UMC Drops Asbury Seminary From Approved School List

A United Methodist student who begins seminary next year will no longer be able to choose Asbury Theological Seminary and remain on the denomination’s approved track toward ordination.

The change follows a summer vote by the United Methodist Church’s University Senate to drop Asbury from its list of approved seminaries. Students already enrolled at Asbury, as well as those who begin classes this fall, will be allowed to finish their degrees and seek ordination.

At issue are the church’s new positions on marriage and sexuality and Asbury’s decision to follow biblical directives instead.

In 2024, United Methodist delegates voted to remove the denomination’s ban of same-sex marriages. They also struck language declaring homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching.” The UMC went even further, allowing openly gay clergy, including those in active sexual relationships, to serve as pastors and other roles within the local church.

Asbury has not changed its position. The seminary follows biblical directives, teaching that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. It also holds that sexual intimacy belongs within marriage.

Asbury President David Watson said the seminary cooperated with the review but would not compromise its biblical beliefs.

“Their final decision to delist us was unilateral,” Watson said. Asbury will not appeal, he later told Christianity Today.

The decision affects only students seeking ordination in the United Methodist Church. It does not alter Asbury’s academic accreditation or its standing with other denominations, including the Global Methodist Church. About 9 percent of its students currently identify as United Methodist.

For many Christians, the Asbury name is familiar for another reason. The seminary is located across the street from Asbury University, where a chapel service in February 2023 continued for 16 days and drew tens of thousands of people to the small town of Wilmore, Ky. The schools are separate, but seminary buildings helped handle the overflow.

Metro Voice reported at the time that then-Seminary President Timothy Tennent preferred to call it an “awakening.”

“You sense the presence and power of God working in people’s lives,” he wrote.

–Dwight Widaman

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