The Graduate Student Life

The MRE in Missional Leadership is a cohort-based degree, fostering Christian community for the sake of growing deeper in the life and mission of God. All students take the same courses in the same sequence to foster richer life and conversation throughout the degree. While many of the courses are online, requiring no face-to-face contact, the cohort concept allows relationships to develop over time. It is the expectation that this enriched sense of community will make possible a communal/formational environment.

Each year in the MRE begins with a three-day retreat devoted to developing a rule of life shared by all cohort participants. Rochester College provides spiritual formation coaches who stay with the cohort throughout the program, underscoring our commitment to the life of the spiritual leader.

Additionally, each semester students gather for a one-week, intensive course (M-F, 9am-5pm). This intensive environment is intended to produce a rich engagement with course material and students’ ministry contexts. Some of these intensives will be on Rochester College’s campus, but because of the unique design of the degree some of these courses may be hosted in places like St Paul, MN or Durham, NC. This allows the MRE to bring students into contact with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the Missional church movement.