Master of Arts: Youth Ministry
Mark Holcomb, M.R.E., Coordinator

The Master of Arts in Youth Ministry at Olivet Nazarene University provides a broad and powerful education for specialized ministry in the local church. The M.A. in Youth Ministries focuses on ministry to students and their families in today's culture in a local church context. It integrates theory and praxis, reflection and life. It is a two-year program. The first year provides a traditional classroom-based education. During the second year, the student engages in a mentored ministry to youth, coming back to Olivet for several one-week intensive courses, called modules. The mentor is a seasoned professional.

The Master's program in Youth Ministry draws some of its strength from the other disciplines at Olivet. The student takes courses from the Olivet master's program in Organizational Leadership as well as from Olivet's master's programs in counseling. The M.A. in Youth Ministry draws more strength from leading experts in the field of youth ministry who come to campus for face-to-face teaching, encounters, networking, and learning with our students. The combination of those experts with our own residential faculty, who total over 40 years of highly successful experience in youth ministry, makes Olivet's Master of Arts in Youth Ministry a powerful educational experience that will launch the student into a satisfying career of service for our Lord to the youth of the 21st century.

Core Values Motivating the M.A. in Youth Ministry

1. Integration: To integrate what the student learns in the classroom with the experience and practice of ministry in concrete settings.
2. Intentionality: Not only to integrate theory and praxis, but to do so consciously, clearly, explicitly and intentionally. Not to let anyone -- faculty or student -- forget the need for and the practice of integration.
3. Theological reflection: The faculty members in the M.A. in Youth Ministry believe that there is a right way and a wrong way to speak about God with young people and their families and communities. The goal is to encourage each student to grasp the theological foundations and implications of every aspect of ministry.
4. Multiple voices: Students in the youth ministry program should hear a variety of voices, including other students. And yet, perhaps somewhat paradoxically, students quite appropriately put a high value on quality interaction with the professor. To achieve these twin goals, we have structured our program with modules, half-semesters (called blocks), and semesters, enabling Olivet to bring in the complementary voices that the youth ministry community appreciates and the student deserves to hear.
5. Mentoring: Mentoring goes "way beyond" mere programming. The mentoring model in the M.A. program in Youth Ministry can and should become a lifelong style for productive ministry. The student should learn a mode of human interaction that will sustain the student in later life and ministry, both as one who mentors and as one who is mentored.
6. Lifelong learner: We seek to give the individual the tools and to reinforce the desire to become "global Christians" who seek to understand and who have the tools to understand the ever-changing climate of our global community.

Program Format

More than most master's degree programs, the M.A. in Youth Ministry uses a wide assortment of course formats and teaching methods: intensive modules, half-semester courses, full-semester courses, lecturing, mentoring, internships, seminars, papers, and projects.

A modular course meets for one week, normally Monday through Friday, normally on Olivet's campus. A modular course requires appropriate non-campus study before that week and additional off-campus study after that week. To complete the work done before and after the module, the student must have computer access to the internet. While students in the M.A. program in Youth Ministry take a few modular courses during their first year, they take all their courses as modules during their second year. This allows the second-year students to engage in their mentored youth ministry experience on a full-time basis and gives them the option to do that mentored experience at locations quite distant from Olivet's campus in Bourbonnais, Illinois. The modular courses are offered in August, January, and May. The program culminates in an Integrated Seminar during the final August of the second year, where the students present their projects and bring all the facets of their Olivet education in Youth Ministry into a coherent whole.

During the first year, the student takes 30 hours of course work. During the second year, the students take only 15 hours, thus allowing the second year student to focus on the mentored experience in youth ministry. The total program is 45 hours.

Admission Requirements

Olivet Nazarene University carefully assesses applicants for the M.A. in Youth Ministry program on the basis of evidence provided in all application materials. Therefore, while a personal interview is not required, application materials submitted must be prepared thoroughly, thoughtfully, and professionally for full consideration. Applications will be processed upon receipt of all required materials.

To be admitted into Olivet Nazarene University's Master of Arts degree in Youth Ministry program, an applicant must meet these prerequisites:

1. Submit a completed Olivet Nazarene University application form.
2. Submit a $25 application fee.
   
3. Submit an official transcript* of the student's undergraduate college work and of any graduate work being used to support the application for admission. *Note that official transcripts bear the registrar's seal from the institution granting credit and are sent directly to the Graduate Program Specialist, Olivet Nazarene University, School of Theology & Christian Ministry, One University Avenue, Bourbonnais, IL 60914-2345. If needed, you may use this form to request official transcripts from other institutions.
4. Submit three recommendations that evidence the ability to succeed as a graduate student in Olivet's Master of Arts in Youth Ministry program. One should be from a person able to address the applicant's academic ability; one from a pastor or other person who can speak to the applicant's Christian life, testifying to a moral character consistent with attendance at a Christian university; and one that is personal. The personal recommendation may be a second academic reference, or it may be a reference from a work or ministry supervisor. If the person making the pastoral reference is not also a supervisor, then a reference from a supervisor is especially appropriate. Click here to access the recommendation form.
5. Possess a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited college or university, with a cumulative GPA of at least 2.7 (on a 4.0 scale).
   
6. The applicant should have completed at least 15 semester hours of undergraduate courses including at least 3 hours each of biblical hermeneutics, homiletics or preaching equivalent, and pastoral care and counseling, and at least 6 hours of systematic theology. Students whose undergraduate preparation is deficient in these areas may apply for conditional admission, if they satisfy the other requirements. Rules and deadlines for making up the deficiency will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
7. Schedule an academic advising appointment with the graduate program specialist by calling the School of Theology and Christian Ministry at 815-928-5670.
8. Demonstrate the ability and discipline necessary to pursue rigorous graduate-level studies.

Time Limits

A student is allowed four years from beginning the first graduate course to complete the entire program in the M.A in Youth Ministry. Coursework beyond four years is evaluated by the Program Coordinator for the M.A. in Youth Ministry, or the Director of Graduate Studies, or the Dean of the School of Theology & Christian Ministry. Students granted permission for more than four years may be expected to meet current program requirements, and that may mean retaking one or more courses.

Graduation Requirements

To graduate, students must meet the following requirements.

1. Successful completion of the approved curriculum for the Master of Arts in Youth Ministries, with a minimum of 45 graduate semester hours of coursework. A course may be repeated one time if it carries a different subtitle.
2. A cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better. None of the 45 credit hours submitted for graduation may carry a grade of less than B-.
3. Fulfill all general graduation requirements of the School of Graduate and Continuing Studies.
4. Fulfill the following curriculum.

Curriculum

Follow these links to view the M.A. in Youth Ministry curriculum and see a sample calendar, and to view course descriptions. The student must complete all the courses in the curriculum. Note: this calendar is tentative and may be changed. It is provided only to help the student see the entire "course map" of the master's program in Youth Ministry. (A block is a half-semester, block 1 being the first half and block 2 the second.) While in most cases there will be no alternative, it is not a part of the curricular requirement for graduation that the student take the course at the time listed below. All courses are three hours.

For additional information, please contact the School of Theology and Christian Ministry at onugradreligion@olivet.edu or 815-928-5670.