"Praxis" is field education that takes place concurrently with academic work. It provides opportunities for the integration of classroom and practical experience and facilitates the development and identity of professional ministry.  It also offers an unmatched depth of experience for students in all of our degree programs. 

Signature Courses:
Praxis for Students in the Meadville Lombard Educational Model (MLEM) MDiv Degree Program

At the center of the Meadville Lombard Educational Model are three experiential, multi-unit Signature Courses, designed to give students an opportunity to integrate their learning as they process the work that they are required to do in site placements in community and congregational settings.

Students take the courses in the following sequence, building on their learning from year to year:

Community Studies Seminar: In their first year in the Master of Divinity degree program and with the guidance of our Director of Contextual Ministry, students find placements in community service organizations. They are required to provide up to 8 hours of weekly service to that organization and sites are selected with the purpose of enhancing the student’s multicultural competencies. The student receives 3 units of credit upon successful completion of this course.

Congregational Studies Seminar: Enrollment in this seminar requires successful completion of the Community Studies Seminar and the completion of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE).  The components of the course are similar to those of the Community Studies Seminar, though the site work is done in a congregational setting and requires a commitment of up to 20 hours per week. In addition to the faculty, Teaching Pastors (experienced ministers leading the congregation) help direct the work of the student. The student receives 4 units of credit upon successful completion of this course.

Leadership Studies Seminar: Enrollment in this seminar requires successful completion of the Community Studies and Congregational Studies Seminars.  This course must be taken the year immediately following Congregational Studies. The components of the course are similar to those of the Congregational Studies Seminar. The student receives 4 units of credit upon successful completion of this course.  During the course of their enrollment in the Congregational and Leadership Studies Seminars, students will undertake a project within the congregation that enhances the ability of the congregation to engage in border crossing.

Modified Residency MDiv Degree Program Praxis
(for students matriculating before 9/2009)
Because modified residency students do not have the continuing community of discourse that is part of the educational/formational experience of residential students, Meadville Lombard has designed MRP praxis to provide an opportunity for students to be part of a religious community to reflect on the lived experience of the theory they are learning while at the same time providing them with practical applications.

Students are required to complete eighteen months (two church years), ten hours per week, of reflective, supervised work in a congregation or agency. The student's home congregation is an acceptable site. The student works with a Transition Support Committee made up of individuals representative of the congregation or agency, and with a minister or other suitable professional who functions in a supervisory relationship. The committee and the supervisor help the student to define goals, evaluate experiences, and reflect on his/her growing ministerial identity.