The digital copies of this book are available for free at First Fruits website.
place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruits

Foreword

Children of outstanding parents often have difficulty being objective about the ones who gave them birth. There may be no greater illustration of this than the understanding of American Methodists about their founding father, Francis Asbury. His fate among his own people has been largely one of neglect. Yet he is one of the most important men in the history of the Christian church, particularly in the development of American Christianity.John Wesley sent Francis Asbury, a young man of 26, to the American colonies in 1771. At that time there were four Methodist preachers in the thirteen colonies caring for about three hundred people. By 1813, three years before Asbury's death, official Methodist records report 171,448 white and 42,850 African-American members "in full society." By that time, according to historian Mark Noll, one out of every eight Americans-some one million persons-were attending Methodist camp meetings each year. Noll continues by insisting that by 1860, Methodism had become "the most pervasive form of Christianity in the United States." Methodism, as no other single religious tradition, helped shape the character of American religious life. The key to it all was Francis Asbury. Yet his story is largely unknown, especially among his own spiritual children.

Dennis F. Kinlaw, Founder Francis Asbury Society