Christian Distance Learning

Pastors and parishioners, ministers and managers, counselors and cooks -- anyone, anywhere can log on to Asbury Seminary's Extended Learning Program to enrich their knowledge and enhance their skills. Students come from all 50 states and 19 countries worldwide, making it a truly international experience. And all of this without sacrificing the "Asbury Experience." Students on the Virtual Campus have their own unique community where prayer requests and praises are shared and relationships are developed and maintained.

Within this unique studying environment, individuals can earn a Certificate in Christian Studies or take up to two-thirds of the Master of Divinity degree or half of the Master of Arts degree through this innovative program. For those already involved in ministry, Asbury's Virtual Campus offers a unique Master of Divinity program. For two weeks each year, students in the In-Ministry Master of Divinity program come to the Kentucky campus and study with Asbury's esteemed faculty. The rest of the year, these students complete coursework through the internet, allowing them the freedom to continue in their established ministries.

Asbury Seminary was founded in 1923 "to prepare and send forth a well-trained, sanctified, Spirit-filled, evangelistic ministry" to spread scriptural holiness around the world. Over eighty years later, Asbury has continued to hold to our intended goal upon which we were founded and provide holistic ministerial preparation as an interdenominational institution.

Committed to a vital evangelical Christian faith, Asbury Seminary is rooted in the Wesleyan-Arminian theological tradition which stresses the free grace of God in two ways: First, the grace of God is free in all - not dependent on merit nor on works. Second, the grace of God is free for all - all may be saved. Christ died for the whole world. People are lost, then, not because they cannot be saved, but because they will not be saved.

The Christian faith rests on the personal self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Asbury Seminary philosophy of education begins with the Christian faith which centers in God, as revealed in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and as witnessed in the Holy Scriptures by the Holy Spirit.

In general, a theological seminary is an institution of higher learning composed of scholarly teachers, leaders and students dedicated to the truth. In the search for truth, Asbury Seminary faculty affirms: Scripture, reason, experience and tradition. While Asbury Seminary stands within the Wesleyan tradition and holds to a clearly defined statement of faith, the faculty commits to academic freedom. Central to all academic work are two commitments: the first to Jesus Christ as Sovereign Lord and the second to the pursuit of truth as a corporate and personal vocation.