Admissions Blog

This post is the second in a series we are running to track down community on a commuter campus. Read the introductory post “First Thoughts”. The Florida Maxie Dunnam campus is primarily a commuter campus. The Wilmore campus is majority residential students, but still maintains a strong core of students who commute.

One reason some think community cannot happen on a commuter campus is a faulty notion that authentic seminary community requires people to live in close proximity to each other. On a given class day you can stand at the door to greet students and find some walked across the street from nearby apartment complexes, others from the greater Orlando area, still others began their day in all parts of Florida and Georgia. It would be a mistake to look at these geographically different students and think they cannot connect because they do not live together. However, “a group of people living in a particular local area ” is only method of community. I suggest a better definition for us.

Alan Hirsh, in “The Forgotten Ways” defines community as “a deep form of togetherness and love found when we embark on a common mission of discovery, when we encounter danger together and have to find each other in the process in order to survive” (240). I read this definition and almost jumped out of my seat. It described my experience here so clearly. Each Asbury student on the Florida campus in engaged in pursuing academic ministry training while being spiritually formed. We are united in a common experience, but, we each bring a diverse background and perspective. This is a potent combination and makes for amazing discussions in class and over meals. Many classes on the Florida campus are scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays.* There are three blocks in the day; 9-11:40am, a break for lunch, chapel from 1-2pm, an afternoon session from 2:30-5pm, and the evening session from 6:15-9pm. This allows students who commute to take up to three classes in one day (which makes them full-time students). The rest of the week they can continue their jobs, and work on assignments and readings. As we all travel together through the day, we connect in class, over breaks, through lunch and dinner, and of course we commune in chapel. Oh, and there is danger lurking in the halls! We each struggle to parse Greek and Hebrew, pore through books, and write papers. But perhaps the most dangerous aspect of this community is the potential for spiritual formation. I am not being cute; Asbury offers the unique opportunity to be formed into Christ-likeness as you pursue your training. Just this past week, I watched one student pray for another student in the lounge. Another student talked with me over a break about some frustrations with my ordination process.

We care for each other.

We are each others family for the day.

We enter community with each other in order to survive.

I hope this post helps to give you a window into the community. The next post will dig deeper looking at ways and methods commuters engage in community on campus. Can you see yourself in this “deep form of togetherness?”

*Classes are also offered on other days as the week and in intensive sessions on weekends, summers, and January term.