[7] The seminary has strong ties to the African-American church tradition, with a number of major figures in the American Civil Rights Movement later going on to become students or faculty at United.

The school was able to hire the Olmsted Brothers due to a sizable contribution from John Henry Patterson, the founder of the National Cash Register Company.

In 1943, the United States government established a top-secret testing site at the Bonebrake Theological Seminary for the Dayton Project, which was part of the broader Manhattan Project, where research was conducted on the creation of an atomic bomb and polonium was produced that would eventually be used in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945.

[19] As a result of the merger that created the Evangelical United Brethren Church efforts were made to merge the seminaries of the two denominations.

Four of the faculty members from the Evangelical School of Theology moved to the new United Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

The school established the Communication Center in 1973, with a sizable amount of multimedia technology resources and a television production studio.

That campus was later moved to West Virginia Wesleyan College, which is still a popular venue for students living in the Mideastern United States.

Two years after celebrating their 130th anniversary in 2001, the seminary formed the Institute for Applied Theology in 2003, which offered courses and workshops to clergy, lay leaders, and community members.

In 2012, the seminary changed the name of the Institute for Applied Theology to the School for Discipleship and Renewal,[25] and it continued operating through 2023.

The school now offers non-degree resourcing through the Bishop Bruce Ough Innovation Center, launched in 2020,[26] and the Fire Academy, introduced in 2024.

[35][36] Students in the Master of Divinity program can choose a number of concentrations, such as Church Renewal, Pastoral Caregiving and Wesleyan and Methodist Studies.

Students who live in a geographic area where theological education is not readily accessible can choose one of the seminary's online programs.

[40] The school also houses the Bishop Bruce Ough Innovation Center and the Fire Academy, which offer classes and resourcing for enrolled students, clergy, and lay leaders.

In 2012, United began its annual Holy Spirit Seminar, which is one of the most widely attended events held by the seminary.

The Holy Spirit Seminar, a conference on church renewal, features speakers and themes from a charismatic or renewalist perspective.

[44] The seminary also hosts the annual J. Arthur Heck Lectures, which has welcomed speakers such as Walter Brueggemann, Craig A. Evans, and Ted Peters.

[45][46][47] Other speakers to be featured in recent events include William Willimon, Geoffrey Wainwright, William Abraham, Leonard Sweet, Don Saliers, Amos Yong, Peter Bellini, Randy Clark, Kenneth Copeland, Violet L. Fisher, Ellen Charry and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.

[46][48][49][50] The seminary also co-sponsored the annual Change the World conference hosted by Ginghamsburg Church, which included such speakers as Greg Boyd, Brian McLaren, Jim Wallis, Ron Sider, Alan Hirsch, Michael Frost, Adam Hamilton, and Ruby Payne.