Floyd Timothy Cunningham (born September 22, 1954) is an American historian and ordained minister, who has been a global missionary in the Philippines for the Church of the Nazarene since 1983, who served as the fifth president of Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary from July 1, 2008, until April 3, 2013. Cunningham serves currently as Distinguished Professor of the History of Christianity at APNTS, and is the author of Holiness Abroad: Nazarene Missions in Asia, the editor and co-author of Our Watchword & Song: The Centennial History of the Church of the Nazarene, and the author of dozens of articles in academic journals and magazines. Cunningham is a Life member of the Philippine National Historical Society, a member of the American Society of Church History, the Wesleyan Theological Society, and the American Historical Association since 1980.
Early life, family and education Floyd Timothy Cunningham was born in Washington, D.C., on September 22, 1954,"Cunningham, Floyd Timothy", Who's Who in the World, 21st ed. (New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who, 2003). as the oldest of the three children of Floyd Enus Cunningham (born August 17, 1921, in Bethesda, Maryland; died September 7, 1992, in Montgomery County, Maryland),"Mr. Floyd Cunningham", Frederick News Post (Frederick, MD: September 9, 1992):5. an auto parts salesman (and later manager and owner) at the NAPA franchised Maryland Motors in Rockville, Maryland, and Eleanor Wagner Leighton Cunningham (born October 6, 1923, in Rockville, Maryland; died August 12, 2019, in Maryland, US ), later a secretary in the Montgomery County Public Schools system,Eleanor W. Cunningham, All the Days of My Life: The First Ninety Years "God's Prevenient Grace in Action. AuthorHouse, 2014."Eleanor Cunningham" , 2007."About the Author". and the author of five books,Susan Singer-Bart, "Gaithersburg woman captures images in poetry: County senior discovers new identity as author" , Gazette.net (April 6, 2011). including He Touched Her (Warner Press, 1973),"He Touched Her". and Miss Apple: Letters of a Maine Teacher in Kentucky (2003) about her mother, Ethel Valentine Applebee (born February 12, 1893, in Enfield, Maine; died November 15, 1973, in Maryland),Eleanor W. Cunningham, , The Kentucky Explorer (2000). who had taught for nine months from September 1920 at the Chandler Normal School in Lexington, Kentucky, for the American Missionary Association.Eleanor W. Cunningham, , The Kentucky Explorer (2000)."About the Author".
Cunningham is the elder brother of Christian romance novelist Janice Ethel Elder (born August 19, 1959), author of Manila Marriage App (Pelican Press, 2015), "Manila Marriage App", "Meet Jan". (inspired by her brother's life as a single missionary),Renee Blair, "The Coffee Corner Goes to The Philippines with Jan Elder" Renee's Inspirational Moments (September 20, 2015). and also customer service manager for Christian publisher, The Word Among Us;, NCN News (July 20, 2011) and Rev. Dr. Diane Kathleen LeClerc (born March 26, 1963),"About the Author". professor of historical theology at Northwest Nazarene University since 1998,, NCN News (July 20, 2011) Pastor of Congregational Care at Nampa College Church in Nampa, Idaho,"Dr. Diane Leclerc" former president of the Wesleyan Theological Society (2007–2008),Thomas Jay Oord, , NCN News (March 20, 2008)."Diane (Cunningham) Leclerc" and the author or editor of four books, including Singleness of Heart: Gender, Sin, and Holiness in Historical Perspective (Scarecrow Press, 2001) and Discovering Christian Holiness: The Heart of Wesleyan Theology (2010)., NCN News (December 15, 2010).
Soon after their wedding on May 9, 1953, Cunningham's parents moved into a newly constructed three-bedroom house at 715 Crabb Avenue, in the Maryvale section of Rockville, Maryland. The Cunningham family attended a local congregation of the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) in Montrose, Rockville, Maryland, where Eleanor's family had attended from its incorporation in October 1929,"Church is Incorporated", The Frederick Post (Frederick, MD: October 19, 1929):1. and had taught Sunday School since 1939.Floyd T. Cunningham, "Endnote: Memory" , Paper presented at the Nazarene Global Theology Conference (2002):4., NCN News (July 20, 2011) In January 1964, Cunningham joined the Loyal Temperance League, a children's organization founded by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and pledged to abstain from alcohol."LTL Program Given at Rockville". White Ribbon Herald (January 1964):13. Soon after, Cunningham's family moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland, where, seeking a church that holiness, they began to attend the newly opened local Church of the Nazarene (then located in the former Methodist Episcopal Church at Brookes Avenue), that had been founded on January 5, 1964., NCN News (July 20, 2011) In the summer of 1965 the Cunningham family attended the Church of the Nazarene's annual Washington-Philadelphia District Camp Meeting in North East, Maryland, and after reading children's books about pioneer Nazarenes H. Orton Wiley, R.T. Williams, and Reuben "Uncle Bud" Robinson, Cunningham was converted at the age of 10 during that camp meeting.Floyd T. Cunningham, "Endnote: Memory" , Paper presented at the Nazarene Global Theology Conference (2002):4. On September 26, 1965, Cunningham was received into full church membership of the Gaithersburg Church of the Nazarene by Pastor Wallace H. Smith.
