will be given to racial dehumanization and a Christian response.
Credit Hours: 4
A Christian Theology of Hospitality
THE 6430
An examination of the theological theme of hospitality in Scripture and the life of the church throughout history, with particular attention to the unique responses of the people of God to poverty and immigration.
Credit Hours: 4
Leading Adaptive Change in Congregations
THE 6000
An examination of the nature of adaptive change and the ways in which narrative is key to (re)formation of congregational identity. This course addresses practices for re-narrating a congregation through the biblical narrative, listening for the congregation’s story, and exercising prophetic imagination.
Credit Hours: 4
Community Flourishing
CHC 6010
A biblical, theological, and sociological examination of what brings communities to flourishing and an examination of practices that seek the shalom of the cities where we have been sent. Specific attention will be given to practices of community exegesis, partnership, and advocacy in the halls of government.
Credit Hours: 4
Entrepreneurship and Contextual Expressions of Church
CHC 6020
A study creativity and innovation in forms of church that fit the local context as well as the overall post-Christian context in which we live.
Credit Hours: 4
Reconciliation and Intercultural Ministry
CHC 6030
How does the church move towards embodying the diversity of the Kingdom of God? This course examines the nature of true reconciliation and practices for leading the process, as well as developing cultural intelligence and intercultural ministries that are reflective of the subversive power dynamics unique to the Kingdom of God.
Credit Hours: 4

*For a complete list of courses, tracks and other relevant information, view the program's course catalog.

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