American Saint: Francis Asbury and the Methodists

by John Wigger

Asbury never owned a home, sleeping for more than forty years in the homes of Methodist believers. He felt at peace in their small cottages, and they knew it.

Asbury never owned a home.

Women often joined first and in larger numbers, later bringing their fathers and brothers, husbands and sons into the faith.

Women came first.

“I soon found this was not the Church—but it was better,” Asbury remembered. “The people were so devout—men and women kneeling down—saying Amen. Now, behold! they were singing hymns—sweet sound!

The devotion of the Methodists and their zeal in prayer and worship impressed him.

Asbury’s conversion was classically evangelical. Three decades later he could still vividly recall this train of events; it became the cornerstone of his life.

Three masks of Asbury’s witness to evangelical conversion.

Asbury experienced sanctification or something very close to it. He wrote that at “about sixteen I experienced a marvellous display of the grace of God, which some might think was full sanctification, and [I] was indeed very happy.”

Asbury experiences sanctification.

While all Methodists were required to attend a class meeting, joining a band was voluntary. The only qualification for joining a class meeting on probation (which usually lasted three to six months) was a desire to seek salvation. To remain in a class, one only had to profess a continued desire for holiness. Bands demanded something more. They assumed that members were already converted (justified) and were seeking sanctification.

Distinction between Class and Band meetings.

Class meetings were pivotal to the success of the Methodist system,

Asbury gave away almost all that he acquired.

A preacher of the Gospel, is the servant of all.”

As part of a disciplined life, Wesley directed his preachers not to use snuff or tobacco, drink “drams,” or fall into debt. He also cautioned them to be temperate in their diet. “Do you take no more food than is necessary at each meal?” asked Wesley. “You may know if you do, by a load at your stomach: by drowsiness, or heaviness: and, in a while, by weak or bad nerves.”

Methodist discipline gave Asbury an arena in which he could excel. He could never be well-educated, rich, or politically powerful, but he could be zealously pious and disciplined.