Dear Asbury Theological Seminary Alumni,
The University Senate of The United Methodist Church recently informed Asbury Theological Seminary of its decision to remove the Seminary from its list of approved institutions for the education of candidates for ordained ministry in the UMC.
We know many in our alumni family have deep and lasting connections to The United Methodist Church, and we recognize that this news may be received with a wide range of emotions. Asbury Seminary has been deeply shaped by generations of faithful United Methodist students, alumni, faculty, pastors, missionaries, and partners. We are profoundly grateful for this long history of shared ministry.
Throughout the University Senate’s review process, Asbury Seminary engaged fully and faithfully. We honored each request in a timely manner and were forthcoming with the documents and information requested. We were also honest and clear about our doctrinal and ethical standards, including where those standards differ from the amended 2024 Social Principles of The United Methodist Church.
While we had hoped for a different outcome, our focus remains steadfast on our unchanging calling. Asbury Seminary’s ethos has not changed. Our theological commitments, including our commitment to Scripture, remain exactly what they have been for more than a century.
Furthermore:
- Our accreditation is secure. Asbury Theological Seminary remains fully accredited by the Association of Theological Schools and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, both with ten-year terms. The University Senate’s decision does not affect this standing.
- Current UMC students will continue. United Methodist students currently enrolled at Asbury Seminary, including those who matriculate in Fall 2026, will be permitted to continue and complete their programs without interruption.
- Our mission remains broad and global. Asbury Seminary continues to serve students from more than 75 denominations and remains an approved theological institution for the Global Methodist Church, the Anglican Church in North America, the Wesleyan Church, and others.
- Our gratitude for our United Methodist family endures. More than 4,000 living Asbury Seminary alumni affiliated with The United Methodist Church are serving, or have served, faithfully around the world. Approximately 9% of our current students identify as UMC. We deeply love and respect our United Methodist alumni, students, faculty, churches, and partners, and we remain committed to supporting them with care and integrity.
Students seeking United Methodist ordination have been encouraged to contact the Office of Academic Advising.
Asbury Theological Seminary continues, with missional clarity, the work we began over a century ago: to prepare women and men for faithful, biblical, Spirit-filled ministry for the whole world.
Thank you for your prayers, your partnership, and your continued witness as part of the Asbury Seminary family.
With gratitude,
Dr. David F. Watson
President, Asbury Theological Seminary
As a former UMC pastor, now Global Methodist elder and pastor and an ATS alumni, I am glad the ATS remains faithful to the Scriptures.
I am prouder than ever to be an alum and associated with Asbury Theological Seminary. Stay the course and at this time more than ever we need to keep in prayer and in touch with our brothers and sisters in the United Methodist Tradition in hopes they will change the course they have set themselves on. We must acknowledge that we all serve one and same God and that his love for all of us is unconditional even we are making decisions that go against God’s perfect plan.
Well done. How firm a foundation. Unwavering and steadfast in spirit and truth, despite the pressures of our culture and intimidation of the times. Grounded in the Word and filled with the Spirit, fulfilling your calling to raise up men and women of God to share the love and power of God to the ends of the earth. I’m honored to be a part of the Asbury heritage.
Proud to be an ATS graduate. Grateful ATS stood firm to the Word of God. Thank you ATS for standing courageously & faithfully.
I have been deeply grateful for the UMC faculty who poured into my life when I was a student at ATS. Dr. Carruth taught me the importance of having prayer partners during my ministry year and I have time and time again been upheld at very difficult ministry moments because of that foundation he laid. Dr. Stanger and Dr. Carruth taught us a class entitled the Life and Work of the Ministry, one of the most practical and helpful courses that helped this missionary kid to understand better the American church I was called to serve. I am deeply grieved at the decision of the UMC and do pray that they might see the need for a more evangelical school to provide faithful Biblical leaders for the many churches that are in the UMC and still seeking to follow Wesley and the early Methodist foundations.
Head of the Church triumphant. Jesus our Lord is proud of the leadership of Asbury. I am proud to be an alumni of Asbury. Keep on keeping on spreading scriptural holiness across the globe. preparing men and women for the harvest.
As an alumnus of Asbury Seminary, I am deeply grateful and continue to pray
At the very first UMC annual conference I attended in 1972, conference members were questioning the funding of organizations whose purpose and policies were clearly not in keeping with UMC doctrine. Yet it was overlooked by conference officials. As a pastor, I had church members who disaffiliated from the church I was serving but continued to support the local church during my ministry. God will continue to work through Asbury alumni in the UMC. It is the denomination’s loss that they have made this decision. Thank you, Asbury, for remaining faithful to the Word of God.
I am thankful to God & ATS for your dedication to Bible truth & Wesleyan theology. Ed Bean
My call to the Asbury Seminary administration is to keep focused on the scriptures as contained in the ‘etho’. I am blessed as an Alumni of Asbury Seminary