D.Min. Director Named

DALLAS (SMU) – Dr. Dallas Gingles is the new Director of the Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) Program at Perkins School of Theology. He assumes the role vacated by the previous director, the Rev. Dr. Elias Lopez, who recently left Perkins for a new position. The new role is in addition to Gingles’ current position as Assistant Dean of Hybrid Education and Associate Professor of Practice in Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics.

“I am delighted that Dr. Gingles has agreed to take this position,” said Dr. Hugo Magallanes, Dean, ad interim for Perkins. “D.Min. students will benefit from his experience as an administrator, and from his commitment to high-quality research. The D.Min. Program is known throughout the SMU community for producing scholars whose research directly contributes to their ministerial vocations. Dr. Gingles’s commitments to the church and academy will strengthen that tradition of excellence.”

The Doctor of Ministry degree is a 3-year, academically rigorous professional degree for people working in ministry. Each cohort meets for one-week intensives in January and June and progresses through 24 credit hours of courses in Christian vocation, leadership, and community building. Students then work independently in the final six credit hours, completing a writing project that brings the course work to bear on a specific practice of ministry.

Gingles comes to the director position following years of involvement in the D.Min. program, including reading students’ dissertations and teaching courses to D.Min. students: “Ecclesiology, Community and Models of Leadership” (2020 and 2022) and two sections of “Leadership and Vocation in Church and Community: A Theological/Historical Exploration” in 2024. Gingles is a Ph.D. graduate of Southern Methodist University and earned an M.T.S. from Perkins School of Theology. His teaching specialties include Christian ethics, systematic theology, and bioethics.

In describing his vision for the D.Min. program, Gingles noted that, during the medieval period, theological education took place in cathedrals – churches at the center of the city and everyday life. The study of theology helped orient students to the life of faith and to interpret the everyday life of the wider community. By the 19th century, theological education had been relocated to the modern university, making theology a rigorously academic discipline that gave students access to cutting edge research and knowledge in other disciplines.

“Today, we need theological education that brings together the best of the cathedral and university models, to help students interpret the world around them in the light of the Christian faith,” said Gingles. “I’ve watched the D.Min. at Perkins become that kind of program within the Dallas location, and now in partnership with Houston Methodist Hospital to bring together the best of the academic theological tradition and the practical clinical context. I believe that the Perkins D.Min. Program is ideally positioned to do this sort of work in the service of the church and the wider world.”

Perkins School of Theology, founded in 1911, is one of five official University-related schools of theology of The United Methodist Church. Degree programs include the Master of Divinity, Master of Sacred Music, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Arts in Ministry, Master of Theology, Doctor of Ministry, and Doctor of Pastoral Music as well as the Ph.D., in cooperation with The Graduate Program in Religious Studies at SMU's Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.