winfield_bevins_150We are delighted to welcome Winfield Bevins to the Asbury community as our new Director of Church Planting.  Central to our 2023 Strategic Plan is our commitment to unleash a new wave of Wesleyan church planting here in the U.S.A. and around the world.  Dr. Bevins comes to us with extensive church planting experience.

He has served as the founding pastor of the Church of the Outer Bank in North Carolina, where he also serves as the Canon of Church Planting. He is the co-founder of two church planting networks, Mission Carolina (http://missioncarolina.com) and Kardia (http://www.kardiaanglican.com), and has been responsible for dozens of new church planting networks.

“I am delighted that Dr. Bevins is joining the Asbury team,” said Dr. Timothy Tennent, President of Asbury Theological Seminary. “His arrival is strategic to the unfolding of our 2023 Strategic Plan to train 400 new church planters and give birth to new church planting networks. Please pray for Winfield, his wife Kay, and their three daughters as they make the transition to Asbury Theological Seminary.”

Asbury’s church planting initiative encompasses both curricular and co-curricular resources to prepare church planters and their teams. The initiative focuses on four areas: degree programs and academic certificates, church planting networks, field research and church planting practices.  

Dr. Bevins is well known for training of hundreds of church planters from different denominational backgrounds. He has developed innovative resources for planting and re-missioning churches. He frequently speaks at conferences and retreats on a variety of topics.

“Dr. Bevins brings to the Seminary a host of gifts to help us serve the global church, train church planters, equip pastors for missional engagement in diverse, strategic regions, and learn from our brothers and sisters around the world,” said Dr. Gregg Okesson, Dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Evangelism (by rhonda at dresshead online). “His own experience with church planting in North America, his extensive networks with the Anglican Church of North America and other associations, and his lively, theological mind will, we trust, be used by God to help Asbury deepen its influence in training leaders for the Church of Jesus Christ around the world. “

He has written several books including Our Common Prayer: A Field Guide to the Book of Common Prayer, Creed: Connect to the Essentials of the Historic Christian Faith, and Rediscovering John Wesley. He holds a doctorate from Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. He and his wife Kay, have three girls Elizabeth, Anna Belle, and Caroline. To find out more about him, visit his website at winfieldbevins.com. 

“We are grateful to attract such an accomplished scholar-practitioner,” said Dr. Tom Tumblin, Dean of the Beeson International Center. “Dr. Bevins brings over a decade of experience as a planter. His spiritual entrepreneurship gifts have gone viral across multiple networks. He and his family will add rich value to the Asbury community. “