Wesley Foundation

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John Wesley

George Whitefield
Background Christianity Protestantism Pietism Anglicanism Arminianism Calvinism
Doctrinal distinctives Articles of Religion Prevenient Grace Governmental Atonement Imparted righteousness Christian perfection
People Richard Allen Francis Asbury Thomas Coke Albert C. Outler Charles Wesley Bishops · Theologians
Largest groups World Methodist Council United Methodist Church AME Church Church of the Nazarene British Methodist Church
Related movements Holiness movement Salvation Army Personalism Pentecostalism This box: view • talk • edit

A Wesley Foundation is a campus ministry sponsored in full or in part (depending on the congregation) by the United Methodist Church on a non-church owned and operated campus. Wesley Foundations claim ancestry in the founding "Holy Club" of the Methodist movement, a group of students at Oxford University guided by Wesley in "methodical" (hence "Methodist") study, prayer, and self-discipline. Today a Wesley Foundation is the presence of the United Methodist Church on or near, and in service to, a state-run, non-church affiliated college or university (Church-related schools have Chaplains that may guide similar groups).

Wesley Foundations are primarily found in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, but can also be found in a number of other countries around the world. They are governed by the basic unit of the United Methodist Church, the annual conference; ordained ministers are appointed by their annual conference to serve Wesley Foundations as campus minister in a similar manner to their usual appointment to a church or charge.

[edit] United Methodist Student Movement (UMSM)

The United Methodist Student Movement is the overarching organization of college students in the United Methodist Church, involving students participating in Wesley Foundations as well as others in Methodist-affiliated ecumenical ministries at public and secular private schools and chaplaincy-based ministries at Methodist universities. The UMSM operates at the annual conference level, as well as jurisdictional and national/international meetings.

The highest-profile UMSM program is Student Forum, an annual meeting held at rotating sites in the United States at the end of May bringing together delegates nominated by their respective annual conferences, mostly from the U.S. but usually including some international delegates as well.