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As we mark the 250th anniversary of Asbury's crossing the Atlantic to the colonies, what of his impact remains? What of his leadership and of early American Methodism is now lost? With Asbury's death key characteristics that embodied the Methodist connection were lost to the increasingly institutionalized church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Methodism, Methodist preacher John Wesley and his field-preaching imperative, and how Methodists have sacralized the American woodlands as nature's cathedral, as a challenging wilderness, and a garden similar to the Biblical garden of Gethsemane.

The article replies to a review by Benjamin Hartley in the July 2013 issue of the book "American Methodism: A Compact History," by the author, Kenneth E. Rowe, and Jean Miller Schmidt. Topics include the role of religious denominations in the history of Methodism, the governance structure of the United Methodist churches, and transnational aspects of United Methodism.

The article discusses the concept of field preaching advocated by Methodist founder John Wesley and practiced in the U.S. woodlands by U.S. Methodist ministers. According to the article, Methodist preachers found field preaching in the woods to be ideal for devotions, prayer, and solitude, but also dangerous. The article also discusses Wesley's writings on field preaching, the Wesleyan movement in the U.S., and Methodist itinerant preachers such as Richard Boardman, Joseph Pilmore, and Francis Asbury.

The article presents discussion regarding the 2009 publication of the biographical work "American Saint: Francis Asbury and the Methodists," by John H. Wigger. Subjects discussed include the influence of the 1816 biographical sermon on the Methodist bishop by Ezekiel Cooper on the book, the contextual place of Wigger's work and methodology within the social historiography of early American Methodism at the turn of the 21st-century, and forecasts on Wigger's next project on the subject of Methodist history.

The article presents an introduction to the book "The Methodist Experience in America: A Narrative," outlining the rationale of the work, its historical coverage of the Methodist church between 1760-2000, and several prominent themes covered in it such as pietism, slavery, and evangelicalism.