Evangelists

Francis Asbury

August 20 or 21, 1745 - March 31, 1816

Francis Asbury was a well-known Methodist evangelist, Christian abolitionist, and revivalists.

Parents: Joseph and Elizabeth (Eliza) Rogers Asbury
Father Joseph was a farm labor, gardener, and later worked at a brewery. Mother Eliza was Welsh.
Francis “Frank” was born near Hamstead Bridge in West Midlands, England
Methodism was central to Eliza spiritual awaking after depression because of daughter’s death. She invited “any people who had the appearance of religion to her home.”

Education

A free school at Sneal’s Green
Cruel schoolmaster forced Francis to leave school at 12 or 13.
Learned trade of metalworker.
Spent six and a half years in the trade
Avid reader
Joined Methodist class meeting
At about 17 begin exhorting and preaching in public.
At age 21 took place of traveling preacher assigned to the Staffordshire Circuit.
For four years Wesley assigned Asbury to rural circuits in the South of England.
At 26 volunteered at the Bristol Conference in August 1771 to go to America. Answered Wesley’s call for volunteers.
1771 Francis Asbury sails to America as 26 year-old missionary. Arrived in Philadelphia October 27, 1771.
He understood the common man and could relate to the people. Most Americans lived on farms and in small villages.
“Asbury accepted that America was culturally different from England, with it own set of needs.”
Related more to the South’s Methodism than the North’s, and their loudness in worship.
By May 1774 Conference most gains of Methodists was in the South.
Asbury spent 10 years in Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia “where Methodism took shape in the fires of revival.”
Revolutionary War started in April19, 1775. Wesley ordered Asbury home to England. Asbury refused. He stayed neutral and did not take sides like Wesley.
Asbury heard of the Virginia Revival which started in 1763 by Anglian Priest Rev. Devereus Jarrett in Dinwiddie, Virginia. Wanted to see for himself. Arrived in Norfolk for first time May 29, 1775. In Portsmouth in October, and Brunswick Circuit and14 other counties.
Virginia Revival included Church of England, Methodist, and Presbyterian worshipers falling, crying, and shouting under the conviction. Labeled “Southern Zeal”. Reported crowds in 1775 between 2,000 and 3,000 at Methodist meetings. These revivals created the model for Methodist expansion for 40 years. Also Methodists started weekly home group meetings which became a part of Methodism and discipleship training.
Asbury focused Methodism on evangelistic doctrine practices, lifestyle, and purposes,”…”live religion”, ‘scripture based and hymns sung, and proclaimed the human ability to respond to God’s grace.”
Church of England disestablished in the South of America in 1770 to 1780’s,
(MD, VA, GA, NC, SC) ending Tax support for churches.
Rankin sent by Wesley in 1773 to lead America Methodist.
Stayed in Maryland in 1777, and in Delaware starting February 1778 for 2 and a half years because of the war. Rankin, America Methodist Superintendent, returns to England in March 1778.
In 1780, starting in May, Asbury traveled thru Virginia, then North Carolina, and returned back to Virginia in August. “In Nansemond County, Virginia, he preached to 300 people with “uncommon freedom.” P121
In 1781 Asbury started going South in the winter, and North in the summer.
1784 John Wesley names Asbury and Thomas Coke “superintendents” of work in America.
Asbury appointed in September 1783, General Assistant by Wesley, highest Person in America. Asbury had kept North and South Methodist leadership together. In 1784 Asbury still payed $60 a year, plus traveling expenses.
1788 John Wesley rebukes Asbury and Coke for calling themselves “bishops”.
By 1788 Asbury expanded annual conference to include 8 district conferences.
Changed name to Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) to differentiate from England and to show alliance with Church of England.
Asbury continues conferences in America annually supervised by a bishop.
Quarterly meeting of circuits. These meetings grew into camp meetings for food, fellowship, preaching bringing own provisions for sleeping instead of being assigned to homes.
Camp meetings in America started around 1795 and continued into late 1800’s. Camp meetings started in 1800 in Virginia in Brunswick County, and they “appealed to Asbury because of their fervor and the enthusiasm with which his preaching was greeted.“
Stressed weekly class meetings with a leader organized into circuits..
Asbury ordained Richard Allen, first black deacon in 1799.
Richard Allen (1760 – 1831), a former slave, began a career as a teaching Methodist after purchasing his freedom.. Was licensed to preach in 1784 by Methodist. In 1794 Allen founded ”Mother Bethel” church in Phila.
In 1816 Allen began African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME).
Asbury promoted separating religious leadership from wealth and formal education. He used poverty to keep himself honest.
Asbury became a personal friend of Thomas Jefferson.
Asbury ordained over 2000 to 3000 Methodist preachers.
He had ridden over 130,000 miles by horse, despite poor health.
Crossed the Allegheny Mountains some sixty times
Probably delivered more than 10,000 to 12,000 sermons.
Preached last sermon March 24, 1816 in Richmond, Va.
Died March 31, 1816 in Spotsylvania, VA.
Buried May 10, 1816 Baltimore, MD., Eutaw Street Church.
Asbury never married, no children, did not own a home, stayed with families.
Statue of Asbury on his horse stands in Washington, DC. President Calvin Coolidge in his dedication speech said the Asbury “is entitled to rank as one of the builders of our nation.”

