The Master of Arts in Leadership Studies (MALS) provides advanced work for lay people, ministers, and ministerial students in the theory and practice of leadership within congregations and/or community-based ministries. It is designed to develop liberal religious leadership for congregational and community life, grounded in a clear sense of the current challenges for leadership within our contemporary pluralistic, multifaith, crosscultural world.

Educational Goals

  • Develop leadership skills for a pluralistic, multifaith, crosscultural world.
  • Develop competency in the history, theology and polity of one's own religious community.
  • Demonstrate spiritual and ministerial discernment through course work, site supervision and thesis.
  • Utilize the insights of leadership and organizational theory in parish and/or community ministry.
  • Demonstrate leadership specific to area of specialization (such as R.E., worship, youth ministry).
  • Participate in discourse with diverse constituencies of the Meadville Lombard community.

Degree Requirements

We require the successful completion of 18 units of credit (1 full course = 1 unit of credit). Of the 18 units, ten (10) are traditional academic courses taken in either the semester or intensive format. Additionally, the student will receive two units of credit for the thesis preparation and six units of credit for a supervised  full- time internship in a congregational or community-based setting (the internship is a requirement of the degree program).

Core Courses Required

  • Multicultural Congregations as an Act of Faith
  • Polity (UU or other denomination)
  • Fundraising and Administration
  • Liberal Theology
  • History (UU or other denomination)
  • Scripture
  • Internship - 6 units of credit
  • Thesis - 2 units of credit

Other Required Courses

The student must complete four courses in the cultural context of ministry, chosen from:

  • The Method is the Message
  • Problems in Public Ethics
  • Multifaith Theologies
  • Ethical Wisdom
  • Strategic Peacebuilding
  • Globalization, Religion and Ethics
  • African Americans and Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists
  • Leadership Studies seminar

Transfer Credit

Up to nine units of credit may be transferred from another graduate degree program.

 
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