By Bill Kierce
The year was 1993. I was a new student at Asbury Theological Seminary and a new evangelist with FAS. It was still close enough in time to 1983 that the founding vision of the Society was fresh in all our hearts. Dr. Kinlaw often referred to 40 evangelists who had made Wilmore home in recent years and the desire for FAS to be known as an evangelistic society that would continue to preach and promote the message of heart-holiness while serving as a prophetic voice to the institutions (even beyond Wilmore) that had been given birth by that message. Those were wonderful years—in fact, the most joyful of my 40 years in ministry. When, after 25 years of pastoral ministry and denominational leadership, it was clear that God was closing one door and opening another, I heard His voice whisper to me, “Son, go back to where you started.” Little did I realize a year ago that the journey would lead back to the Francis Asbury Society.
It is now 2023. It is not 1993 or 1983. Many things have changed in our world and in the church. Ministry is more challenging than it has ever been. The stakes are higher for America and global societies. The urgency is greater. And there aren’t 40 evangelists in Wilmore anymore. At least not yet. But a few things haven’t changed:
- God is enthroned in the heavens and in the hearts of those who are fully surrendered to Him.
- The world needs our message of Scriptural holiness more than it ever has.
- Wesleyan colleges and theological institutions need us now more than ever.
- God has called the Francis Asbury Society for such a time as this.
Some of our methods may change; our message will not. The time is right for a new generation of holiness evangelists and theologians to speak prophetically to the church and the world. Let’s pray that God will raise them up with the help of the Francis Asbury Society. Let’s pray that God will anoint their voices with the message of heart-holiness and spiritual awakening. And by God’s grace, let us work to make it so.