In the spring of 2021, Talbot will be launching a new Doctor of Ministry track in African American Leadership. This innovative doctoral program will address the unique opportunities and challenges African American church leaders face in our rapidly changing culture.

The African American church has incredible potential to be a voice of hope, healing, justice, wisdom, redemption and reconciliation in our divided communities. This track will provide equipping and mentoring to those who are called to make a lasting impact in the black church.

The faculty-mentor for this track will be Parnell Lovelace, founding pastor of the Center of Praise Ministries in Sacramento, Calif., where he served for 25 years as it grew to over 3,000 people before he led the congregation through a planned succession. Lovelace has also served as the North American editor for the Great Commission Research Journal and wrote Set It Up: Planning a Healthy Pastoral Transition.

Over three years of coursework, students will learn the following:

Year One: Foundations of Black Church Spirituality

This course will look at the continued development of the black church as a socially transformative movement from its birth as a slave church to the present where it remains at the center of black life in the United States today. It will also explore how the African American church can contribute to the spiritual, social and economic well-being of the black community.

Year Two: Theology of African American Leadership

This course will examine the integral role church leaders play in the black community as catalysts and change-agents within the culture. It will also uncover examples of past leaders in the historic black church who used their pulpits as a platform to the world, addressing the subjects of suffering, evil, justice, redemption and empowerment.

Year Three: Innovative Methodologies of African American Leadership

This course will explore models of community development and transformation — with the leader as reconciler, cultural communicator and facilitator of change. It will also examine and deconstruct the current political climate where we will focus on issues of race, culture, Christianity and the American nation, where the ministry of reconciliation will be affirmed.

Guest speakers include Kenneth Ulmer, Efrem Smith, Doretha O’Quinn, Gary McIntosh and many more. For more information and to apply, visit talbot.edu/dmin or call (562) 903-4822.