Graduate Certificate in Faith, Work, and the Common Good
How does the certificate program in faith, work, and the common good work?
Accompanied by a cohort learning community and coached by experienced professionals in various fields, students in the Graduate Certificate in Faith, Work, and the Common Good learn from both academics and active practitioners. Through four hybrid courses, vocational discernment, theological analysis for the marketplace, a coaching relationship, and an integrative capstone project, including a vocational action plan, students complete 12 semester credit hours of coursework for this certificate.
Classes begin in September, and intensives take place four times over the course of 12 months, including completion and presentation of students’ final projects at a conference geared toward values-driven work conversations. Hybrid online and in-person classes allow leaders to set apart time to grow in communal vocational formation while staying rooted in the regular rhythms of their context and discerning the next most faithful step.
Schedule
Discernment for the Working Life:
Spiritual Formation for the Marketplace
2025-2026 Cohort: Sept. 17-20, 2025
This in-person intensive course explores the philosophical, theological, and practical barriers to a robust, public, and worldly faith. Becoming aware of the traditions and habits that have led to the privatization of faith and the dilution of public theology, on the one hand, and dominionist theologies, on the other hand, this course will draw from discernment practices and theologies to formulate an authentic approach to spiritual formation and theological reflection for their public lives.
Seek the Peace of the City:
Theological and Scriptural Visions for Public Leadership
2025-2026 Cohort: Jan. 21-24, 2026
Drawing from biblical and theological resources for public theology and moral leadership in secular spaces, this in-person intensive course helps students develop a theological vision for public leadership attentive to their own context and vocational discernment.
Building Communities for Flourishing
2025-2026 Cohort: April 22-25, 2026
This fully remote class equips students to develop a theory, theology, and strategy for cultivating communities within their chosen field that are committed to the flourishing of their neighbors and neighborhood. Working with area-specific coaches, students will learn to listen to their own context, identify partnerships, and experiment with community-building in either a for-profit or non-profit setting.
Leadership for the Common Good:
Capstone Project
2025-2026 Cohort: Sept. 15-17, 2026
Working with area-specific coaches through the final gathering, students will propose, implement, and reflect upon an experiment in public leadership within their context. Successful projects will integrate the coursework and learning outcomes in alignment with the student’s own vocational discernment and the partnerships, needs, gifts, and opportunities present in the student’s context and demonstrate evidence of theo-practical reflection on the project.
Who should complete the certificate program in faith, work, and the common good work program?
Applicants will find the certificate provides skills in theological analysis to support faithful, values-driven work in secular contexts. Students who successfully complete the certificate will be granted 12 semester hours of credits that can be applied to a master’s degree at Pittsburgh Seminary. Those who already have master’s degrees in divinity, theology, or other areas will find that the certificate offers an opportunity to leverage their leadership and theological training to support their professional work.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
The admissions process for this graduate certificate follows normal admissions procedures, with the applicant’s personal statement taking the form of a brief essay describing the applicant’s current vocational or community context and articulating the applicant’s sense of call to align their work and their values in a particuar setting. We're currently accepting applications for the 2025-2026 cohort. Please e-mail application requirements or application-related questions to .
COST AND FINANCIAL AID
Visit the Tuition and Fees website to learn more about the cost of this program and the aid options available. To receive need- or merit-based aid, you must submit a financial aid application.
Graduate Certificate in Faith, Work, and the Common Good Student Learning Outcomes
- Develop, describe, and make use of a theologically-informed, contextually-aware, mission-shaped vision for vocational work in a secular setting
- Demonstrate capacity to leverage community practices to build a shared culture of values, mission, and expectation in a social entrepreneurship environment, volunteer setting, or other secular work setting
- Demonstrate a capacity to communicate one’s values in contextually appropriate ways in relationship to secular or professional contexts
- Demonstrate knowledge of racism in historical, social, and cultural contexts, especially learning to recognize and name its economic, social, and professional manifestations
LEARN MORE ABOUT PITTSBURGH SEMINARY’S GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN FAITH, WORK, AND THE COMMON GOOD
The Graduate Certificate in Faith, Work, and the Common Good provides practical and spiritual training to facilitate bringing faith to bear in your professional context. Join the upcoming cohort!
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