High Calling Magazine

The official publication of The Francis Asbury Society

The Founding of FAS
BY DR. HAROLD BURGESS

The Francis Asbury Society completed twenty years of ministry in May, 2003. It was in the spring of 1983 that Dr. Dennis Kinlaw, recognizing that he had come to an important turning point in his life, proposed the development of the Francis Asbury Society. He believed that the church was in danger of losing the salty character that Christ had in mind when He called it into being. The Society was envisioned as a flexible organization, “... founded upon a biblical point of view from which it will not budge.” That point of view is scriptural holiness as taught by John Wesley and Francis Asbury. The central purpose of the Society is, in Kinlaw’s words, “to work to restore the salty character of the church by being faithful to the message that Wesley sent Asbury to proclaim on our side of the Atlantic.”

At the time of his vision, Dennis Kinlaw was teaching Old Testament Theology at Asbury Theological Seminary. Dr. Kinlaw, Rick Masters, (an attorney), and myself met in Kinlaw’s office to identify the key components of the Articles of Incorporation. Dr.Kinlaw subsequently resigned his teaching appointment at the Seminary and began a period of service as the Society’s full-time president and evangelist. Leading and providing vision for the Francis Asbury Society has been a core commitment of Dennis Kinlaw since its beginning. This was true even during the five years that he was recalled to serve as President of Asbury College. Dr. Kinlaw’s eloquent and passionate statements of his vision for the mission of the Society have focused the energies of staff and board members across the years.

The Memorable First Office

It was in a borrowed room at Asbury College that the first office of the Francis Asbury Society was opened in the summer of 1983. Furniture and equipment comprised an interesting collection of one ancient desk, two pretty-good chairs, a battered file and a Smith-Corona typewriter—all loaned to the fledgling organization. There was a new Rolodex with a supply of paper, envelopes, and postage stamps. The first payroll was met when a gentleman in Florida sent a check for, as this writer remembers, $2,106.00 because God told him to send it. That check kept the wolf from Dennis and Elsie’s door for the month of June, 1983. Linda Singletary joined the staff as the first secretary and spent the summer limbering up the little Smith-Corona by typing the first set of Rolodex cards and addressing envelopes. Response to the first mailing was gratifying. President Hudson Amerding of Wheaton College and President Carl Lunquist of Bethel College (St. Paul, MN) were among the first to reply and were among the early financial supporters. Both of these leaders commended and encouraged the commitment of the Society to recognizing biblical holiness as among the deepest needs of contemporary Christianity.

The “Real Start” at Hemlock Inn

In mid-August of the first summer, John and Ella Jo Shell, proprietors of Hemlock Inn, Bryson City, North Carolina, extended an invitation to the Society to hold its first retreat at the Inn. Phone calls to Kinlaw friends resulted in twelve persons’ meeting at the Inn for three days just prior to Labor Day. Dr. Kinlaw led the sessions, but he received prayers, counsel, support, and ideas in that first retreat that have had a shaping influence on the first twenty years. The Hemlock Inn retreats held in late August each year since 1983 have become a Francis Asbury Society institution. Many of its most faithful supporters, a number of board members, and surely a majority of the prayer partners have had their first close contact with the Society at Hemlock Inn.

The Earliest Publishing Venture

One of Dr. Kinlaw’s long-time dreams was to develop a publishing venture that would serve as a vehicle to support and spread Wesleyan scholarship. This dream had actually begun to be realized in 1979 when a number of us met for breakfast in the Asbury College Dining Room. A small publishing company was developed under the early name of the Francis Asbury Publishing Company. By using volunteer labor and borrowed storage, nine significant titles were in print by 1983. Publishing interests were shortly folded into the more broadly envisioned Francis Asbury Society. The Society soon accepted an invitation to convey most of its publishing interests to Francis Asbury Press, a newly organized subsidiary of the Zondervan Corporation. The organizational plan has changed from time to time, but the Society has continued to invest its energies in developing and bringing to market two to four books annually. Francis Asbury titles now grace the shelves of libraries and studies around the world. An informal accounting suggests that the Society has been involved in publishing some eighty titles and more than two million individual books. All of these are in some measure directly supportive of our commitment to biblical holiness.

Evangelism: An Order of Ministry

Dr. Dennis Kinlaw has long been convinced that evangelism is a proper order of Christian ministry. Thus, the support of evangelists has been a major interest to the Francis Asbury Society. The very first fund-raising challenge in 1983 was, appropriately, to find support for Dr. Kinlaw to travel to the Middle East where in Turkey, among other places, he was able to “be an evangelist,” sharing the Good News in the most improbable of situations. At the time, the names of the exact cities where he would be speaking could not be published. The necessary $25,000 for Dr. Kinlaw’s 1983 evangelistic labors came to the office with only the most informal requests. Accordingly, evangelism and the networking of evangelists have been a primary effort for the full twenty years of this ministry.
When Dr. Kinlaw was called from his evangelistic leadership of the Society to take the helm as President of Asbury College, Mark Nysewander, Ron Smith, and now Paul Blair have made themselves available for this monumental task. The current network of evangelists now numbers twenty-three.

Scholarship Support

As funds have been designated, FAS has given support to more than forty students from seventeen countries to pursue undergraduate and graduate studies. Most of the support has been to provide fellowship and organizational support, giving direct financial aid in selective situations only as it has been available. At this writing, July 2003, among those forty now in leadership roles are such persons as Dr. Ogedi Omenyinma who teaches in a Nigerian Bible College and engages in evangelism in a Muslim context; Hule Goddard who teaches in the broad area of youth ministry at Columbia University in South Carolina and who also maintains a full evangelistic slate; Masha Suzdaleva Oswalt who has followed her graduation from Asbury College with a significant ministry with Russian orphans; and Dr. Mark Royster who, as a teacher in a Kenyan seminary, in Paul Blair’s words, “is making a tremendous impact in Kenya that will shape the future of African leadership for the next generation.”

Retreats and Other Ministries

Building upon the Hemlock Inn Retreats that have shaped its way of being, the Francis Asbury Society has launched a growing retreat and discipling ministry. In addition, it is regularly called upon to stand alongside of other ministries such as Operation Appreciation—an almost miraculously effective evangelistic ministry to service men and women in Louisville, Kentucky. Finally, the FAS web site is increasingly productive. All books, tapes, and discipleship materials may now be ordered directly from this site (www.francisasburysociety.com).



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