References

Edited: “The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury, Vol I, Vol II, III, 1958.
Christian History Magazine, Issue 114, “Francis Asbury Pioneer of Methodism.
Nygaard, Norman E, “Bishop on Horseback, A Story of Frances Asbury” Zondervan Publishing House, 1962.
Sweet, William Warren “Virginia Methodism, A History”, Whittet & Shepperson, Richmond, Va. MCMLV
Wigger, John “American Saint”, Oxford University Press, 2009

George Whitefield (Whitfield)

December 16, 1714 – September 30, 1770

“He planted evangelism in America”

“America’s Spiritual Founding Father”

Parents: Thomas and Elisabeth Whitefield (seven children), George youngest, born in Bell Inn in Gloucester, England which parents owned. Dad died when he was two, and mother left step-father when George was six.
Crypt School. Early talent for acting and theater, and acting stories of the Bible
1732 Whitefield enrolls Pembroke College, Oxford University (Granter free tuition)
1735 joins “Holy Club” with Charles and John Wesley, and experienced spiritual “New Birth”, three years before the Wesley’s’ experience at Aldersgate.
1735 Takes over leadership of “Holy Club” after John and Charles Wesley leave for America.
1736 Ordained a deacon in the Church of England at Gloucester
1739 Ordained into priesthood at Oxford in January
1739 begins preaching outdoors to large crowds because Anglian Church (COE) would not allow him to preach.

Whitefield made seven trips to America, and five visits to Virginia.

December 15-16, 1739 Preached Bruton Parrish in Williamsburg, Virginia. Met with Governor.
October 14-18, 1745 Hanover County, VA. Samuel Morris, a Presbyterian brick layer, earlier converted after reading Whitefield sermons of 1739 published in the Gazette and sharing them. Morris starting holding home meetings and traveling, and built a meetinghouse. Great move of God.
January 1755 Richmond, VA area, one week revitalizing Presbyterian revival.
August 1763 Northern Neck area and Petersburg area. “Kept up spark of the revival there and in a few other places.”
May 20, 1765 Petersburg. Met with Patrick Henry speaking against Stamp Act.

