Doctor of Ministry | DMin in Pastoral Counseling Online

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Credit Hours

100% online, 8-week courses

Transfer in up to 50% of the degree total

Next Start Dates: January 19, 2026 | February 16, 2026 | March 23, 2026

Prepare to Lead in Pastoral Counseling with Our Doctor of Ministry (DMin) in Pastoral Counseling Degree

Our 100% online Doctor of Ministry (DMin) in Pastoral Counseling degree is designed to help equip you to advance your ministry. This program can help you gain practical, gospel-centered ministry skills. Our online doctorate in pastoral counseling seeks to provide advanced training in pastoral counseling and care. This training can help you incorporate pastoral counseling practices into your ministry.

If you want to be better equipped to minister to the spiritual and mental health of your congregation, our DMin in Pastoral Counseling degree can help provide you with the skills and knowledge to start your journey.

Your officially conferred degree name will be Doctor of Ministry (DMin) in Pastoral Counseling.

*Please note that the online Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling program is not designed to fulfill clinical counseling requirements. You can view Liberty University’s licensure-track Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling degree for more information about counseling licensure.

Accreditation

Liberty Theological Seminary, as part of Liberty University’s John W. Rawlings School of Divinity, is accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). Your seminary degree is approved by ATS and has met rigorous accreditation standards, so you can feel confident that your degree is both academically excellent and well-respected among churches, ministries, and nonprofit organizations.

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No Standardized Testing for Admission
Transfer in up to 75% of an Undergrad Degree
Transfer in up to 50% of a Grad/Doctoral Degree

Top 10 Reasons to Choose Liberty

Why Choose Liberty’s Online DMin in Pastoral Counseling Degree?

Our online Doctor of Ministry degree program is focused on practical ministry training. This is so you can gain the skills and knowledge you need for use in your specific ministry context. If you are already a ministry professional and want to help people struggling with spiritual and mental health crises, our program can help provide you with the foundation of knowledge you need.

Throughout this Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling program, you can focus on understanding practical solutions to ministry challenges in addition to theoretical research. This helps ensure that you can use the skills and knowledge you will gain to solve real-world problems.

This program is designed to build on your ministry experience in support of pastoral counseling and care and provide you with important ministry-specific pastoral counseling skills. If you want to branch out into a pastoral counseling role, the field-specific training and pastoral counseling techniques in this pastoral counseling doctoral degree can help equip you with valuable tools for various ministry settings.

What Will You Study in Our Doctor of Ministry – Pastoral Counseling?

The core content of our online Doctorate in Pastoral Counseling provides the basis for advanced doctoral-level academic research and writing. These skills can impact the rest of the ministry-specific curriculum and directly apply to your portfolio project or thesis. In your doctorate degree in pastoral counseling, you can learn advanced pastoral counseling techniques and explore current issues in society as they relate to pastoral counseling. Your online pastoral counseling classes will provide diverse training that will allow you to address many different modern-day problems.

All of the courses in the DMin degree program are designed and delivered in a way to help you develop your research for the final thesis project. Your thesis will focus on a ministry topic of your choice.

Potential Career Opportunities

Christian university professor
Church counselor
Church planter
Community chaplain
Counselor at a Christian practice
Evangelist
Lead/associate pastor
Senior church administrator
Senior pastor
Worship leader
Youth pastor

Please note: Many clinical counseling roles will require individual state licensure.
Additional requirements may be necessary for licensure or practice in these roles. Liberty University does not guarantee employment.

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Tuition & Aid

At Liberty University, a private Christian education is less expensive than you think. Over the last 10 years, Liberty University’s Online Program has only raised its standard tuition costs by less than 5% – and most of our online tuition rates rank in the top 35% for affordability for 2025 when compared to our leading online competitors.

To continue our mission of providing affordable education, electronic textbooks are provided for many divinity courses* all for one convenient fee.

*Electronic textbooks are not provided for PACO courses or courses that fall under departments outside the School of Divinity.

Doctoral Divinity Block Rate (7-15 credit hours)	$2,850
Doctoral Divinity Part Time (0-6.99 or over 15 credit hours)	$410/Credit
Military Pastoral Counseling DMin Block Rate (7-15 credit hours)	$2,800
Military Pastoral Counseling DMin Part Time (0-6.99 or over 15 credit hours)	$375/Credit

These rates are reflective of academic year 2025-2026. Tuition rates may change annually. For the most current information, please visit our LU Tuition Cost page.

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Admission Information for Our Online DMin in Pastoral Counseling Degree

Admission Requirements

Apply online or over the phone with an admissions counselor by calling (800) 424-9596.
- A non-refundable, non-transferable $50 application fee will be posted on the current application upon enrollment (waived for qualifying service members, veterans, and military spouses – documentation verifying military status is required).
Send official college transcripts (mailed as sealed, unopened copies or sent via a direct electronic transcript system). A regionally or nationally accredited master’s degree related to the student’s ministry setting or vocational calling with at least a 3.0 GPA is required for admission in good standing.
- Previous education should also show at least 18 hours of graduate-level Bible/Theology or ministry-related courses – but these hours do not have to be part of the conferred master’s degree.
The John W. Rawlings School of Divinity requires you to submit a Professional Vita showing:
- Significant ministry experience consistent with the mission of Liberty University
- Experience must be pastoral in nature (pastor, assistant pastor, youth pastor, missionary, etc.) and must be connected to a church body
Statement of Purpose Please submit a 300-word minimum Statement of Purpose detailing the following:
- Your vocational or ministry calling
- Your vocational or ministry goals
- A key ministry problem you feel needs to be addressed in today’s culture, which is appropriate to an advanced professional study
An Ecclesiastical endorsement indicating the agreement of the church (or employing organization) with your participation in the Doctor of Ministry program.
- This is not a recommendation letter from a pastor telling us that they personally recommend the student. This is an endorsement from the church body for someone who will likely do an internship with them at the end of their program.
- Some examples of language within the Ecclesiastical Endorsement that would be acceptable include:
  - We Endorse/We Support/We recommend
  - This is an Ecclesiastical Endorsement
  - I recommend on behalf of the church/board of deacons/church staff
- The endorsement letter must be signed with pen (no typed signatures allowed) and can be faxed, mailed, or scanned and emailed as an attachment.
Submit the School of Divinity Questionnaire (login required).
Department Admission Review approval required – upon all documents being received on the checklist, the application will be sent for admission review by the department. This review can take 1-2 full business days for review (24-48 hours).
Applicants whose native language is other than English must submit official scores for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or an approved alternative assessment. For information on alternative assessments or TOEFL waivers, please call Admissions or view the official International Admissions policy.