From 1966 to 1968 Cunningham attended Gaithersburg Junior High School. At the age of 16, While a student at Gaithersburg High School (1968–1972), where he had perfect attendance, Cunningham felt a call to Christian ministry.Todd Aebischer, "Celebrating 30 Years of Service to the Asia-Pacific Region", Around the Region News (November 7, 2013). After graduation from Gaithersburg High School on June 12, 1972,"Gaithersburg High Announces Graduates", Frederick News (Frederick, MD: June 3, 1972):20.Missing Classmates Cunningham attended Eastern Nazarene College, where he was awarded "Most Quiet for the Freshman Class of 1973",Eastern Nazarene College Greebook (1973). and where he was the pianist accompanying the Crossmen Quartet (Don Arey, Dennis Cushing, Barry Compton, and Dale L. Binkley) on their tour of churches and on their 1972 LP "Sweeter Gets the Journey". In 1976 Cunningham received the Bachelor of Arts cum laude from ENC in religion and history. Cunningham subsequently studied at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was the student assistant to Nazarene theologian Dr. J. Kenneth Grider.J. Kenneth Grider, Entire Sanctification: The Distinctive Doctrine of Wesleyanism, (Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1980; Digital edition, 2006):6. In 1979 Cunningham graduated from NTS with a Master of Divinity cum laude. Cunningham studied at Johns Hopkins University in his native Maryland, where he studied under Timothy L. Smith and received the Master of Arts degree in history in 1981, and a PhD in History in 1984Cunningham, Floyd . for his dissertation "The Christian Faith Personally Given: Divergent Trends in Twentieth-Century American Methodist Thought", which included chapters on Methodists Edwin Lewis (1881–1959); Social Gospel liberal Ernest Fremont Tittle (October 21, 1885 – August 3, 1949); conservative Harold Paul Sloan (1881–1961); and evangelical humanist Lynn Harold Hough (September 10, 1877 – July 14, 1971). While studying at Johns Hopkins, Cunningham was a research assistant in American Religious History (1981–1983).
Career
Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary (from 1983) Upon the recommendation of APNTS founding president Donald Owens, on September 27, 1982, Cunningham was approved by the Board of General Superintendents of the Church of the Nazarene to be a foundation faculty member of the proposed Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary (APNTS) to be established in Kaytikling, Taytay, Rizal, the Philippines in 1983.Floyd T. Cunningham, "Asia-Pacific Theological Seminary: The First Twenty Years". The Mediator 5:2 (2003):42. Soon after the successful defense of his doctoral dissertation, Cunningham arrived in Manila on November 5, 1983,Floyd T. Cunningham, "Asia-Pacific Theological Seminary: The First Twenty Years". The Mediator 5:2 (2003):42. nine days before the first classes of APNTS. Cunningham has served APNTS consecutively as an associate professor (1983–1991), professor (1991–2004) and distinguished professor (since 2004). Administratively, Cunningham has been dean of students and chaplain (1983–1987), academic dean (June 1989 – 2009) officer-in-charge for sixteen months (2001–2003),and academic dean (2013-2018)Faculty and Administrators.
Despite not having a specific call to be a missionary, in February 1988 Cunningham was appointed to APNTS a career missionary in the Church of the Nazarene by its General Board.Church of the Nazarene. General Board, Proceedings of the General Board of the Church of the Nazarene and its departments, Vol. 65 (1988):79. In an interview published in October 2011, Cunningham indicated: "I came to APNTS on a four-year specialized assignment, not expecting to make this a career, and without a 'call' to missions. After being here two years, I felt that this is where God wanted me, and that this is where God was using me, so I applied for career missionary status. My sense now is that God's calling is to ministry, and the 'where' of it makes me a missionary, and the 'what' of it makes me a teacher – but it's still the general call to ministry that is most important."Floyd Cunningham, in , Engage (October 11, 2011).
Also in 1988 Cunningham was a research fellow at Yale Divinity School. With the permission of the People's Republic of China, Cunningham visited China with Rev. John W. Pattee (born 1906), a retired Nazarene missionary to China and the Philippines,See C. Ellen Watts, John Pattee of China and the Philippines (Kansas City, MO: Nazarene Publishing House, 1984). from May 16 to June 5, 1989. For three days from May 29, 1989, Cunningham and Pattee visited the old Nazarene mission field in Hebei, that had been abandoned more than forty years earlier.Floyd T. Cunningham, "The Church is Not the Buildings, but the People." World Mission (November 1989):12–13; Floyd T. Cunningham, Holiness Abroad: Nazarene Missions in Asia (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2003):n.89, 199.Church of the Nazarene. General Board, Proceedings of the General Board of the Church of the Nazarene and its departments, Vol. 67 (1990):197.
5th President (2008–2013) After the 2007 resignation of APNTS President Dr. Hitoshi "Paul" Fukue to return to pastoral ministry in Japan, on October 29, 2007, Cunningham was elected to a two-year term as interim president by the APNTS board of trustees., NCN News (November 1, 2007).Faculty and Administrators. At that time Cunningham indicated: "As a graduate school in the Wesleyan tradition, APNTS has a great mission to prepare men and women for Christlike leadership and excellence in ministries. We will endeavor to 1) energize students to fulfill the world mission of Jesus Christ, 2) build a creative team of professors and staff, 3) expand holiness graduate education through distance programs, and 4) reach out to the local community."Floyd T. Cunningham, in , NCN News (November 1, 2007).
In June 2008 Cunningham was elected the 5th president of APNTS by the board of trustees and assumed office in July 2008."Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary elects new president" , NCN News (July 3, 2008).History Board of trustees chairman Dr. Neville Bartle indicated: