Purpose

As part of its overall mission to educate persons for service in the Christian Church, Erskine Seminary offers the Master of Arts in Counseling Ministry (M.A.C.M.) degree. The purpose of this degree is to equip persons for competent leadership in counseling ministries in Christian congregations and other settings, to the end that God may be glorified. The purpose of counseling is to enable persons to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Erskine Seminary, then, is committed to the all-encompassing sufficiency of Jesus Christ to meet every human need; the authority of Scripture over all counseling approaches, techniques, and goals; and, the central role of the Church in facilitating wholeness.

Goals

1. Graduates will understand the Bible’s message in light of its own literary, historical, and theological settings.
2. Graduates will be prepared to articulate the relation between the Bible and the contemporary contexts in which ministry takes place.
3. Graduates will be prepared to utilize the Church’s historical and theological heritage as an important resource in their personal spiritual development and ministry.
4. Graduates will write and speak using theological language that is clear, well-considered, disciplined, and meaningful for those to whom they minister.
5. Graduates will possess the capacity for critical and constructive Biblical/theological evaluation of the major secular and Christian approaches to counseling.
6. Graduates will be prepared to serve the Church with Christian character and integrity in their personal and professional lives.
7. Graduates will be prepared to view their ministries in light of the Church’s mission to worship, follow, bear witness to, and serve Jesus Christ.
8. Graduates will be prepared to display self-awareness, wholeness, and ethics in the context of Christian service to others.
9. Graduates will be prepared to address personal issues that may impede the process of loving God, others, and oneself.
10. Graduates will be prepared to communicate the Bible’s message, so as to make clear that its meaning is relevant for today.
11. Graduates will be prepared to foster a sense of community among those they serve in Christian ministry.
12. Graduates will demonstrate effectiveness in assessment and the application of appropriate interventions/skills while working within a clinical or ecclesiastical context with individuals, couples, and groups across the life span.

Residency and Graduation Requirements

A student must complete 60 semester hours of course work to qualify for the M.A.C.M. degree. No more than 30 semester hours may be transferred in from another institution, and no more than 30 hours may be taken at Erskine Seminary’s extension centers. At least 30 semester hours must be earned at Erskine Seminary’s Due West campus. No thesis or dissertation is required for this degree. The program is designed to be completed in two years of full-time study, although students may spread their program over a longer period by studying part-time, not to exceed four years maximum.

Relation to Other Degrees

Students whose ministry goals warrant doing so may combine the M.A.C.M. with another of Erskine Seminary’s master’s degrees. Students who combine the M.A.C.M. with the M.Div. must complete 120 hours of total course work, including all courses required for both degrees. Students who combine the M.A.C.M. with another two-year degree must complete the 60 hours of the M.A.C.M., plus half of the hours required for the other degree, and must take all courses required for both degrees. In such cases, students will ordinarily be conferred both degrees at the same time, after the requirements for both have been met.

Curriculum

The M.A.C.M. degree must normally be completed within four years from the time the student is enrolled in the program. Students should note that most counseling courses are offered only every other year. Thus, careful attention should be given to the selection and sequence of courses due to the biennial scheduling of these courses. Students in two-degree programs may take only one practicum in any given semester. Students should pay close attention to the scheduling template and schedules for each year (posted on the web site and the bulletin board in Bowie Hall), to make sure they know when their required courses will be offered.

 All general seminary requirements for graduation must be met, including completion of the Professional Assessment program. Additionally, the student must complete all course work with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0. Individual courses passed with a grade below a “C” will not count toward the degree; in such cases the course must be retaken. While the grade for all attempted work remains on the student’s transcript, only the highest grade for a course is used in computing the cumulative grade-point average. The student must also pass the Comprehensive Counseling Ministry (CCM) examination that is administered once each term (or on an as-needed basis). Guidelines regarding the exam will be made available.

While the M.A.C.M. degree is designed primarily to prepare persons to engage in counseling ministry within the Church, some of the coursework may be acceptable for fulfillment of some state licensure requirements. The M.A.C.M. degree is not intended to provide all the courses and experiences needed for licensure as a counselor in South Carolina or other states, nor does the program guarantee that a student will be placed in a counseling position in a church, parachurch, or other organization. It should be noted that current South Carolina state regulations for licensure as a professional counselor (LAC) require 2000 hours of client contact and 200 hours of clinical supervision, all of which must be completed after receipt of the qualifying master’s degree.