“I want to focus on building firm Christian families because I don’t want to be the only sixth-generation Christian.”
Mami Tsutada M.A. in Marriage and Family Counseling and M.Div.,Asbury Seminary celebrates 100 years of equipping students to serve around the world by celebrating our more than 13,000 alumni. We have alumni serving in every time zone, in every state, and on every continent. Together they are reaching the world through churches, mission fields, trash dumps, inner cities, national parks, universities, coffee houses, businesses, and community gardens, to name a few. We’ve highlighted alumni from every continent below and invite you to read more on our Voices website.
The Seminary also celebrates its Global Partners. Currently, the Seminary has 15 Global Partners around the world, including Asia Theological Association, Langham Partnership USA, The Overseas Council, the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies in Bangalore, India, and more. These partnerships serve as a bridge between the Seminary and the global church, with faculty teaching exchanges at partner institutions, cross-cultural courses for students, and resource sharing.
The Seminary continues its celebration of our alumni’s global impact with the development of the Global Alumni Center. The Global Alumni Center is located on the first floor of Crary-McPheeters and welcomes alumni and friends and will serve as the hub of the seminary’s engagement. Throughout the Center, visitors are invited to explore the rich legacy of Asbury Seminary with pictures, videos, recordings and other interactive displays.
“I feel an affinity with other alums because I’m one of them,” Tammy Cessna, Director of Alumni and Church Relations, said. “It’s like you’ve found a long-lost family member because you have a common bond that unites you and a common belief that unites you even more.”
We are grateful for the way our alumni and partners are continuing God’s mission around the world and pray God’s blessing on the next 100 years.
Clara J. Danquah graduated from Asbury Theological Seminary in 2020 with a Doctor of Ministry. She serves as Associate Pastor of Wesley Chapel in Kumasi, Ghana, a 1500 attendee church. She provides premarital counseling for their congregants and is passionate about helping people find Biblical answers to their real-life problems. She is making strides in the areas of leadership development and discipleship for college students.
Chung Suk Kim graduated from Asbury Seminary with a Master of Divinity in 1994 and a Doctor of Ministry in 1997. He grew up in the Kwanglim Church in Seoul, Korea, where his father, Bishop Sundo Kim, was the lead pastor. Upon his father’s retirement, Chung Suk became lead pastor of the church. Kwanglim is the world’s largest Methodist church, with some 120,000 members worldwide. The church has planted sister churches in New Zealand, Russia, China, Turkey, Estonia, Zimbabwe and Canada and has built a theological seminary in Manchuria. Kwanglim is passionately committed to prayer and small groups, and God has blessed and prospered the church.
Manny Carlos serves on the leadership team of Victory Church, a multi-site church in Metro Manila, Philippines, as Bishop and Chairman of the Board. As part of the Every Nation Ministry church planting movement, the team’s goal is to transform the nation and world for Christ by reaching students at the top two universities in the country, the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University. Half of these graduates become national leaders.
Richard Waugh currently serves as National Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of his native New Zealand. He is also President of the South Pacific Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and Chair of the ecumenical New Zealand National Church Leaders Meeting. The Wesleyan Methodist Church is a growing renewal movement that emerged in 2000 from the Methodist Church of New Zealand. Waugh was a student in the Beeson Pastor Program and received his D.Min. from Asbury Seminary in 2010. He was also chosen to receive the faculty’s Distinguished Dissertation Award for that year. In 2012, he was named a Distinguished Alumnus.
Ric Thorpe, a 2020 D.Min. graduate of Asbury Seminary, is the United Kingdom’s first “bishop for church plants.” He has been the Bishop of Islington in the Diocese of London since 2015 with the responsibility of planting and growing new churches and congregations. Thorpe is part of the Church of England’s new leadership strategy for revival and evangelism and leads the Center for Church Multiplication. Drawing on his extensive experience of church planting, Thorpe is working with clergy who are ministering in new areas in the Diocese, providing support and mentorship where needed and capturing and sharing successful church growth strategies. In this role, he is also a resource for the whole Church of England.
When Linda Adams was elected bishop in the Free Methodist Church (FMC) of North America in 2019, she became the first woman to hold that office. She oversees her denomination’s work in the North and North Central United States and in Latin America. Adams earned her M.Div. at Asbury Seminary in 1991 and graduated with her D.Min. from the Beeson Pastor program in 2000. After pastoring for several years, she directed the International Child Care Ministry of the Free Methodist Church for eleven years before her election as bishop. The other two bishops in the FMC USA, both men, are also graduates of Asbury Seminary.
Jeannine Brabon was born and raised in Medellín, Colombia, the daughter of OMS missionaries. She graduated from Asbury Seminary (M.A. Religion) in 1981. After serving 16 years in Spain, she returned to Colombia to teach biblical Hebrew and has pioneered a prison ministry at Bellavista Maximum Security Prison in Medellín. In 1992 she joined a team of Columbian evangelists to begin the Bellavista Prison Bible Institute, a discipleship program that has graduated hundreds of prisoners who minister to other inmates in penitentiaries. Many other prisoners, now freed, are serving as pastors and evangelists throughout the region.