Split from Wesley’s for a short time over doctrine
Married Nov 14, 1741 to widow Elizabeth James. She died of fever August 9, 1768. Son died at 4 months. She had 4 miscarriages.
Denounced slavery. Changed. In 1748-50 campaigned for slavery after seeing the need at the orphanage. Slavery legalized in Georgia in 1751.
Whitefield had charisma, loud voice, small statue, and cross-eyed appearance.
Whitefield used printed material, advance men for preaching visits, published sermons, and advance advertisement of revivals.
Became very famous and well known internationally on both sides of Atlantic Ocean.
Benjamin Franklin heard Whitefield in Philadelphia, PA. Franklin calculated Whitefield’s voice he could be heard by 30,000 people in open air. The two became life-long friends. They started orphanage for boys, Charity School, which became Academy of Philadelphia (1751), then in 1755 the College of Philadelphia. Both were predecessors of the University of Pennsylvania. Whitefield statue on campus.
Whitfield County Georgia named for him.
Whitefield is honored together with Francis Asbury with a feast day on liturgical calendar of Episcopal Church (USA) on November 15.
1753 Whitefield published hymnals.
Ministered 34 years, over 18,000 sermons, audiences to 10 million people in England and America. Published 78 sermons.
When died he left everything in Georgia to Countess Huntington, included 4000 acres of land and 50 slaves.
True founder of evangelicalism.
One of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement.
Remained an Anglican priest with the Church of England.
Made 15 journeys to Scotland, 2 to Ireland, 1 to Bermuda, Gibraltar, Netherlands, and Portugal.
“First internationally famous itinerant preacher and first modern transatlantic celebrity of any kind.”

Samuel Morris

George Whitefield, Anglican/Methodist evangelistic minister, visited Virginia five times as a Methodist missionary evangelist. The First visit Whitefield preached at Bruton Parish in Williamsburg in 1739, with the Governor in attendance. Sermon “What Think Ye of Christ” published in Gazette. Samuel Morris, a Presbyterian brick layer in Hanover County, started reading Whitefield’s sermons aloud to others in his home. Meetings out grew the home and he set up “Morris’s Reading House”. Morris started being invited to other areas to read the sermons. Revival broke out.
“The Reading House could not contain all the came, so meetings were held out of doors.”
Morris was described as “an obscure man, a bricklayer, of simplicity of character, sincere, devout, earnest…”.
“Morris got Whitefield’s other sermons from a Scotchman who had taken notes when he heard the great divine in Glasgow.”
On Whitefield’s second visit to Virginia in 1745, he rekindled this revival in the Hanover area with five days of preaching.

Samuel Davis

1723 - 1761

At the age of 23 he was ordained evangelist by the New Side Presbytery in PA.
Samuel Davis came to the Hanover County for the Presbyterians in the late 1740’s, and had a struggle getting licenses in the various counties. But he persevered. “He found people eager for the evangelical doctrines…” “The chief aim of his preaching was to promote genuine Christianity by changing hearts and lives of men.”
He brought revival to Hanover County, Virginia which became the center of the Great Awaking in the South, “the cradle of Presbyterians” in eastern Virginia. The revival “brought about a revival of personal religion.”
He was the “earliest hymn write of Colonial Presbyterian”, an eloquent preacher.
Davis was preaching open air revivals as far as Lancaster and Northumberland Counties, and other parts of the Northern Neck.
Whitefield’s third visit in January 1755, gave fresh breath to the Presbyterian revival in the Richmond area, for a whole week as stated in his records. “In Virginia the prospect is very promising. I have preached in two churches and, this morning, am to preach in a third. Rich and poor seem quite ready to hear. Many have been truly awakened.”
Davis made an effort in 1751 ‘to persuade Jonathan Edwards to settle in Virginia..” who was the leader of the “Great Awaking in New England”.
Davis in the summer of 1757 in two months, “he rode nearly five hundred miles and preached forty sermons.”
In March of 1759, “ eight or nine hundred persons were present to hear Davis…” in the Neck. He preached in the open.
Davis left Hanover to accept the presidency of Princeton College in July 1759.
Davis died February 4, 1761.

