Francis Asbury and America

 Fourth Wednesday of Easter

Lectionary Texts:

Acts 8:1-14

John 14:15-31

 

In December of 1974 I began my first full time parish ministry appointment. I was appointed by Bishop Ellis Finger as pastor of Triune United Methodist Church in the little community of Triune, Tennessee. Triune is about 30 miles south of Nashville, half-way between Franklin and Murfreesboro. It was 20 miles northeast of Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, Tennessee, that is). It had one caution light but no stop lights. It had one small grocery store and one gas station about a mile further down the road. In between were two churches, mine and a smaller Primitive Baptist Church, which met for worship only once a month. Triune was north of nowhere. 

The church was very old, originally founded in 1812. It had burned and been rebuilt, the current building in the 1940's. I soon found out that Francis Asbury had preached there in early 1814. This was something many members were quite proud of, Asbury being in many respects the founder of Methodism in America (even though John Wesley got here first, ten years before Asbury was born). 

In June of 1976 I moved back to North Carolina. I was appointed by Bishop Robert Blackburn as pastor of a three point charge, Mt. Pleasant, Cedar Grove, and Mann 's Chapel U.M.C.'s, at the northern end of Chatham County. Mt Pleasant was a very old church, founded in 1778. The current building, sanctuary built in the 1950's is about a mile from the original building, which burned at some point. I can't remember for sure, but I think the current building is the third. A few of the members, including the one who was the unofficial church historian, Lamont Norwood, could point to the location of a rock, which Francis Asbury, a short man, stepped down upon as he dismounted his horse to go into Mt. Pleasant church to preach there.

Triune and Mt. Pleasant are about 400 miles apart. Each of these churches was proud of a heritage that stretched back to having Francis Asbury, the first American Methodist bishop, having preached there. I was proud that by remarkable coincidence (or providence), I had pastored two churches where Asbury preached. I felt so connected with Methodist history. I suspected I was close to being unique in this regard.

 

As I did a little research, I found that I was not unique at all, nor were those two churches. In fact, it is hard to find any church founded before 1816 in the southern original states or frontier states that Francis Asbury had not preached in. 

John Wesley traveled on horseback from town to town, village to village,  preaching all over England. England is small. No place in England is more than  75 miles from the sea. America, even in the late 18th century was many times larger. England had roads and bridges connecting their towns and villages. America, especially frontier American territories like Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, had trails, not roads, and fords not bridges. Asbury's travels exceeded Wesley's many times over. He was utterly indefatigable. He wore out and outlived many horses. He worked his way through many an illness and kept on going. His love of God gave him the strength.

Asbury was born in 1745 in England. He joined a Methodist band (equivalent of "small groups" in our time) at age 13. He began to preach in his mid-teens. He wanted to go to America, where Wesley was appointing many of his new preachers to go. Wesley ordained Asbury when Asbury was 22. Wesley's ordinations of his preachers were considered illegal by the Anglican Church. Four years later Wesley commissioned Asbury to go to America in 1771.

Asbury sailed to America and never looked back. He preached his first sermon on Staten Island in New York shortly after he arrived. It would be the first of thousands. 

Much more on Asbury Methodism in early America next week.

 

Father of all frontiers,

We thank you for the courage of a great cloud of missionaries, from Paul to the present, who have covered the earth with your gospel. We thank you especially for Francis Asbury and all he did for our faith and for our country. In Christ's name. Amen.

 

Faithfully,

Christian