Preliminary Acceptance

If you are sending in a preliminary transcript for acceptance, you must:

Be in your final term and planning to start your doctoral degree after the last day of class for your master’s degree.
Complete a Master’s Self-Certification Form confirming your completion date. You may download the form from the Forms and Downloads page or contact an admissions counselor to submit the form on your behalf.
Submit an official transcript to confirm that you are in your final term. The preliminary transcript must show that you are within 6 credit hours of completion for a 30-48 credit hour master’s degree or within 9 credit hours of completion for a 49+ credit hour master’s degree.
Send in an additional, final official transcript with a conferral date on it by the end of your first semester of enrollment in the new doctoral degree.

Transcript Policies

Official College Transcript Policy

An acceptable official college transcript is one that has been issued directly from the institution and is in a sealed envelope. If you have one in your possession, it must meet the same requirements. If your previous institution offers electronic official transcript processing, they can send the document directly to luoverify@liberty.edu.

Admissions Office Contact Information

Submit your application online or over the phone.

Start Online Application

Apply by phone: (800) 424-9595

Liberty University is dedicated to providing world-class educational experiences to military students across the globe.

Who May Qualify?

Active Duty
Reserve/National Guard
Veterans/Retirees
Spouses of Service Members and Veterans/Retirees
Current Department of Defense Employees

Available Benefits:

Discounted Pastoral Counseling DMin block rate – $2,800 per semester*
8-week courses, 8 different start dates each year, and no set login times (may exclude certain courses such as practicums, internships, or field experiences)

*Credits taken below 7 and above 15 credit hours per semester are charged at the Pastoral Counseling DMin part-time rate of $375/credit hour.

These rates are reflective of academic year 2025-2026. Tuition rates may change annually. For the most current information, please visit our LU Tuition Cost page.

View Military Benefits

Frequently Asked Questions for the DMin in Pastoral Counseling Online

What is the difference between pastoral care and pastoral counseling?

Pastoral care is something that can be provided by every pastor or church leader. This involves listening to the problems of your congregation, asking questions, and helping them find practical solutions. Pastoral counseling goes a step further because it is a type of therapy. With pastoral counseling, you may psychologically evaluate a person in your congregation and provide other mental health assistance.

A program like a DMin or PhD in pastoral counseling online can help provide you with the training to conduct pastoral counseling with your church members.

Can a pastor be a counselor?

Pastors can absolutely be counselors, but it requires specialized training beyond traditional seminary programs. A DMin in Pastoral Counseling online can help. If you are already working in ministry full time, then an online program can help provide you with the flexibility you need. With the training and knowledge our DMin in Pastoral Counseling seeks to provide, you can start providing pastoral counseling and care to your congregation.

What are the benefits of earning Liberty’s online Doctor of Ministry (DMin)?

Unlike many online Bible colleges and seminaries, Liberty University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).
Our Liberty Theological Seminary, as part of the John W. Rawlings School of Divinity, is accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), demonstrating that it values the four core principles of ATS: diversity, quality and improvement, collegiality, and leadership.
This program is a practice-focused degree that emphasizes solving real-world ministry problems with advanced practice and research.
Our online DMin degree’s specializations allow you to focus directly on your area of ministry. Additionally, the thesis provides an opportunity to dig into research under the mentorship of Liberty’s Christian scholars.
You will choose to complete either an integrated thesis or a portfolio project that will challenge you to demonstrate your expertise and ability to apply advanced theology and Christian scholarship to practical ministry problems.

How was the curriculum for our online DMin courses developed?

Are you ready to change your future?

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*Some restrictions may occur for this promotion to apply. This promotion also excludes active faculty and staff, military, non-degree-seeking, DGIA, Continuing Education, WSB, and certificate students.

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Doctor of Ministry Program in Pastoral Counseling Guiding Souls, Healing Hearts

Prepare to Lead in Pastoral Counseling with Our Doctor of Ministry (DMin) in Pastoral Counseling Degree

Accreditation

What Sets Us Apart?

Why Choose Liberty’s Online DMin in Pastoral Counseling Degree?

What Will You Study in Our Doctor of Ministry – Pastoral Counseling?

Potential Career Opportunities

Featured Courses

Degree Information

Not sure what to choose?

Tuition & Aid

Financial Aid & Scholarships

Admission Information for Our Online DMin in Pastoral Counseling Degree

Admission Requirements

Preliminary Acceptance

Transcript Policies

Admissions Office Contact Information

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Frequently Asked Questions for the DMin in Pastoral Counseling Online

What is the difference between pastoral care and pastoral counseling?

Can a pastor be a counselor?

What are the benefits of earning Liberty’s online Doctor of Ministry (DMin)?

How was the curriculum for our online DMin courses developed?

Are you ready to change your future?

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