For students interested in research, ACOM has a long history of providing innovative, transformational research designed to improve professional practice. Student researchers are encouraged to learn through experimentation, discovery and adventure. By integrating theory and practice, ACOM aims to produce well-formed thought leaders who will provide solutions to the challenges of today and tomorrow.
ACOM students conduct research within the context of their ministry passion, grounded in local work, ministry or the community. The research process helps students to identify a problem that needs a solution, ask effective questions, challenge assumptions, collect data and establish clear conclusions.
These are essential skills for leaders who must adapt quickly to a complex and changing community context. This process is connected to rigorous scholarship and deep personal spiritual formation. Students can undertake small or medium-sized research projects within their undergraduate or postgraduate degrees. In partnership with the Sydney College of Divinity, the ACOM research faculty can help guide students to ensure they have a clear pathway to continuing research through the Sydney College of Divinity’s Doctor of Ministry or Doctor of Philosophy.
An effective and life-changing research experience requires outstanding supervision. At ACOM, we are committed to excellence in this area. Our research supervisors are not simply academic theorists; they are also ministry practitioners living at the coalface of effective mission and ministry.
As such, they emphasise a multidisciplinary approach, which is mission focused, theologically reflective, spirit empowered, biblically grounded, academically rigorous, practically oriented and spiritually formative.
Professor Darren Cronshaw
Head of Research and Professor of Missional Leadership