What Does It Mean to be Methodist?

Here's a small excerpt from Wigger's book:
   

Asbury communicated his message ... through the organization of the Methodist church. He was a brilliant administrator and a keen judge of human motivations. ... As Asbury crisscrossed the nation year in and year out, he attended to countless administrative details. Yet he never lost sight of the people involved.... The system Asbury crafted made it possible to keep tabs on thousands of preachers and lay workers. Under his leadership, American Methodists anticipated the development of modern managerial styles. No merchant of the early 19th century could match Asbury's nationwide network of class leaders, circuit stewards, book stewards, exhorters, local preachers, circuit riders, and presiding elders, or the movement's system of class meetings, circuit preaching, quarterly meetings, annual conferences, and quadrennial general conferences, all churning out detailed statistical reports to be consolidated and published on a regular basis.    

Without electricity, let alone computers, Asbury networked America's spiritual life! He built a church that, if he had today's tools at hand, might be compared to something like Google or Facebook or Twitter. 
   

This article was originally published at ReadTheSpirit and is reprinted with permission.

David Crummis an author, journalist, and filmmaker with more than 20 years experience as a Religion Writer for the Detroit Free Press, Knight-Ridder newspapers and Gannett. Crumm is now the Editor of ReadTheSpirit, a new online home for important voices in religion and spirituality.