Revisiting Francis Asbury, A Pleasant Recollection

Francis Asbury Statue, Washington, D.C.

Yesterday I went to The Heritage, a local senior apartment complex, to present to a group about my Wesley Pilgrimage experience last summer.(1) As I shared stories, I remembered how much I'd enjoyed Fred Day ’s presentation on Francis Asbury. (Alfred T. Day III is General Secretary of The United Methodist General Commission on Archives and History). Fred is clearly a man who is passionate about his work and his presentation was a delightful experience.

Thank you, Fred.

I grew up in Grove Church one of the ones Francis Asbury founded during his years of saddle-bag ministry, but I didn’t know much about him. This morning I went back to look at the stories Fred shared that day to remind myself about Asbury’s accomplishments.

• He had none of the attributes we’d expect to find in a transformational leader, yet two years after his spiritual awakening (at age 15), he began preaching. At age 26, he heard John Wesley’s call for preachers to travel to the colonies and volunteered.
• His mission was "To live to God and bring others to do so." With discipline, piety, and perseverance, he did the work needed to continue the Wesleys' vision, starting societies all over what’s now the eastern U.S. Most years, he visited each state at least yearly. He was more widely known that anyone.2
• Under his leadership, American Methodism grew – from a few hundred when he arrived at the colonies in 1771 to more than 200,000 at his death 45 years later. 
• He traveled more than 200,000 by horseback and crossed the Allegheny mountains 60 times during those years.
• He lived simply and ate sparingly, practicing voluntary poverty and giving away what money he received. 
• He liked to laugh but chided himself for too much levity. 
• He knew popular culture. George Washington wanted to meet him, not because Asbury was so well known, but because he knew everyone and what has happening. 
• Asbury stayed when others left. 

This last one gets me. In my teen years I got a reputation for not finishing what I started. I realized years later that this was mostly craft projects. (Crafts and I are incompatible.) Yet the ability to see things through has become the exception rather than the norm. And before you suggest that it was easier for Asbury , remember that he was a British preacher in the colonies in the 1770s when Brits were so unwelcome that many fled for their lives. Asbury stayed.

I suspect there’s a message in that for us. How often do I give up too soon? And is my “too soon” a good marker? I need to think about this some more. Maybe you do too. 

Of course, sometimes leaving is the right choice. I know I have waited longer than I should have more than once.

In the end, I guess we need to pay attention (I know, big surprise) ask, and listen for God’s guidance through conversation with people we trust and any number of other ways.

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1 For those of you new to this blog, last summer I traveled to England to participate in a 10-day immersion into the experiences of the early Methodist movement. You can read about it here.

2 I got this bit from: John Wigger, "Francis Asbury, Pioneer of Methodism; America's most explosive church movement," Christian History, Issue 114, christianhistoryinstitute.org/uploaded/564154452a9e41.32228711.pdf