The Nine Principles of Community Life at Asbury University clarify our values and fortify and support our community. These principles are characterized by three themes: Belong, Become and Be Set Apart.
Asbury University is a Transformative Community. We both affirm and practice a vibrant and earnest commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior with the Bible as the ultimate authority for our life.
Asbury University is a Relational Community. A relational community wills the good of others by putting them first, creating a hospitable environment, holding one another accountable, and deliberately creating spaces for community development and celebration.
Asbury University is a Respectful Community. We believe that all persons are made in the Image of God and, thus, have inestimable human worth and equal human dignity. As Christians, we believe that the Imago Dei is an inherent human quality that, while fallen, is the irreducible, non-transferrable essence of what it means to be a created being. We believe in the Christian posture of humility, loving kindness and hospitality toward all humankind who bear God’s image.
Asbury University is a Redemptive and Restorative Community. We believe we are embodied, embedded teleological creatures “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Ephesians 2:10, NRSV). We seek practices that redeem, restore renew us through God’s grace, to His design for our lives.
Asbury University is a Learning Community. We believe that our Christian tradition and doctrinal commitments give shape to our intellectual life. Compelled to love the Lord with all our mind (Luke 10:27) —we seek to cultivate a “well-furnished mind.”
Asbury University is a Holistic Community. Toward the end of forming our minds, hearts and hands—we believe that Christian education is for the body as well as the mind and, therefore, shapes our judgments, sensibilities and practices for living well.
Asbury University is a Community known for our Excellence. The value we provide to the professions, the church, or the common good through our effectiveness and excellence of service is a significant opportunity to let our light shine before others so that they “may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16, NRSV).
Asbury University is a Community known for our Integrity and Holiness. We seek to be people whose “Yes” is “Yes” and “No” is “No” (Matthew 5:37, NRSV). Our Christian faith and participation in a deliberately Christian community is a means of durable identity—telling us who we are, where our value originates, and what we should do regardless of time, place and context.
Asbury University is a Community known for Service. We aspire to possess the self-emptying character reflected in the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5). Moreover, we seek to advance the Kingdom mission as humble stewards to serve and transform our world in favor of those around us—neighbor, widow, orphan and alien.