Jacob Albright, A Tilemaker Becomes Bishop

Description

In the eighteenth century, countless Germans sought their fortune in the New World; many found it in a way wholly other than they’d dreamed. Jacob Albright (1759-1808), himself a descendant of German immigrants, was a simple Pennsylvanian farmer and maker of tiles and bricks, until tragedy thrust him from the stability of self into the vulnerability of grace. From his nominally Lutheran background, through the successive influences of a German Reformed minister and a United Brethren lay preacher, Albright underwent a heartfelt conversion. Discipled in an English-speaking Methodist class, he clarified his conviction of a call to evangelize his often-neglected kinsmen – a call that changed not only his own fortunes, but those of the German-speaking masses.

Designing his ministry on Pietist and Methodist models, Albright accepted the burdens of an itinerant preacher, traversed vast North American expanses on horseback, planted a network of local classes, mentored fellow preachers, and organized them into a common fellowship. Independent of but closely following the structure and order of the Methodist Episcopal Church, this fellowship of “Albright’s People” became America’s first German-speaking Methodist church, later to adopt the name Evangelical Association of North America. Albright was elected its first bishop mere months before losing his battle with tuberculosis at the age of 49, leaving others to complete his earthly responsibilities and carry forth his heaven-sent mission. This popular biography of Albright, a witness to the grace of God, has engaged German Methodist readership for decades, presenting Karl Heinz Voigt’s novel insights into the formation of Albright’s adventurous life of faith and his conception of Christian ministry. Presented now for the first time in English translation, this spiritual and social biography has been expanded with the latest research on Albright, his context, and his legacy by both its author and its editor.