Educating Our Leaders
During the 35-year period between 1960 and 1995, Greenville remained relatively stable in its tradition as a Christian liberal arts college, noted for the contributions of its faculty to the church and the influence of its graduates in scholarly and service careers. In 1995-1996 the enrollment totaled 827 students, of whom 26 percent were Free Methodists. Fifty percent of the fulltime faculty of 86 are members of the Free Methodist Church. LOS ANGELES PACIFIC COLLEGE (Azusa Pacific University) - As the last of the Free Methodist colleges in the United States to be founded by evangelists and church planters, Los Angeles Pacific Seminary began in 1903 with a view to serving Free Methodists in the burgeoning basin of Southern California. Between 1903 and 1960, the name of the two-year school was changed from "seminary" to "college" as part of the efforts to build enrollment and finances. By 1960 students in two-year programs numbered 241, with 42 percent Free Methodists. In that same year, the college added a Bachelor of Theology degree as part of its service ministry to the church in the Southwest because of the distance to the seminary program at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. Before the end of the decade of the 1960s, Los Angeles Pacific College confronted the reality of closure, primarily because of finances. A merger agreement was negotiated with Azusa College, which gave Free Methodists the advantage of education in a sister school of Wesleyan roots and supported by several holiness denominations. The merger was completed in 1965, and Azusa changed its name to "university" in 1981 as it added a graduate school of theology among its advanced offerings. Because of its unique relationship to the Free Methodist Church as one of its supporting denominations, Azusa was classified as a "cooperating institution" in its membership with the Association of Free Methodist Educational Institutions. In 1995 Azusa enrolled a total of 4,229 students, of whom 21, or a fraction of one percent, were Free Methodists. LORNE PARK COLLEGE - Coordinated with the development of Canadian Free Methodism in the 1920s, Lorne Park Seminary was founded in 1924 with a particular interest in the education of students in Ontario. The curriculum centered upon ministerial education, along with a secondary program for students at the high school level. By 1960 the school enrolled 76 students, of whom 41 percent were Free Methodists. In that same year, Lorne Park added a Bachelor of Theology degree in an upgraded program for ministerial education. Finances, the common cause of college closures, caught up with Lorne Park College in the mid-1960s. As an alternative to the loss of educational
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