Francis Asbury
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article's introduction section may not adequately summarize its contents. To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (March 2009) |
Bishop Francis Asbury (August 20, 1745 – March 31, 1816) was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States.
 |
This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (January 2009) |
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Born at Hamstead Bridge, Staffordshire, England of Methodist parents, Asbury became a local preacher at eighteen and was ordained at age twenty-two. His boyhood home still stands and is open as a museum in West Bromwich, England. In 1771 he volunteered to travel to America. When the American War of Independence broke out in 1776 he was the only Methodist minister to remain in America.
In 1784 John Wesley named Asbury and Thomas Coke as co-superintendents of the work in America. This marks the beginning of the "Methodist Episcopal Church of the USA". For the next thirty-two years, Asbury led all the Methodists in America.
However, his leadership did not go unchallenged. His idea for a ruling council was opposed by such notables as William McKendree, Jesse Lee, and James O'Kelly. Eventually a General Conference to which delegates could be sent was established on the advice of Asbury's fellow bishop Thomas Coke in 1792.
Like Wesley, Asbury preached in all sorts of places: courthouses, public houses, tobacco houses, fields, public squares, wherever a crowd assembled to hear him. For the remainder of his life he rode an average of 6000 miles each year, preaching virtually every day and conducting meetings and conferences. Under his direction, the church grew from 1,200 to 214,000 members and 700 ordained preachers. Among the men he ordained was Richard Allen in Philadelphia, the first black minister in the United States.
In an exciting time in American history, Asbury was reported to be an extraordinary preacher. Biographer Ezra Squier Tipple wrote: "If to speak with authority as the accredited messenger of God; to have credentials which bear the seal of heaven ... if when he lifted the trumpet to his lips the Almighty blew the blast; if to be conscious of an ever-present sense of God, God the Summoner, God the Anointing One, God the Judge, and to project it into speech which would make his hearers tremble, melt them with terror, and cause them to fall as dead men; if to be and do all this would entitle a man to be called a great preacher, then Asbury was a great preacher."
Bishop Asbury died in Spotsylvania, Virginia. He was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Baltimore near the graves of Bishops John Emory and Beverly Waugh.
[edit] His journal
Asbury kept a journal assiduously; on December 8, 1812 he crossed the Broad River into York County, South Carolina and came to the home of David Leech, Esq. He states in his journal that Leech offered him a Bible and a bottle of brandy; he wrote, "I took one." His journal also contains some references to conversations with ministers who disagreed with the Methodist leadership, such as Rev. Charles Hopkins of Powhatan County, Virginia who had rejected the Methodist ideals several years before.
[edit] Namesakes
- Asbury's boyhood home, Bishop Asbury Cottage, in Sandwell, England, is now a museum.
- Three schools are named after Asbury:
- Two are in Wilmore, Kentucky: Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary.
- Francis Asbury Elementary School in Hampton Virginia.
- In addition, DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana was originally known as Indiana Asbury College after him.
- James A. Bradley, a convert to Methodism, named the town he founded on the New Jersey shore, Asbury Park, after Asbury.
- The former Asbury Methodist Church on Staten Island (now the Son-Rise Interfaith Center) stands as a monument to his memory.
- In 1796 Bishop Asbury helped lay the cornerstone for the church in Hall's Mills, NJ which shortly changed its name to Asbury (now a village in Franklin Township, Warren County, NJ).
- An equestrian statue of Asbury was erected in Washington, D.C. in 1921.
- A hiking trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park follows part of the path Asbury took when crossing the mountains in the early 1800s. There is a monument dedicated to Asbury at Shiloh Memorial Cemetery in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where Asbury delivered a sermon on October 20, 1808.
- Stratosphere Balloon Cave in Germany Valley, West Virginia was for over 150 years called "Asbury Cave". (Asbury records his 1781 visit to the cave in his Journal.)
- Many towns and villages bear an Asbury United Methodist Church, including the fourth largest United Methodist Church in the denomination, located in Tulsa, OK (www.asburytulsa.org)
[edit] Sources
[edit] References and resources for further study
"Midnight Rider for the Morning Star," an historical novel (ISBN 978-0-915143-10-8) by Mark Alan Leslie, available at bookstores or through http://www.francisasburysociety.com/midnightrider.htm
- The official Francis Asbury web site. Contains an A-Z index of places and people mentioned in his journals.
- Trailblazin' Bishop: The Francis Asbury Story. A one-man play on the life of Francis Asbury.
- Bishop Asbury Cottage. Story on the BBC website about Francis Asbury's former home
- Francis Asbury biographical sketch on Find-A-Grave
- Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury (1958) by Francis Asbury (ISBN 0-687-20581-6)
- America's Bishop: The Life of Francis Asbury (2003) by Darius Salter (ISBN 1-928915-39-6)
- The Story of American Methodism: A History of the United Methodists and Their Relations (1974) by Frederick Abbott Norwood (ISBN 0-687-39641-7)
- The Heritage of American Methodism (1999) by Kenneth Cain Kinghorn (ISBN 0-687-05500-8)
- From Wesley to Asbury: Studies in Early American Methodism (1976) by Frank Baker (ISBN 0-8223-0359-0)
- Eliza Asbury - her cottage and her son by David Hallam (ISBN 1858582350
