From the editor

Tammy L. Cessna, Director of Alumni

Recently, I had the opportunity of taking “Introduction to New Testament” during J-term. I thoroughly enjoyed the class. One of the facts I remember being fascinated with was how the apostle Paul was a genius at social networking. Because of the advanced road systems credited to the Romans, Paul was able to capitalize on opportunities to spread the Gospel Message throughout the empire. This ability to travel facilitated Paul in establishing key relationships in a strategic network of cities that were vitally important in spreading Good News of Christ. The superior road systems also enabled Paul to keep in touch with his network of leaders through letter writing and distribution. The road system allowed Paul to dispatch “helpers” to churches that needed encouragement and teaching. Paul was able to encourage the churches even when he could not be physically present.

In our day, the ability to social network has grown exponentially. In my own lifetime, I have gone from growing up with only one land-line phone (avocado green) in my home, to a time when all three of my children have cell phones on which they not only talk, but more likely text numerous times during the day. Every member in my family has a Facebook account. My daughter and I each have a Twitter account. We all email like crazy. The Information Technology Department here on campus accuses me of having the most gigabytes of memory saved on my email account (as of writing this I am up to 2.8GB).

The social networking phenomena is not just for generations X and Y. Now the baby-boomer numbers are increasing exponentially on social networking sites. This past year my children and I set up my mother, who is 67 years old, a Facebook account. We established her account, gave her the password of “meatloaf” (the favorite meal of the grandchildren), and turned the site over to her after a brief tutorial. Now, after six months, I believe grandmother is spending as much time on Facebook as the rest of us. It has been a great way for my children to upload photos and keep in touch with her (she lives in Pennsylvania and we live in Kentucky). She has benefitted from taking the time to learn their social networking language.

Asbury Seminary has embraced and utilized technology throughout the years. You will read an article in “Wisdom from the Ages” (page 8) about Henry Clay Morrison founding The Pentecostal Herald newsletter, which was extremely helpful in paying the bills at the college and the seminary in their early years. Newspapers were the leading way to rapidly disseminate information at the end of the nineteenth century, and Dr. Morrison wanted to capitalize on spreading the gospel through this publication. Asbury can also thank the Beeson grant, given in the 1980’s, for helping our institution to blaze the trail in online technology and online classrooms. Asbury, in this year of 2010, is embracing the social networking revolution in new and more diverse ways. As you will see in this issue, Asbury Seminary is on Facebook and Twitter. We blog, email, podcast, Skype, text and, this past month, we launched the Asbury Application for iPhone (available for download from the iTunes store).

Just as God utilized the road system in the Roman Empire, He wants to redeem the cutting-edge technology of today. I hope you will be inspired and encouraged as you read in this issue of ways the Kingdom is being spread and impacted through the latest social networking discoveries of our time.