Video Report of Healing Ministry at Asbury Seminary by Mary Ellen Conners
The Healing Work of Jesus Christ at Asbury Theological Seminary
By Brad Long
It was a wonderful experience walking onto the campus of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and the centrality of Jesus Christ among the students and faculty.
Cindy Strickler and I were invited to lead the annual Healing Conference, hosted by Asbury Seminary, Sept. 29-30, 2011. The Conference began with worship in the Chapel where we were given the opportunity to speak to the whole faculty and student body (about 400 people). After lunch The Rev. Dr. Steve Seamands opened his class on The Theology of Healing Ministry to us to answer questions. We were honored to find that this class has been using our book, Let Jesus Heal Your Hidden Wounds: Cooperating with the Holy Spirit in Healing Ministry, for the past several years.
Over dinner we had the joy of meeting with 20 students enrolled in the Healing Academy at Asbury, a 2-year practicum that trains men and women in healing ministry. This is directed by the Rev. Peg Hutchins, who was our host for the event.
Thursday evening and Friday morning the Healing Conference continued with about 80 present. They were from the Healing Academy, students, members of the faculty, people from the community and some alums who returned for the event. We worked through the theological foundations for healing ministry, how Jesus healed people and the dynamics of inner healing. The participants were very engaged in the teaching and entered into practice with a great deal of openness.
At all the conference we saw the Holy Spirit moving the students from theory into practice. While Cindy and I were doing all of the upfront teaching, we were fully supported by a team who provided intercessory prayer support as well as some hands-on prayer ministry. Mary Ellen Conners and Kay Pyron were engaged in intercessory prayer. The Rev. Sam Hale was wonderful in personal prayer ministry and Dunamis Institute intern Josh Modrynski provided the videotaping and also assisted with intercessory prayer and ministry support. They were not alone in the prayer ministry; Dr. Seamands and Peg were right out in the midst of the ministry, as were a larger number of students whom they had mentored in healing prayer ministry.
Members of the Healing Academy and others gathered for worship at the seminar on Inner Healing. The students were from Asbury Theological Seminary and also from congregations throughout the USA. It was so encouraging to be with a group that was mostly younger than we are and so eager to grow in healing ministry.
Dr. Stephen Seamands and The Rev. Peg Hutchins with The Rev. Dr. Brad Long and The Rev Cindy Strickler
Would that all the seminaries equipping pastors for Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran and other mainline churches, had programs like this on the healing ministry of Jesus Christ!
Dr. Brad Long teaching on ways that we forget and the formation of vortex memories. This gives the psychological basis for understanding how an emotional wounding that takes place when we are children, even though forgotten, can still affect us fifty years later.
For more information on this program please go to the Asbury Seminary web pages. We highly recommend this and believe that it would most helpful for growing you in healing ministry that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and completely centered in Jesus Christ.
How did we end up receiving such an amazing invitation to take part in what God is doing at Asbury Theological Seminary and in the Methodist Church in the USA? First, there was no doubt a human part: The Rev. Benjamin McEntire and Nancy Dunn who have been a part of the PRMI Advanced Healing and Deliverance Course at the Community of the Cross, were also part of the Asbury Theological Seminary Community and made the recommendation. But above all, we all sensed that it was the Holy Spirit who had arranged this. An invitation had actually come two years ago, but we were unable to accept it. Dr. Steve Seamands, The Rev. Peg Hutchins and many others confirmed that now was just the right time for this to take place. It was truly a kairos moment and a time of convergence of vision in extending Jesus’ healing ministry out into the Church where it is so desperately needed – for the glory of God.
