Cane Ridge History Nerds

I have wanted to visit Cane Ridge, Kentucky for a long time now. It's an important site, historically, for the Christian churches. Some of you know all about it...others don't.

In 1801 Barton W. Stone (in the portrait over my shoulder) was the minister of the small Presbyterian Church near Paris, Kentucky. After visiting a Methodist Camp Meeting he decided to hold one at his church. And the rest is history. The meeting became a phenomenon that broke barriers of denominations and (some would say) propriety. Over 20,000 people wound up flocking here from all over. A documentary on Kentucky Public Television claims that this number would be roughly the equivalent of 200,000 people today.


There were all sorts people moved to become Christians along with a barrage of manifestations of the Holy Spirit. One of the lasting impacts of the meeting for Barton W. Stone was the realization that he could so easily worship with Christians from other denominations. It became a defining event in his life and then in the life of the churches that grew out Stone's influence.

That's the brief history. Below is a picture of my friend Carter (left) and Robbie (right) as we gathered in front of the stone structure that now surrounds the old, log meeting house. I went to seminary with Carter and Robbie . They came to Lexington because Robbie and I rarely get to see Carter.Here is Robbie in front of that same structure.
Here are Carter and Robbie looking at artifacts in the museum on the property.


The following videos are not very good because I used my phone to capture them, but if you're at all interested in seeing the log cabin meeting house, then you might enjoy them. They are each about thirty seconds long.







I should go back with a better camera . . . but you probably wouldn't watch those videos either!