Meet the Alumni Executive Leadership Team (AELT) - Art McClellan

Rev. Arthur P. McClellan - Asbury alumnus (Master of Divinty, 2000)

Art McClellan is a member of the Alumni Executive Leadership Team (AELT). The following is an interview with Art used to introduce you to one of the alumni who serve and represent you.

Alumni Office: Tell us about your family.

McClellan: My wife, Faith, and I have been married 26 years. Faith is a high school mathematics teacher. I often say, I'm in ministry, and Faith is in the mission field. We have three children, Sarah-Ashley (Pre-Med; Florida State), Keith (International Relations; Florida State) and Pete, a high school sophomore. These are four amazing people in my life who are blessing God, others and me.

Alumni Office: Tell us about your current ministry.

McClellan: I am currently appointed to First United Methodist Church Sarasota, Florida, which is a downtown, traditional worshipping community of joy-filled Christians. We are currently in the implementation stage of a new strategic plan with prayers to serve God and our community through our own growth and transformation in Christ. Moving from our "church in decline" status, the congregation is now a "maintaining congregation" due to their resurgence as a Welcoming Congregation in pursuit of our goal to become a dynamic church presence reaching out in ministry for Jesus Christ in downtown Sarasota, throughout our community and around the world. There is a great excitement and expectation in the congregation!

A new master site design plan is approved to transform the bricks and mortar of current structures to better facilitate our newly designed worship, programs and outreach ministries for this generation and the next.

Alumni Office: Tell us a little about your call into ministry.

McClellan: I am a second-career pastor who could not fathom or deny a call to ministry at the height of my secular career and with our three young children. God's calling was affirmed in miraculous ways through an earnest season of prayer and a community of faith, family, colleagues and friends.

Alumni Office: Why did you choose to attend Asbury?

McClellan: My pastor and mentor was an Asbury College and Seminary graduate. He recommended our discernment include looking into Asbury. Reviewing Asbury's faith statements, curriculum and faculty were compelling; our visit to the Wilmore campus confirmed our decision which is still affirmed today.

Alumni Office: As you look back, tell us some significant ways Asbury prepared you for ministry.

McClellan: I chose Asbury because I believed I was called to be a "pastor," and I believed Asbury had the right educational programming--the breadth and depth of the Master of Divinity curriculum -- and the right Spirit (the hearts of faculty, administration and staff) for God to begin my training and use me in pastoral ministry. I was right.

Alumni Office: Do you have some favorite stories from your time at Asbury?

McClellan: Again, making the decision to leave home, career, family and friends to pursue this calling was undeniable and still concerning. I remember after we had unloaded the moving truck, Faith and I sort of looked at each other and said, "What have we done...moved to Kentucky with no jobs and three children?" We were quickly affirmed as our new neighbors and soon-to-be great friends also unloaded their trucks having followed their calling and having left family, careers, friends...and some of them had FOUR children! We were also affirmed by our faith community who "sent us" to seminary with their prayers and resources.

Alumni Office: Which professors made a lasting impact on you?

McClellan: In the practice of ministry, I believe I have had the occasion to reflect on the gifts for ministry that each of my seminary professors was called to share with the students at Asbury. The fullness of the Asbury experience is a rich resource to draw upon in my practice of ministry. To just name a couple of lasting impact experiences would include Dr. David Bauer pausing mid-lecture as he, in that moment, discerned a new exegetical context which allowed me see again that each day spent in Scripture can provide a fresh word from God. Also Dr. Darrell Whiteman teaching the missional ministry of becoming indigenous with your community... in New Guinea...in Sarasota, Florida...

Again, I could list the gift and the gift-giver in each course. The blessing is that I can recall and draw upon the experience for applicable ministry today.