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Bud Bence, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor | Kingswood University
Email
bbence@campusedu.com
Note:
I will respond to e-mail within 24 hours (M 8:00am- F 3:00pm). If something arises over the weekend that is vital, feel free to text me and I will work to respond within 24 hours.
Ministerial and Professional Background
Dr. Bence spent his childhood in upstate New York, where his father pastored a Wesleyan Church and served as district superintendent. After studies at Houghton College and Asbury Seminary, he pastored a Wesleyan Church in Rochester, N.Y., where he developed a large youth program and church open to the "Jesus Movement" of the early 1970s. After five years of pastoring, he entered the doctoral program at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., where his studies centered on an in-depth analysis of the theology of John Wesley.
For the past 33 years, Dr. Bence has devoted himself to teaching in Wesleyan colleges— first at United Wesleyan College in Allentown, then at Indiana Wesleyan University (since 1982). He spent five years serving as academic dean at Houghton College, and then returned to IWU where he has taught church history and served in academic administration at IWU. Dr. Bence retired from full-time employment in 2013 but has continued teaching courses at Wesley Seminary when he is not involved in overseas ministry in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Dr. Bence speaks frequently at summer camps and on college campuses. In 1999 and again in 2012, he gave the keynote address at the general conference of his denomination, The Wesleyan Church.
Awards and Honours
He has received awards for "excellence in teaching" and has been honoured as "professor of the year" by the students. In 2011, he was the first recipient of Indiana Wesleyan’s World-Changing Faculty Award. He has also been honoured by Asbury Theological Seminary as Alumni of the Year. He was designated an emeritus faculty member of Indiana Wesleyan in 2012.
Ordination
The Wesleyan Church, 1970, Indiana North
Education
B.A., Philosophy, Houghton College (1966)
M.Div., Church History, Asbury Theological Seminary (1969)
Ph.D., Historical Theology, Emory University (1981)
Research Fellow at the World Institute of Methodist Studies, Oxford (England) University (1982, 1997)