Doctoral Project Portfolio

At Portland Seminary, we value what you bring to the table ... as a person, ministry leader, and as someone called by God to fill a need in the world that only you can fill.

The seminary's three-year doctoral research process takes this into account. We recognize each student has individual gifts, passions, and callings. Our approach to collaborative design for ministry and nonprofit contexts enables you to engage with stakeholders to address a challenge, customize your learning experience, and apply what you discover.

The Research Journey

The 22-credit-hour research sequence is divided into a series of milestone assignments organized around three stages: Discover, Design, and Deliver. These milestones facilitate a clear sense of progress, moments to celebrate and timely graduation.

Ultimately, the goal of the process is to develop competency in addressing a real-world Need, Problem, or Opportunity (NPO) and provide you with expertise in your chosen area of research.

Under the guidance of your project faculty mentor, you will engage a variety of stakeholders from your context in a grassroots discovery process to assess the real needs of those impacted by the need, problem, or opportunity (NPO). The findings are summarized in an NPO Charter, and the following semester you immerse yourself in the theological and academic literature relevant to your research to understand the NPO more deeply.

You’ll brainstorm ideas for addressing the NPO with another group of stakeholders and experts from your context, further research literature related to your emerging solution, and create and test a prototype. Based on your findings, you’ll identify your MVP.

In the third year, you will submit a doctoral project delivery plan for approval to identify the project's scope, benchmarks of success, and development timeline. You next develop your doctoral project and gather early feedback. After evaluating and reporting your progress, you’ll make further improvements on the project. Finally, you’ll develop a post-graduation launch and sustainability strategy. 

An evaluation committee assesses the Doctoral Project, Project Launch Plan, and Project Portfolio. After corrections, you prepare the Project Portfolio for archival to the University's Digital Commons for DMin Projects or DLd Projects.