Dear Asbury,

Pentecost Sunday, May 24, 2026, will be the beginning of a new era in the history of Asbury Church.

On Pentecost Sunday 2026, we will hold a worship service of consecration and ordination. During the worship service on that date the entire Asbury congregation will rededicate and consecrate ourselves to the Lord and His mission to carry the Good News to the ends of the earth. Additionally, as a part of that Pentecost worship service we will, for the first time in our history as a church, take the responsibility to ordain a group of our own pastors to be leaders and shepherds of Christ’s church.

In the three and a half years since we officially disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church, we have been searching for the right place to connect. Which denomination or group or structure is asking the right questions? What group would best set Asbury up to reach the nations for Christ? Where would we be most fruitful and faithful? Which structure is best suited to help churches fulfill the Great Commission in 21st century America?

We have concluded that the right connection or denomination does not exist for Asbury, and so we have decided it is our God-given responsibility to start the new connection that we ourselves have been searching for. The reason the acts that we will take on Pentecost Sunday 2026 are significant is because, with this service of consecration and ordination, we will be publicly stating that we do not intend to join an existing denomination. Rather, we intend to be part of the creation of something new, an ecclesial network we are calling The Asbury Connection.

We believe that God is looking to do something new as the church of Jesus moves into its third millennium. God isn’t finished yet, and there is work for us to do.

Before the children of Israel moved into the promised land, they gathered on the edge of the Jordan River:

Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you”[Joshua 3:5].

We believe it is time for a Joshua moment, for us to declare our intention to move boldly into a new thing that God is doing, and we want to make ourselves ready for the work of reaching the nations for Christ.

On Pentecost Sunday 2026 we will, like the children of Israel, be standing on the edge of the Jordan River, ready to move into new territory, so to speak. It is our intention in the attached document to recap how we arrived at this point, to share the questions we have been asking and the answers we have found, and to explain why we believe this decision is the one the Lord is asking us to take.

In Christ,

Andrew Forrest

Senior Pastor