Southern Methodist College is located in the historic city of Orangeburg, South Carolina, forty miles southeast of Columbia and eighty miles northwest of Charleston. The fifty-acre campus with its six major buildings occupies the lands and residence of the former Frederick A. Adden estate, given to the Southern Methodist Church in 1961 by the late Mrs. Adden for the purpose of developing the College on the site.

Historically, Southern Methodist College was non-accredited until 1997, based on the belief that accreditation represented potential government interference with its distinctive philosophy of Christian education. The present Board of Directors and Administration voted to pursue accreditation with a nationally recognized Christian accrediting agency approved by the United States Department of Education and presently has full accreditation status with TRACS, the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. The College operates under charter from the State of South Carolina and by exemption from the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education in offering degrees in Biblical Studies and Religious Education.

The Southern Methodist Church, formed in Columbia, South Carolina, on January 14, 1939, as the continuing body of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, later established Southern Methodist College as an institution of the Church on January 26, 1956 in Greenville, moving to Aiken in 1958 and again to Orangeburg in 1961.

Recognizing the great need for a strong Christian education to prepare Christian leaders and workers, Church leaders established Southern Methodist College as a center of highest academic standards and Christian culture where men and women would receive education and training to go forth as Christian leaders rendering service throughout the world for the glory of God.

The Southern Methodist Church established the College as a Bible college to provide a distinctively Christian post-secondary education committed to the ideals, the doctrinal convictions, and the ethical practices of the sponsoring denomination.