Proposal drafts are in the mail!

We’ve reached an important milestone in the dissertation-writing journey.

We finally talked with our faculty mentor, Dr. Russell West, earlier this week. Fortunately, we only had minor revisions to make before submitting our proposal drafts (chapters 1-3, out of 5), which went out in yesterday’s mail.

This submission sets a number of things in motion, so here’s a brief synopsis of what the rest of the process will look like …

  1. Proposal hearings will be scheduled for both of us (probably during the week of 10 September). Our drafts will be edited (i.e. marked for corrections) by the D.Min. office’s editor and returned to us within two weeks. We will have two weeks to return three corrected copies (in three-ring binders) at least 10 days before our hearings.
  2. At our proposal hearings (at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY), we will meet with the three people on our dissertation committee (Dean of the D.Min. program, our faculty mentor, Dr. Russell West, as well as our second readers, Dr. Stephen Martyn for Joleen, and Dr. Chris Kiesling for Randy).
  3. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will begin making preparations for our projects, which is the next phase of the process. We will each conduct “an act of pastoral analysis on a practice of ministry” (more on our projects later). Afterward, we will write chapters 4 and 5.
  4. Submit defense-ready drafts. The timing of this will depend, in part, on how the adoption process is going. We may need to either shoot for an early defense (drafts submitted around Thanksgiving for a January defense) or possibly a later one (defenses must be completed by 18 April), if we get the call to go to Korea sooner than expected. Either way, the last half of 2007 and the first half of 2008 looks to be very exciting and challenging! 🙂
  5. We’ll have some corrections/revisions to make to those drafts, and then more corrections/revisions to the post-defense draft.
  6. If all goes well, the process will culminate on Saturday, 24 May 2008, at graduation!

Thanks for your prayers throughout this part of our journey!

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