The Cane Ridge Meeting House was a log cabin church built in 1791. This one room church in rural Kentucky served as headquarters for the largest camp meeting revival of the Second Great Awakening.
Barton Stone (1772-1844) came to pastor this Presbyterian Church of Cane Ridge in 1798. He was “alarmed” (his word) to find such a low level of interest in faith on the frontier, so he organized a revival and invited other churches to participate. A frontier Woodstock, you might call it. For six days in August 1801, twenty thousand people came by horseback and covered wagon. The singing was spirited, and prayer gatherings continued round the clock. Ministers preached simultaneously in various locations throughout the campgrounds and emotions ran high. Some danced, shouted and even fainted in response to the religious enthusiasm. Some experienced “the jerks,” a phenomenon that even eyewitnesses found difficult to describe.
The Presbyterian hierarchy learned of this revival and were none too pleased. It was way too much emotion for old school Calvinists. While Barton acknowledged the excesses, he was also convinced that authentic revival had occurred. Years later, people still spoke of it as the turning point in their spiritual lives. What impressed Barton was the unity that transcended denominational differences, “We all engaged in singing the same songs of praise–all united in prayer–all preached the same thing–free salvation urged upon by faith and repentance.” It was the unity, not the “bodily agitations” as he called them, that led him to regard the revival as the genuine work of God.
Barton and wife Elizabeth sought to emancipate inherited slaves in response to this revival, but their slave state of Kentucky wouldn’t allow it. So, they moved to a free state to make it happen. He formed an association of churches that later became the Disciples of Christ denomination. He wrote, “Let the unity of Christ be our Polar Star.” As a boy, Stone learned how to use the North Star to find his way home at night.
May Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17 become our prayer: