Dr. Timothy Tennent: One Hundred Years of Contending for the Faith
In May 1922, an event took place in New York City which galvanized the heart and mind of our beloved founder, Henry Clay Morrison. Harry Emerson Fosdick preached a sermon at the First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan’s West Village in NY which raised questions about the authority of Scripture and cast doubt upon the veracity of the Apostolic proclamation and about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Fosdick’s sermon was the catalyst which plunged mainline Christianity, including all the Methodist seminaries in the United States, into what became known as the modernist controversy. The sermon’s influence was magnified when John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Company and the wealthiest man in the world used his considerable resources to publish Fosdick’s sermon in pamphlet form and mail it to every Protestant minister in the country. The impact of that sermon was so profound that by October 6, 1930, Fosdick’s picture made the front cover of Time magazine. The whole church – indeed, the whole nation – was caught up in this controversy. According to the modernists, the gospel must be reconciled with the new insight that Christ was merely an ethical teacher, but not the unique Son of God. The Bible was a collection of human wisdom, but certainly not the Word of God. Christianity may be “a” way but had to accept its place as just one of many religious paths to God. In a few decades, the mainline churches in the United States had fallen under the sway of these novel ideas. This was the crucible out of which arose the founding of Asbury Theological Seminary 100 years ago.
Tonight, we are gathered together to celebrate 100 years in the history of the Seminary. Our theme is “thanking God for the past, trusting God for the future.” We are taking time to look back and remember God’s faithfulness to Asbury Seminary. The modernist challenge has had many previous incarnations where the church had to be reminded of our apostolic, supernatural origins. This was already happening in our text found in the book of Jude. Sometimes we look back on the New Testament church as a kind of “golden age” when the church was apostolically led, biblically centered, Spirit-directed, and missionally driven. While there are clear examples of all of those things, the church from the beginning was also beset with spiritual attacks, moral laxity, doctrinal confusion, and missional retreat. Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, who at first had not believed, but later became a staunch believer in Jesus Christ, became a great defender of orthodoxy.
What is the great admonition which Jude gives to the church of Jesus Christ for all time? He writes those electrifying words:
“contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints”
In our own history, beginning in the heart of our founder, H.C. Morrison, God allowed him to hear God’s word afresh. Though we only had room for 600 people at this Gala, and hundreds more watching livestream, we should not forget that there is also that great cloud of witnesses who stand with us tonight in this historic juncture in the history of this great seminary. H.C. Morrison and Fred Larabee and J.C. McPheeters and Frank Stanger, and countless others like Ira Gallaway and Hal Munn and Joe Lee and Ellsworth Kalas are also here tonight through that great doctrine called the “communion of the saints.” They know, as we do, that it is a miracle that we are here tonight. This is why the gingko tree has become one of the symbols of Asbury Seminary. The massive gingko trees on the front lawn of the Seminary were brought here as tiny saplings from China by one of our early Trustees, Delos Crary. They have become symbols of the Seminary with their glorious leaves falling within a three-day period each year, creating an annual spectacle, and symbolizing our annual sending forth of our graduates to the ends of the earth. Morrison received a letter the same month he started the Seminary urging him not to proceed with what seemed like a foolhardy venture. The letter said, and I quote “you cannot survive, and your school cannot succeed.” Well, here we are 100 years later! Hallelujah! We have not only succeeded, but we have thrived to become one of the largest seminaries in the world with 13,345 graduates! 1927 was our first proper graduation service with an actual class. We had a few years with single graduates because they had transferred in with credits, but 1927 was the first class who had started and finished at Asbury. We had four graduates: Wan-Yu Chang from China, Ellen Francis Keller, Raymond Newton, and Kenichi Tsuchiya from Japan. Men, women, from the US and from the ends of the earth. That was the first class. From the start we had a global vision: “The whole Bible for the whole World” – what an audacious founding vision!!
You see, it is the rather odd reality of a seminary that it does not exist for itself. We don’t make widgets and sell them. We are judged ultimately by what happens outside of Wilmore or any of our extension sites in Orlando, Tampa, Memphis, Tulsa, or Colorado Springs. Asbury exists for the sake of others. We are not the church; we are the servant of the church. In the end, our fruitfulness will not be gauged by whether or not we balance our budget, or how big our enrollment is, or how much money we raise, or how many collective PhD’s we have on our faculty, or how many books are in our library, or how big our endowment is. All of those things play a supporting role, even a crucial role, but, in the end, that is not what we are about. We are about what happens out there… in the field… in the world… in neighborhoods… in the inner cities… in churches large and small… in baptismal fonts… at altars…. at celebrate recovery milestones… at confirmation classes… at a back table in a pub where a church is taking root… in prayer meetings…in counseling sessions… on mission fields…. Growing fruit on other people’s trees. Lives redeemed and saved by the power of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ! Only heaven can tell that story. That is our goal. Because only there in this pulpit, in that church, in that counseling ministry, in this soup kitchen, in that church plant – only there are we truly found to have fulfilled our mission. Our 100 years is not the story about the buildings we have built in Wilmore, or even the dramatic growth of this institution over the last one hundred years to become the largest Wesleyan seminary in the world and in the top five seminaries of any kind in the country. No, it is about how much fruit we have grown on other people’s trees. That is the true test of our mission.
So, tonight, in keeping with our theme, “Thanking God for the Past – Trusting God for the future,” we pause to look with gratitude on all the miracles which have led us to this historic night.
If we could go back in time and sit down with Henry Clay Morrison at one of his Camp meetings, or at his Presidential desk at Asbury College and said, “Wait a minute, brother Morrison, don’t you know that the whole tide of the church is going the other direction? Brother Morrison, didn’t you get the modernist memo? Haven’t you read Fosdick’s sermon?” Morrison would have still started the Seminary because he was contending for the gospel once and for all delivered to the saints. You might have reminded him that the country had just gone through a severe economic downturn and was on the brink of the worst economic depression in its history – the Great Depression hit August of 1929 when we were not yet six years old – surely, this was not the time to start a new institution and build buildings and commit to providing needy students with scholarships. Morrison would still have started this ministry because he was contending for the faith once and for delivered to the saints. If you had stopped Morrison that day and reminded him that he was 66 years old, the age when most people aren’t thinking about starting something but are winding down to retirement. He didn’t need this burden in his life. Wasn’t it the time to retire and relax and play a round of golf? But Morrison didn’t think that way. At 66 years old he started Asbury Seminary, because he was contending for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. Morrison was one of the greatest orators and preachers of his day. H.C. Morrison preached over 15,000 sermons. Even more amazingly, he led an estimated 30,000 people to Christ in his camp meetings, revivals, and pulpit ministry! Morrison didn’t need to build any legacy; he already embodied it. But he realized that something else was needed, that a lifetime of camp meetings and revivals could not accomplish. The church needed a new seminary, fully committed to the Word of God, and vibrant with the message of holiness and Wesleyan distinctives. If you had reminded him of his great preaching legacy, he would still have started Asbury Seminary because he was contending for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. Morrison was also the editor of a well-known evangelistic circular in those days known as the Pentecostal Herald. It was read by thousands. The world may have lauded the publication of Harry Fosdick’s sermon given in New York which tried to set the course of the church down the so-called “progressive” road, but Morrison wasn’t interested in what was written in Fosdick’s sermon. He was far more interested in what was written in the Word of God. He stepped out in faith and started Asbury Seminary because he was contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
God has been faithful to Asbury Seminary, enabling us to be faithful to our founding vision. Our adopted song for our centennial year is “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” It was written by Thomas Chisholm who came to faith in Christ at an H.C. Morrison revival meeting. He wrote the hymn in 1923, the year of our founding: Indeed, Great is Thy Faithfulness to Asbury Seminary!
In the midst of some of our darkest days, God raised up gospel patrons like so many in this room who are here tonight and who have stood by us. Thank you for your generosity. What would the history of the Seminary be without faithful servants like you who have so generously invested your resources in the mission of the Seminary? We have been sustained and encouraged by large and small gifts. We get small checks from nursing homes. I get letters and emails from all over the world from people who tell me that they are praying for me and for this ministry. We have people, many who are here tonight, many more who are watching from the portals of heaven, who have made huge kingdom investments. Thank you. God has used those gifts to build this ministry. Brothers and sisters, we stand with a great cloud of witnesses who stand with us in contending for the faith once delivered to the saints.
