History Focus for August 20

A short focus on a person or event associated with this day in History.

Francis Asbury (August 20, 1745)

Francis Asbury was born in England on August 20, 1745. He is known as the founding father of American Methodism. He was converted to Christ at the age of 13, and soon began to hold meetings. John Wesley licensed him at the age of 18 as a local preacher. In 1771, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, convened a meeting in Bristol, England. He named two preachers, Francis Asbury and Richard Wright, to carry the Methodist message to the American colonies. At the age of 26, Asbury and Richard Wright headed across the Atlantic to minister to the 316 members of the Society who had emigrated to the New World, and also to extend the frontiers of the Methodist movement.

Their ship landed at Philadelphia on Oct. 27, 1771. Wright eventually returned to England, but Asbury proved true to his words. Asbury's efforts to convert people to Christ prospered, and quickly Wesleyan societies spread up along the Atlantic Seaboard. After the Revolutionary War, Asbury led in the establishment of the movement in the wild, new settlements of the frontier. He traveled on horseback, gathering congregations in schoolhouses, cabins and taverns. He provided a model for the "circuit rider," or itinerant preacher. His journal provides great detail about his movements in the eastern United States and across the Appalachian Mountains, traveling more than 5,000 miles a year.He preached from 300 to 500 sermons each year. During his years on the circuit, he amassed a total of 270,000 miles.

He was a man of tremendous vitality and executive ability. He was a tireless worker. He was ordained a deacon,then an elder, then a superintendent, and later a bishop. When Asbury arrived in the colonies, there were about a dozen Methodist preachers. He preached wherever people congregated: behind the barracks, from a wagon, from a window, upon the banks of a river, in a
paper mill, in a tobacco house, and in an orchard. By the time he died on March 31, 1816,
more than 4,000 Methodist ministers had been ordained in America, and the number of practicing Methodists increased from 1,200 to 214,000. His last entry in his journal reads, "My consolations are great. I live in God from moment to moment."

Sources: Compton’s Encyclopedia | Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 96

© Phillip Bower