Dr. Tom Tumblin is an elder in the West Ohio Conference and is appointed to serve Asbury Seminary as dean of the Beeson International Center for Biblical Preaching and Church Leadership and professor of leadership.
Without both planting new churches and remissioning existing ones, we implode in atrophy. We need generative, established parishes that embody the hope of Christ as well as new communities. Church planting movements call out the best in existing congregations, reminding them that they, too, were church plants at one time in their history. Healthy existing churches catch the missional contagion and are “re-viralized” with the biblical mandate to make disciples.
Asbury Seminary has responded to this mandate with a new church planting initiative. The priority is not novel for Asbury. We honor hundreds of Christ-centered, evangelical planters among our 10,000+ alums. Church planting has been part of our legacy for more than ninety years. We are simply at a crossroad when the holy ferment across the earth demands greater attention.
Our renewed focus has yielded a church planting specialization in the Master of Divinity and selected Master of Arts degrees. The blend of courses in the degree programs weaves together courses in biblical studies, Christian theology, missiology and the practice of church planting. Academic credit is given for field experience gained via the networks with which these planters are already engaged, like Path1.
This fall we inaugurated a hybrid, online M.A. degree in intercultural studies that equips church planters as they serve in their context. Rather than drawing them away from their critical ministry contexts, the program allows planters to come to campus four times over three years for up to two weeks at a time. A generous $5 million gift allows us to offer significant scholarship support as well.
The focus is both domestic and international. The diaspora of multiple nations to the U.S. positions the Church to evangelize both here and abroad. Students learn with a group of multicultural peers and from faculty members who have been directly involved in church planting themselves. Several of the professors have helped start congregations overseas.
More than a dozen of the students in the church planting specialization are United Methodist, a number for which we are grateful in our first year of a long-term commitment. We are one of the few Wesleyan, evangelical institutions in close relationship with the United Methodist Church. Cabinets and church developers have begun to request greater collaboration as they seek theological education for their planters. Many of them will be lay and bi-vocational leaders, so we will provide a wide range of accessible learning options.
Some of the annual conferences they represent include Florida, North Alabama, North Georgia and Texas. They are drawn to Asbury’s distinctives of a high regard for biblical authority and commitment to preparing women and men for evangelistic ministry. Our faculty includes world-class scholars who have rich field experience and embrace God’s call to go, disciple, baptize and teach.
Our students also are attracted to the co-curricular opportunities provided for the church planting programs. Students in our ministry partners program enlist a support team that contributes monthly toward tuition costs, many of whom then continue to support the students after graduation as they plant congregations. Students are mentored in fund raising, relationship building, Sabbath practices and personal financial health. They learn from peer planters and from guest practitioners. They bring their own networks and they join with Asbury’s numerous international connections.
Representatives from multiple annual conferences have initiated partnerships with Asbury. For example, Asbury co-sponsored a two-day learning event with nearly a hundred church planters, cabinet members and church development leaders from the Kentucky conference in early 2014. Bishops and conference staff are sending students to us. They are also seeking our graduates to expand their church planting efforts.
Asbury enters this chapter of renewed focus on church planting as an affirmation of our historic beliefs. The Gospel is for all people. Billions have not yet heard of God’s love for them through Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection. All of us as disciples in the Kingdom of God are sent as apostles who bear Christ’s message of reconciliation to a fallen world. As we live holy lives personally and socially, the Spirit will create the relational bridges for being on God’s mission.
A 2009 report from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry indicated Asbury had more UM graduates who were ordained elder or deacon than any of the other thirteen denominational schools. We hold that trend as a trust with our United Methodist brothers and sisters.
By 2023, we envision forty percent of our students will be exposed to church planting training annually. At our current ratio of UM students, that would translate to about 180 new UM students trained in starting or remissioning congregations annually. Some will discover a fresh nuance to their call and take up the planting mantle. Others will come already sure of God’s direction and their seminary experience will confirm and sharpen them for starting new congregations. Through these faithful leaders, new disciples will be raised up and communities will be transformed. We are grateful to be a part of God’s worldwide movement!
Comment by truelinguist on January 24, 2015 at 8:52 pm
I like this.