M.A. in Ministry Leadership Program Options

Student can start their degree in any Fall semester. Depending on the order of courses offered in a particular year, students will have one of four predetermined course sequences. In order to facilitate this pace, courses will be a combination of hybrid/modular, semester long, and online.  

At this pace, the M.A. can be completed in between 18-21 months (depending on which sequence a student starts in the Fall).

Wheaton College undergraduate students can earn a B.A. and M.A. in five years by taking graduate credit courses during their senior year (students may take up to sixteen hours during senior year). Students can also take four credits of electives in the summer after their senior year, if possible. An application should be submitted to the Graduate Admissions Office prior to earning ninety undergraduate credit hours. 

Most of the students in this program work fulltime, so the self-paced course structure allows you to keep your job while earning your degree. This structure enables students to immediately apply their learning in their current context while earning a Master's degree.  

The courses are a hybrid/modular format, meaning the beginning of the semester starts online with introductory assignments, then continues with a 6-day on-campus intensive portion, and finishes with papers and/or projects for the remainder of the semester. Most students complete the program by coming to campus for these hybrid/modular courses three weeks a year, usually once a semester (Fall, Spring, and Summer).  

At this pace, the M.A. can be completed in as little as 3 years but students have up to 5 years to complete the degree. Students can work with an adviser to plan out their own self-paced schedule for the 42 credit hour program.

In a cohort model, a group of students stay together throughout the program, taking all their classes together. The goal of a cohort is for you to build lasting relationships within a learning community. 

Wheaton has partnered with certain church, para-church and denominational organizations to create cohorts for their members. Learn more about our partnership cohorts. 

If you are an executive pastor who never had the chance to go to seminary, or you chose not to go because you did not think it would apply to you, consider joining our cohort of executive pastors on their journey to the M.A. in Ministry Leadership in a unique track especially designed for executive pastors of megachurches.