Highway to heaven: Church welcomes all

EVERY WEEK, strangers walk through the front doors of Cinnaminson's Asbury United Methodist Church in search of help. Some need food, others housing. Some are dealing with long-term problems while others are facing a sudden crisis.

There are no signs directing those in need to the church, yet they know they can come. They know they will not be turned away. "We're a church on the highway," said Asbury's pastor, the Rev. John Doll. "I think the word gets around."

Where we worship: Asbury United Methodist Church is on Route 130 North at Asbury Road in Cinnaminson. There are two Sunday services. The 8 a.m. service is "contemporary," Pastor John said, featuring guitar accompaniment. The 9:30 service, is traditional, he said, but "upbeat."

When Pastor John came to the church 23 years ago, "a good Sunday was 35 people," he said. Now, about 130 people attend the weekly services. "This is a turnaround church. It almost died but by the grace of God it grew."

What we believe: "We're all sinners but God loves us anyway," Pastor John said. "Jesus offers us forgiveness. If he didn't offer that, I couldn't be sitting here this morning."

What we're known for: At this time of year, the locally famous "Asbury egg."

As an annual Easter-season fundraiser, church members make and sell more than 60,000 chocolate eggs filled with either coconut cream or peanut butter. Production begins during Lent, and parishioners sign up for day or night shifts.

The confections are sold by church members and in local stores. "They're out of this world," said a clearly unbiased Pastor John.

But there's more to Easter than the eggs: For the past several years, Pastor John and clergy from other area churches have held a sunrise service at Lakeview Cemetery on Easter morning. The early morning ritual draws about 400 people.

It's a beautiful sight, Pastor John said, "with the sun rising and people from all different Christian faiths in the graveyard proclaiming that Jesus is more powerful than death. That's the claim on which everything in our faith is based on."

Good works: The church reaches out in a variety of ways: collecting goods for area food banks, hosting a free summer Bible school, taking part in Superstorm Sandy relief efforts, raising money to buy mosquito netting for those living in malaria-prone areas of the world.

Asbury United Methodist also has an active youth group that volunteers at soup kitchens and performs odd jobs like raking leaves or painting for those who need assistance.

Big social issue we're grappling with: "How do I live my faith in a difficult world?" Pastor John said.

His answer: Keep your eyes on Jesus and follow him. Having trouble seeing him? Remember he's with you always, "until the end of the age."

Our building: The church began as a log cabin in 1811, a rural outpost attended by a small group of Christian faithful more than two decades before the United Methodist Church officially established a presence in the state. The red-brick building that faces Route 130 was built in 1874.

Asbury's building was once sat about 10 feet away from the now busy highway. It was lifted and moved away from the road in the early 1960s. Two expansions since then have doubled the church's size.

Asbury? Where's Bruce? This isn't the Jersey Shore: The church is named for its founder, Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury. A native of England, Asbury began to follow church founder John Wesley as a teenager.

In the 1770s, Wesley appointed Asbury a traveling preacher and sent him to the new world to spread the word. The evangelist spent 45 years traveling the country on horseback, preaching and opening churches.

God is: "Good. All the time."

Words of hope: "God's love is greater than any pain or difficulty that we face," Pastor John said.

As the story goes, he said, God placed his word on our hearts. When our hearts break, the word goes inside. "We're most open to God when we know we need him," he said.