Robert Norden

1714 General Assembly of Baptist in England commissioned Robert Norden as a ”Messenger” to America. He applied in Prince George County Court for license. He made his home in Prince George County along with his wife.
1714 Initial Baptist planting in America, came to South-side of the James River, Prince George County, Surry County, and Isle of Wight County in Virginia.
1699 Baptist records mention in York City, now Yoråktown, meeting at a Quaker Meeting house. Both groups were dissenters and recipients of toleration. There was a “cordial relationship that existed between Baptists and Quakers.”
The Canterbury Baptist Church, Kent County, England sent funds for ”propagating the gospel” in Virginia in 1713/14.
The Baptist had a three-fold order of ministers: Messengers, Elders, and Deacons. “Messengers were officers on the denomination, whereas the Elders and Deacons were officers of the local congregation.”
Norden, as a Messenger, devoted himself to cultivate the Baptist faith by traveling over the area to teach, and conduct meetings with small groups in homes. He made his home in Prince George County, and his area included Surry, Isle of Wight and neighboring communities.
Norden died in 1725.

David Barrow

1753-1819

David Barrow joined the Baptist Church about 1770 in Brunswick County, Virginia where he was born.
Started preaching the gospel at 18 years of age.
Ordained by Baptist around 1772 at 19 years old. Married the same year.
In 1727 the first Baptist society was formed in Burley (Burleigh) (Burewells Bay) in Isle of Wight. Richard Jones was the first ordained Elder. Later in 1774 constituted as Mill Swamp Church with Elders David Barrow and Edward Mintz.
Mill Swamp Church was called the “Mother Church” as it established churches at Smithfield, Moore’s Swamp, Tucker Swamp, Western Branch, Bethesda and others.
Barrow served as minister in Isle of Wight County, Virginia from 1774 to 1797 at Mill Swamp Baptist Church, Black Creek, and South Quay along with Elder David Mintz.
In 1779 visiting Western Branch at Shoulders Hill Road, Nansemond County, mission of Mill Swamp, Barrow and Mintz “were dragged to the Nansemond River dipped until nearly drowned…order to depart and never return”. They did return and a church was established. Perseverance.
Barrow served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
“Barrow’s antislavery conviction was unusual.” He freed both his slaves in1784 and often spoke out thereafter about the evils of slavery.” He became an antislavery activist.”
He served as moderator of the “Virginia Portsmouth Association” before he moved to Kentucky.
“He made two preliminary trips to Kentucky and moved there permanently in 1798. Kentucky had a “freer climes.”
“After a life of twenty odd years’ usefulness in Virginia, Barrow moved to Kentucky where he quickly distinguished himself as a man of talents, piety, and usefulness.”
Said he left Virginia “partly because he could not prosper there without slaves.”
Barrow was “an eminent pioneer preacher among the Baptists of Virginia and Kentucky, and a man of great ability, both as a preacher and a writer.”
He served as minister of Mt. Sterling Church in Montgomery County, Kentucky.
He organized the Kentucky Abolition Society.
He started a school in 1801 called Lulbegrud School on the Lulbegrud Creek in Montgomery County, Kentucky.
He exchanged letters with retired President Thomas Jefferson concerning slavery which are a part of Jefferson’s records.
He published a book against slavery.
He died in Kentucky in 1819.

Daniel Marshall

Native of Connecticut.
Daniel Marshall, made a declaration of faith under the preaching of George Whitefield, a Methodist evangelist.
Felt called to minister to Indians. War in his area caused family to PA, then on to Berkley County in Virginia.
Settled at Sandy Creek in Guilford County, North Carolina.
Marshall and his minister leader Stearns “believed in the direct leadership of the Holy Spirit.” Their Baptist church in Sandy Creek, NC grew in great numbers.
Sandy Creek, NC became a center of revival spread of the gospel north and south by their preachers. Marshall “was delegated to spread the gospel in adjacent parts of Virginia”.
He expanded his ministry of evangelism to other parts of south-side Virginia. Sandy Creek became a part of the “Great Awaking in Virginia”.
Marshall and Samuel Harris spread revival north to Culpepper, VA with their “zeal and energy”.
“People sometimes came from a distance of a hundred miles” for their preaching. “Hundreds of men at times camped on the grounds in order to stay through the meetings” and “sometimes the floor would be covered with persons who had been “struck down under conviction of sin””.
In 1760 Marshall led in constituting a church called Dan River Baptist in Halifax County, and many other Baptist churches.