Celebrating the Birth of Asbury UMC and Its Namesake

Join us as we celebrate the birth of our namesake, Francis Asbury, the father of American Methodism and We will also be celebrating nearly 70 years of ministry as Asbury in Columbus. After our 5:30PM dinner, there will be a special study on the founding of Methodism in America. We might even have a little friendly competition with the Inaugural Metho-Nerds Quiz and re-tell the story of how our congregation began 70 years ago.

Celebrating the Birth of Asbury UMC and Its Namesake

“In the spring of 1954 the Board of Missions and Church Extension of the Indiana Conference of the Methodist Church authorized the organization of a new Methodist congregation in the north part of Columbus. Asbury Methodist Church was formally constituted on Feb. 27, 1955.” 

On Feb. 6, 1955, Ernest Jones, the Pastor of the newly christened “Asbury Methodist  Church” preached a sermon about Bishop Asbury. At that time the congregation was still meeting in the Chapel of First Methodist Church. 

A synopsis of Rev. Jones’ sermon “Man on Horseback” appeared in the Columbus Republic a few days later. Rev. Jones emphasized several things about the person for whom the congregation had chosen to be named.

• Born on August 20/21, 1745, Francis grew up in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England during the early years of the Wesleyan revival. 
• Converted in 1761, after John Wesley visited his community, Francis served as  a lay preacher for the next ten years.
• When Mr. Wesley asked for volunteers to go to America to preach the gospel and form Methodist societies, Asbury volunteered to go. 
• He left home in 1771, never to return. 
• For the next 45 years he led the Methodist mission in America.
• After the Revolutionary War, Mr. Wesley sent Thomas Coke to America to consecrate Asbury to serve as Superintendent (or Bishop) and ordain Methodist preachers.
• Jones identified three qualities: ”a sure evaluation of men [human beings] and their motives, an uncanny intuition concerning the value and importance of proposed actions, an understanding of the American scene, and an unerring sense of timing – when, as well as what, action should be taken.”
• In addition, Jones admired Asbury’s diligent mind: “He studied as he rode, making his untrained mind a precision instrument, so that he became the intellectual equal of all he met, and the superior of most.”

For Pastor Jones, Asbury was an intrepid figure who “suffered hardships and illness of every kind” while traveling across the American landscape more than 5,000 miles per year to carry out the mission of the church.  Or as Ernest Jones’ title indicates, Asbury was “Methodism’s Man on Horseback.”* 

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*Rev. Ernest H. Jones preached the sermon on Feb. 6, 1955, an event that took place between the time the name of the congregation had been selected (sometime in the late fall of 1954?) and the date when the congregation was formally consecrated on Feb. 27, 1955.