Impact Houston
Fall 2025 Doctor of Ministry Cohort (Fuller Texas)
Application Deadline: July 25, 2025
Decisions Sent: August 15, 2025
Overview
Houston, a vibrant and diverse metropolis, faces unique challenges and opportunities that demand a specialized approach to theological education and ministry. This new DMin cohort’s mentors have pioneered off-map leadership to foster emotional and social intelligence in Houston for 30 years. They equip leaders with systems thinking to address complex problems holistically and develop trauma awareness strategies for healing and resilience.
The Impact Houston Doctor of Ministry Cohort, a three-year hybrid (online and in-person) program, addresses the urgent needs and potential for transformative leadership within our local communities. This program emphasizes emotional and social intelligence, focusing on practices that enable one to follow Jesus’ teachings in complex, emotionally charged contexts. The goal is to build multi-congregational, cross-sectional teams that effectively impact their communities in the Houston area, emphasizing the importance of combating racism and implicit bias, shifting to collaborative leadership models that harness diverse voices, and redefining success from church growth to meaningful community impact.
Impact Houston offers emerging leaders the chance to build on previous generations’ learning, experimenting with innovative ministry and community engagement approaches. This cohort is a vital investment in Houston’s faith communities, fostering leaders who can navigate complex times with grace, courage, and innovation. This cohort will equip pastors, mission, and marketplace leaders located in Houston to create spaces for community responsibility for personal growth and development within their ministry contexts. In-person seminars will take place each month on a Monday evening 6–10 pm and Tuesday 9 am–4 pm.
Schedule
Year One
Setting Yourself Up for Kingdom Work (16 units)
Fall (Sep–Dec) 2025: 6 units, online and in person
Winter (Jan–Mar) 2026: 6 units, online and in person
Spring (Mar–June) 2026: 4 units, online and in person
The first year introduces students to the foundational tools necessary for community impact, be it a city, neighborhood, or social sector. Students will learn to galvanize diverse individuals and organizations around a common goal for societal betterment. The first year focuses on the role of backbone organizations in Houston, which improve social outcomes by coordinating the work of diverse congregations and organizations focused on the same goal. Students will work with these organizations and their member groups while working on personal development and their understanding of the church’s changing role in the kingdom of God. They will explore mental models, systems thinking, and emotional intelligence, including trauma and implicit bias. The goal is to redefine discipleship and success in community impact as we live and minister in our new and rapidly changing context.
Year Two
Discovering Your City (16 units)
Fall (Sep–Dec) 2026: 6 units, online and in person
Winter (Jan–Mar) 2027: 6 units, online and in person
Spring (Mar–June) 2027: 4 units, online and in person
Year 2 focuses on creating a current reality narrative of the community or social sector from a systems perspective. Building on Year 1’s learning about mental models and emotional intelligence, students will broaden their understanding of community and kingdom impact. They will explore the community as a system of interconnected subsystems (e.g., government, education, law enforcement, church) and learn from innovators in community transformation. Students engage in systems mapping and explore leverage points, learning to see the community holistically. Topics include the diffusion of innovation, spiritual and sexual abuse, and race and culture, leading to a clearer vision of kingdom work.
Year Three
Changing Your City for Good (16 units)
Fall (Sep–Dec) 2027: 6 units, online and in person
Winter (Jan–Mar) 2028: 6 units, online and in person
Spring (Mar–June) 2028: 4 units, online and in person
Year 3 integrates the learning from the previous two years. Students will clarify their vision for community impact and finalize their backbone organizations, targeting specific community or social sector areas. They combine personal transformation with collective impact, identifying and rallying leaders from key systems (e.g., congregations, nonprofits) to co-create a vision for community shalom. This year culminates in implementing their project, with regular progress reports to the class. By year’s end, students draft their mission, vision, goals, and action steps for their first post-graduation year, culminating in a comprehensive project paper.
Instructor
Jim Herrington has been a pastor for 45 years and served as a denominational executive, pastor to pastors, and congregational coach since 1989. He has worked with hundreds of congregations from a variety of traditions around the challenges of personal and congregational transformation. He is cofounder of The Leader’s Journey: Coaching for Wholehearted Leadership. He and cofounder, Trisha Taylor, and their team help leaders grow their emotional intelligence so that they can be the healthiest, most effective versions of themselves by offering three key services: coaching, leadership development, and organizational consulting—all in the service of improving the culture of the organization they are serving.
In 1998, he became the founding executive director of Mission Houston, a ministry that worked to build unity in the body of Christ across lines that normally divide it. In 2007, he cofounded Faithwalking, a spiritual formation ministry that equips people and congregations to live missionally. Today, Faithwalking is an active ministry in the US, Canada, and Central America.
Jim regularly speaks at conferences on the topics of spiritual formation, adaptive leadership, family systems, and missional theology. He is a graduate of the University of Arkansas, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Houston Graduate School of Theology, with a Doctor of Ministry in spiritual formation and spiritual direction.
Jim is coauthor of Leading Congregational Change: A Practical Guide to the Transformational Journey, The Leader’s Journey: Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation, and Learning Change: Congregational Transformation Fueled by Personal Renewal.
Jim lives in Houston and has been married to his best friend, Betty, for 51 years. They have five children and six grandchildren.
Instructor
Aundrea Baker developed a passion for understanding human behavior at an early age. She initially focused this attention on understanding herself and her family: Born and raised in southwest Louisiana, she never felt like she quite fit in with her family and her social groups. As a result of her desire to understand, she earned a BS in psychology from Louisiana State University and then worked at a state institution that housed mentally and developmentally disabled people.
As newlyweds, Aundrea and her husband moved to the Houston area, where Aundrea became a staff member of her church. She now had a focus of understanding human behavior at the intersection between God and humans. While church administrator, she graduated from LeTourneau University with an MBA.
These experiences enlarged her passion from simply understanding human behavior to helping individuals grow their God-given potential and purpose. In 2006, she and her husband planted a church in Pearland, Texas, and Aundrea enrolled in Houston Graduate School of Theology where she obtained a Master of Divinity. In addition, she and her husband founded a nonprofit youth organization focusing on at-risk teenagers.
After more than 20 years in church leadership, Aundrea shifted directions, enrolling in HGST once again to pursue a Doctor of Ministry with a specialization in spiritual formation/direction. Since her graduation in 2021, she has been a member of the coaching team for The Leader’s Journey and has offered spiritual formation and direction to individuals and groups.
Aundrea and her husband live in Pearland, Texas, and have four children.
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Office Hours
Monday – Friday
8 am – 5 pm (Pacific Time)
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