So, tonight, we look back, remembering that great Latin phrase, “nanos gigantum humeris insidentes” meaning “standing on the shoulders of giants.” This famous phrase was popularized in 1675 by Sir Isaac Newton, who once was asked how he had discovered so many remarkable things, ranging from the law of gravity to the laws of mechanics to calculus and he famously said, “If I have seen farther than other men, it is only because I am standing on the shoulders of giants.” Tonight, we acknowledge that we are here, on this historic centennial celebration, because we have stood on the shoulders of giants, men and women of faith, with far reaching vision and dedicated to the glorious, eternal gospel. We would not be standing here tonight if they had not so firmly stood in their own time and in the midst of their own generation. As President of this beloved Seminary, let me assure you that I remain committed to the founding vision of Asbury Seminary and my deepest prayer is that we will be found faithful as we launch the next 100 years. Amen.
Dear Dr. Tennent, Thank you for your inspiring leadership! I am a 1985 graduate living in Asheville and serving retired, part-time. My call was a ministry of renewal in the UMC. My oldest son is a church-planting missionary in Thailand. My two younger sons are church planters in SoCal. This message inspired me in particular because I am serving Edneyville UMC, founded in 1793 from the very first Camp Meeting Revival. I am writing a book about it. I feel so privileged to be walking in the footsteps of Francis Asbury and Samuel Edney. I’ll be finishing my first draft soon. I wonder if there’s someone at the seminary who would be willing to critique it?
Dear Dr. Bob Kretzu, Greetings from Ethiopia. This is Dr. Nega, the founder and director of Onesimus ministries. I graduated from Asbury last year and I was excited to read Dr. Timothy Tennent: One Hundred Years of Contending for the Faith.
One question for you: where is your oldest son planting a church in Thailand? God willing I will be there a month from today. I will be happy to be in touch with him. I also have been in Ashville several times. I will be interested to meet with you when I come to visit my sending agent. My email address is nega@Onesimus.min.org. God bless you.
Yes, another “thank you” from a 1981 alumnus who has retired from one of the earliest organizational coworkers and partners of ATS. OMS celebrates 121 years this year and some of the earliest and very best students, alumni, guest faculty, and board members of ATS down through the years have simultaneously served as OMS missionaries. Together we have “contended for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.”
Dr. David E. Dick
I am another recipient of the foundational work of ATS, its Spirit-filled and Spirit-driven professors and the amazing community, 1977 graduate. Thank you Dr. Tennent for this inspirational and great reminder that God’s Word impacts culture and is foundational truth. And May graduates continue as salt and light to withstand the continual onslaught of our cultural biases. In the name of Yeshua!
Thank you Dr. Tennent! What an inspiring message to celebrate Asbury’s 100th anniversary! I am so very grateful for my education there! You rescued me from progressive theology. I give thanks to the Lord for Asbury, the leaders, professors, the entire staff, and my classmates both online and on the Wilmore campus, Sept 2001-May, 2008. The Lord has good things in store for you all for the future. Faithfully serving our Lord in Belle Fourche, SD, a small town in the “center of the nation!”
Yes, Asbury Theological Seminary is one hundred years by next 2023. Those who attended and those who have not attended have got to know that the Seminary stands on the rocky foundation of FAITH in Christ.
I graduated from Asbury Seminary in May 2005. After me, my son graduated there in May 2018. I am here in Nigeria teaching and doing other ministries, while my son is pastoring in a Christian church at Milan, MO.
Dr. Tennent and Julie, thanks for steering the ship of the Seminary at this crucial point of her existence. I know what it means to celebrate an organization at 100 years. I was elected as ECWA General Secretary in April 1999 when ECWA and SIM celebrated their 100 years of ministry in Nigeria and the world. I was at the center of the celebration on December 4, 1999. From my frame of reference, I can deduce what Dr. Tennent and other faculty and staff are feeling. Blessings to all of you. I wish I could come for physical celebrations on the Wilmore campus next year.
CHEERS!!!
Thank you, Dr. Tennent, for your powerful message. I graduated from the seminary 58 years ago, and I owe so much of my ministry to what God did for me through Asbury. Regularly I follow your exemplary leadership, always thanking God for your skill and your sharp focus. And I rejoice in the position to which you have brought the seminary today! Thank you for your personal friendship along the long journey.
Jon Tal Murphree