Asbury Theological Seminary

J.D. Walt, Vice President for Community Life, Dean of the Chapel, Asbury alumnus (1997)

1. It is the biggest worldwide phenomenon of the century so far.

• It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users.

• Television took 13 years to reach 50 million users.

• It took four years for the Internet to reach 50 million users.

• In three years, the iPod reached 50 million users.

• Facebook added 100 million users in less than nine months!

• If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s fourth-largest. 

• One in eight couples who married last year met online.

• Wikipedia has over 13 million articles. 78% of them are non-English.¹

If for no other reason, we should care because most everyone else does.

• Read more

Dr. Timothy C. Tennent, President of Asbury Theological Seminary and Professor of World Christianity

In the mid-nineties, two students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, sat in their dorm room at Stanford University and pledged themselves, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” The result was Google, the most powerful and widely used search engine in the world. The word Google is a term coined by Milton Sirotta for the number one followed by 100 zeros. It was used by Page and Brin to symbolize the vast amount of information in the world. Google has become an integral part of our daily lives. In light of this, I saw a funny cartoon a few days ago. A pastor was standing in front of a confirmation class and was saying to his class, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… and after that, Google pretty much took over!” The cartoon seems to be making the point that even our basic Christian doctrines and teachings cannot ignore the larger context of the world we live in. We live in a world which is awash with almost universal access to information. Our period of history has been called the “information age” or the “digital revolution.” What implications does this have for Asbury Theological Seminary?

• Read more

Doug Penix, Executive Director of Information Technology



New leadership brings exciting times to Asbury Theological Seminary. Dr. Timothy C. Tennent, President, arrived on campus sporting an iPhone and asked “Why can’t the seminary have an app?” Information Technology was charged with the task, and the learning curve began. We felt it was important to develop it in-house due to the overwhelming amount of information needed but also because of our access to the seminary databases. Our goal is to keep a fresh application by consistently offering updates in an effort to add new content and features to the application over time. The application is part of a wider, ongoing communications effort to provide alumni, faculty, staff, students and others with the latest information about the seminary. 



• Read more

An article from The Pentecostal Herald written by Dr. Henry Clay Morrison:

In the late 19th century, newspapers were the newest social networking tool. The Rev. Henry Clay Morrison, through the prompting and provisions of God, started The Pentecostal Herald, a religious paper.  The following is an article written by Rev. Morrison in 1898, ten years after starting the paper. He reflects on the difficulties he encountered while trying to break into the new form of social networking.  May it be an encouragement to you to persevere through the tough times of new beginnings.

• Read more