Methodists scratch evangelical seminary
The Presbyterian Layman, December 31, 1998
Good News magazine, in an article in its current edition, says there has been a “systematic exclusion of several well-known evangelical seminaries from the list of ‘approved’ institutions for the education of United Methodist pastors.”
The article was written by Riley Case, a Methodist pastor in Kokomo, Indiana, and a contributing editor to the independent magazine that has been a renewal voice in the denomination.
Seminary education within United Methodism is regulated by the General Board of Higher Education through its University Senate and its Commission on Theological Education. The senate has the responsibility for approving all non-United Methodist schools of theology which may be attended by UM ministerial students.
Riley said that in the last several years, the University Senate removed their approval from Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota; Oral Roberts School of Theology in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Trinity Evangelical Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois. All of these institutions were approved by the Association of Theological Schools, the national accrediting body for seminaries.
“The most recent seminary to be axed from the denomination’s ‘approved’ list is Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Wenham, Massachusetts. (Mysteriously, Gordon-Conwell’s smaller satellite campus in Charlotte, North Carolina was approved.) Those acquainted with the American church scene know Gordon-Conwell as a mainstream evangelical school, which in many ways serves as a bridge between fundamentalism on the right and mainline liberalism on the left. It operates within a confession of historic Christian faith that includes a high view of Scripture. The school is highly regarded in the evangelical world for its level of scholarship and the quality of its students. Those students have serviced many denominations including, up to this point, United Methodism,” Riley reported.
Good News speculated that Gordon-Conwell is “guilty of sins against modernity. It’s high view of Scripture and its statement of faith in historic Christianity places it in violation of the University Senate’s interpretation of academic freedom and ‘United Methodist tradition.”’