Yesterday we had a really neat morning in the Heartland North District. Our full time pastors are in the midst of a series of book studies. This month is was Taking Heaven By Storm by Dr. John Wigger. Dr. Wigger teaches at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and our district's Ph.D-in-residence and pastor at Excelsior Springs, Jonathan Cooney (no slouch at church history himself) invited Dr. Wigger over to co lead the discussion. The book recounts the stories of leaders and ordinary persons who were swept up in the early Methodism of America. A very interesting study it was!
I found even more fascinating Dr. Wigger's presentation on his new book, a definitive biography on Francis Asbury. Wigger offers his premise about why Asbury was such an effective leader. Many of us who have taken a Methodist history class have heard about what a stern and autocratic leader Asbury was. Wigger does not dismiss the strength of his leadership, but he lifted for us four traits that he sees in Asbury that made in so great.
1) Piety: Asbury was a man of true piety, and he obviously walked his talk. He was very sincere in what he believed. He never owned his own house, but instead lived in what is estimated to be 10,000 persons' homes on his circuit travels. Lots of people got to see him up close and personal, and they could see that he lived what he preached.
2) Ability to connect with people: Asbury was not a strong preacher, to put it mildly. His connecting with folks was not so much in his preaching, but in the small group and one on one meetings he had with people. He made intimate friends quickly. The closer people got to him, the better people liked him. Wigger tells the story of John Dickens, who was part of the group of Southern Methodists who wanted to break with the north early in the 19th century. This group was truly at odds with Asbury's leadership. Asbury went south with the express intent of visiting with Dickens, which he did for two days, and after those two days, not only had the Southern branch of the church decided to stay a part of the North (at least for a couple of decades) but Dickens and Asbury had becomes close friends.
3) Ability to use culture: Dr. Wigger gave us an account of Methodism in the southern colonies in the early 1770s. These Methodists were SO loud---shouting and barking and falling down and such. Many in the northern colonies found this to be shameful, but Asbury's attitude was that if this was the way that they wished to express their religion then he was not going to castigate them. Asbury also saw how the camp meetings, which were really a product of the wilds of the frontier in many ways, were a very effective way to reach lots of people, and so he advises his preachers to be a part of the camp meeting movement.
4) Organization: Asbury was quite good at managing the day to day, year to year details of the movement. That leadership ability was vital to the growth of Methodism during Asbury's lifetime.
Whaddya think? I have not unpacked all of this but I think it may give a very interesting model for leadership today. It is interesting that the first trait that Wigger lifts is piety and the second ability to connect.
John Wigger's book has not yet been published. I look for it with eagerness.
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