The Andhra Christian Theological College comprised faculty from four previous entities: W. D. Coleman worked in an ecumenical environment together with Baptists, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Wesleyans.
[10] Coleman studied up to twelfth standard at the Kodaikanal International School,[1] Dundigal in Tamil Nadu (India) and proceeded to the United States where he pursued a graduate degree in arts at the Muhlenberg College,[1] Allentown in Pennsylvania from where he obtained a B.A.
[4] at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia[1] where he spent two semesters studying under Frederick Nolde, Roswell P. Barnes, Henry Smith Leiper, Franklin Clark Fry, and other faculty.
After initial theological studies in the United States, Coleman returned to India in 1939[12] and began serving as Missionary of the Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church.
After Coleman returned to India in 1940,[1] he was given the role of District Missionary in Bheemavaram and Narsapur Fields of the Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church which he served from 1941-1946.
[1] In 1952,[1] Coleman was taken on the teaching staff of the Lutheran Theological College in Rajahmundry and also continued his role as an Evangelistic Missionary in the East Godavari Synod up to 1953.
[1] Coleman resigned from the College in 1981 and took up a role with the Division of World Mission and Ecumenism of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and was stationed in New York during 1981-1982.