Important Announcement from the Director

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. — Acts 4:31 

June 11, 2025 

Sisters and Brothers: On behalf of the Board, the staff, and the worshiping community of the Louisiana Tech Wesley Foundation, I write to share some significant and hopeful developments for the future of our missionary work. In short, Louisiana Tech Wesley Foundation is disconnecting from the UMC and adopting a new name. We are very excited about where the Lord is leading us, and we urgently need your partnership. 

On March 24, 2025, we received written correspondence from the Louisiana Annual Conference Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry (BHECM) informing us that as of July 1, 2025, the Louisiana Tech Wesley Foundation would cease to receive Conference funding and that at that time our “connection to the UMC is presumed to be lost.” In the same correspondence, the BHECM said “the time has come to pass the torch” to other denominational bodies, and it called upon independent and GMC churches to assume responsibility for supporting us. Though the loss of UMC funding represents a significant challenge, we recognize the BHECM’s decision in March to be providential because it releases us to strengthen and pursue the relationships we need for our missionary legacy to flourish and grow. Accordingly, upon receiving the BHECM March correspondence, we prayerfully set to work forging new partnerships and local sources of long-term ministry support. We’ve been very encouraged by the response of local Global Methodist churches, independent churches, and even churches from outside the Methodist family of denominations. As we move on, we remain grateful for the UMC’s prayers and past support, and we will continue to treasure the personal relationships first established through the UMC.

As of July 1, 2025, Louisiana Tech Wesley Foundation will cease its official connection to the United Methodist Church, and my own pastoral credentials will transfer to the Global Methodist Church. The UMC General Board of Higher Education and Ministry has taken the position that the names of non-UMC campus ministries cannot include the name “Wesley.” Therefore, for both legal and missional  reasons, on July 1 we will retire the name “Wesley Foundation” and adopt the name “Awakening Collegiate Fellowship”—or simply “ACF.” As we become ACF, we join an emerging ministry of like-minded missionary communities forging a new coalition of scripturally-orthodox Methodist/Wesleyan, Holy Spirit-filled, evangelical campus ministries. On July 1, Louisiana Tech will be the fifth university across three states with an ACF campus ministry, and we believe the ACF movement will continue spreading to other universities. While we obviously grieve the loss of the name “Wesley,” we are not losing the powerful legacy that has transformed the lives of so many college students since 1952. Regardless of the name on our building or letterhead, our calling and passion has always been to lift up the name of Jesus so that college students find life in Him. Let me share just a little about the recent fruit of the gospel in our midst. 

This past school year, we saw many students come suddenly into vital relationship with Jesus, and a handful of other non-Christians in our community seem on the verge of conversion. Recently, we discerned that the Lord was leading us to reformat our Tuesday evening worship gathering. At the start of Spring quarter, we launched a new worship band, and we’ve been amazed at the outpourings of the Holy Spirit every Tuesday. We’ve seen a notable increase in the number of women attending worship—one of whom we baptized at our final Tuesday gathering for the school year. We’ve also seen an increasing number of international students at worship, and we had over forty international students among the larger group of students who came to hear the gospel at our Spring retreat in April. More broadly, we’ve seen an outbreak of deep healing and breakthroughs in the lives of students—some of whom we’ve known for years and some we’ve just recently met. During a weekly evangelical discipline we call “Two by Tuesdays,” we send out students and staff in pairs onto campus at lunchtime to minister and pray with students we’ve never met before. Lately at Two by Tuesdays, we’ve been astonished at the ways the Holy Spirit has consistently led us to precisely those students who are in the darkest places and who most need to hear the gospel. Tuesday after Tuesday we hear students we’ve just met telling us (often through tears) how deeply they needed someone to reach out to them or that they had begged God that very morning to send someone into their lives. This Spring quarter, so many students consistently attended our Community Groups that we had to divide the groups to form new ones. Currently, our summer mission team is traveling through rural Appalachia to care for the poor and provide relief for victims of Hurricane Helene. This next school year, we’re onboarding the largest team of full-time Missionary Interns we’ve hired in three years. We continue to see God raising up a new generation of pastors and missionaries. We anticipate two of our incoming Missionary Interns will go on to seminary and the pastorate when they move on, and one of our senior Discipleship Team members is discerning a calling to full-time international missions. 

As we become disconnected from the UMC, we will lose $91,000 of annual funding. Though it will be a significant challenge to replace the loss of what had amounted to approximately 33% of our core operating budget, by the grace of God, we are not afraid. Instead, we have every confidence not only that we will survive these financial challenges, but also that the Lord will continue to add to our number those who are being saved. Many of you already give generously to our ministry or have given in the past. Thank you. We hope that everyone who reads this letter will prayerfully consider covenanting with us as we embark on this new season of our missionary adventure.

To make a gift in any amount, you can still go to latechwesley.org and click the “donate” tab. There you can choose to make a one-time gift or set up recurring automatic donations. You can also mail your gift to P.O. Box 3005, Ruston, LA 71272 or find us on Venmo. On our website, you can also subscribe to The Harvest Initiative, a weekly newsletter where students and staff share devotions and tell the story of God transforming lives on the campus of Louisiana Tech University. We will launch a new website on July 1:  latechawakening.org. As of July 1, our full legal name will be “Louisiana Tech Awakening Collegiate Fellowship.” We are working with our bank and our website provider to make the transition to our new name as seamless as possible for our partners who give. Please feel free to call or text me on my cell at 318-254-3121 with any questions. You can also contact our Administrative Assistant Camellia Bailey at 318-820-4719. 

May the Peace of Christ be with you.

Rev. W. Ryan Ford 

Director, Louisiana Tech Wesley Foundation