Tuesday, August 20, 2024

It is the 20th of August 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

One of the major tent poles of American religious history has been the Methodist church- either in its modern United or Southern branches as well as the Methodist Episcopal Church from which it grew—the Methodists grew out of the Episcopal, or Anglican (outside the U.S.) Church.

You would do well to associate the name Wesley with this movement- it was at Oxford that the brothers, John and Charles began a small group of men devoted to personal piety and holiness. They would be mocked as “methodists” for their methodical approach to piety, but as is often the case the group took the pejorative and turned it into a badge of honor.  

But, as the Wesley’s would come to America as Missionaries, the story of the American Methodist Church begins in post-Revolutionary War America- and this was problematic as the movement, as it was founded had “Anglican” roots. Wesley himself was against the Revolution and many Methodist preachers fled north or back home in 1776.

But not Francis Asbury, a man born on this, the 20th of 1745 in Staffordshire England he would move to America and become one of the “Founding Fathers” of American Christianity.

Asbury received a basic education before leaving school to work as a servant. Through his mother, he came into contact with the “Methodist Connection,” a kind of para-church network for Anglicans to find small groups. Asbury was enamored with Wesley and began attending a Methodist group before being licensed as a preacher and sent to America to serve as an itinerant preacher.

The “Itinerant” or “minister-on-the-move” was one of the advantages the Methodists had on the American frontiers and other parley populated places. Ministers like Asbury would come to you, the church service was highly portable and ordination did not require extensive schooling.

Consider Asbury’s singular effect on this church body. In 1771, the Methodist church in America had 4 ministers and around 300 members. When war broke out, all Methodist ministers, including Asbury, fled. Living an austere and tireless schedule, he would travel from Georgia to the Northern colonies, preaching and training others to hold services- these included servants, women, and African Americans. John Wigger’s definitive biography of Asbury notes that:

"In 45 years he traveled, mostly on horseback, 130,000 miles up and down the coast from Georgia to Canada, crossed the Appalachians at least 60 times, oversaw 224 annual conferences, ordained 4,000 preachers and delivered more than 16,000 sermons.”

And what was the effect of this work? When Asbury died in 1816 there were over 2,000 churches and 200,000 members.

But wait, there is more. In 1776 Methodists made up 3% of the church going society (which itself wasn’t a huge number) but by 1850 they made up 34% of the church going society, and they were particularly keen on growth in an era when the church going population of America had dwindled.  

Prior to the Civil War, only about 1/4 of the population belonged to a church body, but the Methodists were the largest single group, with 1 in 15 Americans being Methodist.

Part of the appeal of Asbury in America was his democratic and leveling approach to the church. When he was to be named Bishop by the powers that be he refused unless he was named so by a popular vote of his peers, which he was.

In Post-Civil War America General Grant noted that America had three major parties: “The Republican, the Democratic, and the Methodist Church.”

Wigger noted Asbury’s appeal and success was due in large part to his own legendary “piety and perseverance”, his ability to connect to the everyman or woman, his appeals to shared popular culture and fourthly (and most underrated, perhaps) were his administrative abilities. In a culture that idolizes celebrity we often overlook the thankless, daily and repetitive work of administration.

Francis Asbury- the ascetic and celibate (that is, decidedly spartan and single), would be second to only George Whitfield in colonial history but certainly alone in the first generation of itinerant preachers and missionaries in the new country- the fruit of his labor a church that, well… it still exists, it’s just complicated because of the 20th century and all that…. Francis Asbury died in 1816, born on this day in 1745 he was 70 years old.

The last word for today is from Ephesians, the second chapter:

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 20th of August 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who wonders if this Asbury has anything to do with the famous Jersey City; he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who will let you know that, yes, the town that gave us Springsteen’s “Greeting from Asbury Park” is named after the Methodist preacher, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.