History
In 2008, IWU administrators and the Board of Trustees endorsed the concept of the seminary and set aside funding for it. On April 3, 2009 the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the proposal after the seminary was accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The seminary opened for the fall 2009 semester. On June 20, 2012 Wesley Seminary was admitted as an Associate Member of the Association of Theological Schools.
On October 2, 2009, during IWU's Homecoming Chapel, university president Dr. Henry Smith announced that the Board of Trustees had officially voted to name the seminary Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University and had chosen Dr. Wayne Schmidt to be the seminary's first Vice President.
Wesley is the first officially affiliated seminary in the history of the Wesleyan Church, which is one of the only evangelical denominations that does not currently require pastors to hold a seminary degree for ordination. Currently, only about 15 percent of Wesleyan pastors have seminary degrees. Denominational leaders hope the new seminary will double that number.
Wesley will eventually have its own building on campus, after the University received a substantial donation from the Green family, owners of the Hobby Lobby corporation. Until the new building is complete, the Noggle Christian Ministries Center will house the seminary, along with the undergraduate School of Theology and Ministry. On April 12, 2012, the cornerstone for the new $7 million Wesley Seminary building was laid and is scheduled to be completed by September 2013.
Read more about this topic: Wesley Seminary
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The history of reform is always identical; it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Don’t you realize that this is a new empire? Why, folks, there’s never been anything like this since creation. Creation, huh, that took six days, this was done in one. History made in an hour. Why it’s a miracle out of the Old Testament!”
—Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)