Leadership Development
Preparation for leadership in the Catholic Church today must embrace the collaborative environment in which ministers serve. The M.Div. program at Notre Dame is ideally suited to prepare students for collaborative leadership. Seminarians and lay people share and enrich each other’s formation by studying, praying, and conversing together. The wide variety of experiences fostered by field education and other Notre Dame resources, as well as the variety of backgrounds among the students, incorporates many different perspectives into the collaborative mix, helping to make students creative, flexible, dynamic thinkers and doers.
Through our educational initiatives, you will be prepared to take up the challenge to preach God’s word, to lead in worship and service, and to nurture the faith of others. Faculty, ministry supervisors, and spiritual mentors assist you in learning how to work with people of various ages, religious traditions, and cultural heritages. You get both the theology and the experience you’ll need to exercise leadership in contemporary ecclesial ministry.
“The professors at Notre Dame are preparing students well for the many challenges and issues that surround ecclesial ministry. In addition, the formation program with its emphasis on faith/experience sharing groups ideally offers students a distinctive edge from other programs.”
--LYNN STREEFLAND
“The experience I have gained in my ministry placements has allowed me to try on new hats, learn about my gifts, make mistakes, and grow in compassion. In three years, I have had the opportunity to sit with a dying woman and hold her hand as she breathed her last; help undergraduates critically think about their service experiences and deepen their discernment to their vocation; and develop and execute programs that will form the faith of adults in a local parish.”
--JOSH NOEM
