In the News- Asbury UMC, Huntersville

[This article appeared in The Charlotte Observer, June 3, 2015.  Marty Minchin, reporter/Photo from Asbury UMC]

Church Celebrates 200th Anniversary

Presiding over Asbury United Methodist Church’s 200th anniversary celebration has sent the Rev. Jimmy Howard into the history books. Howard, Asbury’s pastor, presented tidbits of church history in services throughout the year, and the church has offered studies on how Methodism has affected the region. “It’s been quite a journey, one that’s been very surprising to me,” said Howard, who has been at the church for nine years. “This little church has done a lot in the last 200 years that the world has really benefited from.” Through research, Howard learned the church was started by Ann Christenbury, a woman who had become a Christian after hearing Methodist circuit rider preachers at an outdoor “brush arbor” service. Christenbury, whom Howard described as a “very powerful and dynamic woman,” organized a home church that began meeting in the Asbury area and prayed that her entire family would become Christians. Christenbury’s son, Daniel, became a Methodist circuit-riding preacher himself, and at one of his services, Brantley York – known as the founder of the school that became Duke University – also decided to dedicate his life to serving God. Asbury United Methodist Church, which was founded in the Ferrelltown area along Asbury Chapel Road, has endured the Civil War and two world wars as well as several tragedies at home. Read the entire article at The Charlotte Observer