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  "path": "/2026/06/25/united-methodism-vs-asbury-seminary/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-25T19:42:22.000Z",
  "site": "https://juicyecumenism.com",
  "tags": [
    "Methodist",
    "removal",
    "eighth-largest seminary",
    "here",
    "recognizes",
    "official policies",
    "Seattle Pacific",
    "In Conversation with Dr. David Watson: New Leadership at Asbury Theological Seminary",
    "Wesleyan Theological Revival?",
    "America’s Largest Seminaries in 2023-24",
    "United Methodism vs Asbury Seminary",
    "Juicy Ecumenism"
  ],
  "textContent": "United Methodism’s removal of Asbury Theological Seminary, located outside Lexington, Kentucky, from its list of approved schools for persons seeking ordination was inevitable but arrived quicker than expected.\n\nAsbury is America’s eighth-largest seminary, with nearly 900 full time students. (View data for America’s seminaries from the Association of Theological Schools here.) The top seven seminaries are Baptist. The top United Methodist Seminary is Duke Divinity School, with 592 full-time students, ranking 16th in size.\n\nNearly 8,000 conservative churches (or 25 percent of the U.S. church) quit United Methodism during the 2019-2023 schism. Across decades Asbury was the main engine for educating conservative/evangelical clergy. Nearly all of United Methodism’s official seminaries have long been theologically more progressive.\n\nA more liberalized United Methodism perceives it does not need Asbury, especially since its 2024 decision to set aside traditional teachings on marriage. But also, institutionally, it cannot sustain the competition. The denomination has 13 official seminaries. Asbury was not official but had in recent years graduated more United Methodist ordinands than any other single school.\n\nToday, just nine percent of Asbury’s students are United Methodist. The new denominational policy will allow them to finish their work at Asbury.\n\nEven before the schism, sustaining 13 official seminaries was dubious. United Methodism was founded in 1968 with those 13 schools when the denomination had 11 million members. As of 2024 it had 3.9 million. New numbers for 2025 will likely take it down to 3.7 million or lower. Hundreds and ultimately thousands of its 20,000 congregations will be closed or merged in the coming years.\n\nThe denomination is contracting and consolidating, which inevitably will include closures or mergers for some of its 13 seminaries.\n\nThe denomination also recognizes about two dozen non-United Methodist schools, of which Asbury had been one. With Asbury now gone, there are now no other Wesleyan seminaries on the list except Seattle Pacific Seminary, which is affiliated with the Free Methodist Church. Along with Asbury, the denomination also delisted Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, New York, another Free Methodist school. The only other remaining apparent evangelical seminary on the list is Fuller Seminary in California.\n\nTwo members of the United Methodist University Senate, which sets policies on seminaries, cited Asbury’s traditional teachings on marriage and sex, which United Methodism no longer upholds. But Fuller Seminary’s official policies are also traditional, as are those of Seattle Pacific.\n\nNearly all the other recognized seminaries are theologically progressive. They include Harvard Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, and Vanderbilt Divinity School, among others.\n\nSome will think it odd that United Methodism affirms seminaries with no Methodist theological heritage while delisting the world’s largest theologically Wesleyan school. But this trend of deemphasizing Wesleyan distinctives dates back at least 100 years. Wesleyan distinctives within United Methodism enjoyed a revival over the last 50 years that maybe is now concluding.\n\nOr maybe not. Every day United Methodism, like nearly all other denominations, is declining as an institution, not just numerically, but also as an influence among its own members. Today’s Christians are mostly not interested in denominations. They resource themselves online and through their local congregation. Whatever the official denominational policies, thousands of members and many clergy will still look to Wesleyan teaching.\n\nEven as United Methodism fades, Asbury Theological Seminary will continue to thrive as an international school uniquely devoted to Wesleyan theology, serving scores of Wesleyan denominations and others not attached to denominations. It is arguably the most influential, specifically Wesleyan institution in the world.\n\nThe decline of denominations does not necessarily equal the decline of particular Protestant traditions. All Protestants and Evangelicals are part of a particular tradition whether they realize it or not, and most do not.\n\nAmerican Protestant Christianity has largely become Baptist, even as the Southern Baptist Convention declines in membership and influence. As noted, the top seven seminaries in America are Baptist, five of them Southern Baptist.\n\nThe second biggest Protestant tradition in America is Pentecostal/charismatic, many of whose pastors do not get formal seminary degrees but instead study through Bible colleges or other alternatives. The fastest growing Protestant tradition in the world is Pentecostal/charismatic.\n\nNeedless to say, Mainline Protestantism in America is fading fast. Sixty years ago, nine of the 10 largest American seminaries were Mainline, and one Southern Baptist. Mainline no longer appears in the top 10, while two United Methodist seminaries appear in the top 15.\n\nAmid the surging growth of online Christianity, some of which is substantive and much of which is performative or superficial if not supercilious, seminaries could be deemed less important. But the serious meat of American theological education will continue to originate with seminaries.\n\nUnder current trends, United Methodism as a denomination likely will not long endure as a meaningful institution. But Asbury Seminary under current trends has a bright future and will almost certainly outlive the denomination whose approval it no longer needs.\n\n**More from IRD** :\n\nIn Conversation with Dr. David Watson: New Leadership at Asbury Theological Seminary\n\nWesleyan Theological Revival?\n\nAmerica’s Largest Seminaries in 2023-24\n\nThe post United Methodism vs Asbury Seminary appeared first on Juicy Ecumenism.",
  "title": "United Methodism vs Asbury Seminary"
}