Cane Ridge Meeting House

 A few minutes outside of Paris, Kentucky, stands a meeting house that famously began a spiritual movement on the frontier of western movement in the beginning of the 19th Century. The Cane Ridge Meeting House is famous for a revival meeting that drew many to the wild lands of Kentucky and ignited the Stone-Campbell Movement which continues to this day.
The meeting house is a rugged, wooden structure erected in 1791 by a group of settlers of Scottish and Irish roots which settled on top of a ridge filled with a plant that pioneer Daniel Boone thought resembled sugar cane; hence, Boone named the place Cane Ridge. The Cane Ridge Meeting House held Christian services with whites on the first floor, and a second floor balcony which held African slaves. The curator mentioned to me that this may be the first of its kind; though segregated, the worshipers of different races worshiping to the same music, sermon, and in the same room.

The pulpit stands on a raised platform with the Lord's Supper table on the front. The dark meeting house not only revealed my need to purchase a bounce flash, but also provided a feel of being in history. The log structure is quite old and foreign to contemporary churches, but the warm and inviting feeling suggests something quite familiar. Scenes of frontier families singing hymns and hearing the old style preaching enters the imagination, and the smell of the old wood sends the imagination back in time.

Of course, the Cane Ridge Meeting House's claim to fame is not merely in its antiquity, but in its most famous preacher. Reverend Barton Warren Stone, claiming half of the title in the Stone-Campbell Movement, was Cane Ridge's celebrated son. Stone was a Presbyterian minister that challenged the doctrine of the Trinity, amongst many other doctrine taught in orthodox Christianity throughout history. Stone, much like his friend Alexander Campbell, used language that rejected the doctrine of the Trinity in favor of language that found neither any distinctions between the Persons of the Godhead (Stone rejected  the term "person") or any distinguishing traits, which favored the language of Unitarianism which was popular at the time.

Stone sought unity with the Christian denominations by rejecting historical creeds in favor of restoring the true Christian faith by stating there are "no creeds but the Bible." Of course, this rejection of all creeds favored Stone's own interpretation of the Scriptures, causing disunity in biblical doctrines amongst his followers by allowing personal interpretations of the Scriptures to trump biblical hermeneutics, and allowing unity in Stone's teachings of the Bible rather than unity in creeds.

Such provocative preaching and powerful charge to restore the Christian faith to permit each believer his/her own understanding of Scripture to be true doctrine exploded in popularity on the western frontier in 1801. In August of that year, an event claimed anywhere between 10,000 to as many as 30,000 travelers who camped out around the ridge to hear the fresh theology of the preacher Stone. The Cane Ridge Revival, as it was later termed, remains a pivotal point in spirituality in Kentucky to this very day.

Among the denominations that were birthed from the revival, the Disciples of Christ and Churches of Christ remain heavily in disagreement in the teachings of Scriptures, each denomination group of Christians arguing its creed Statement of Faith is correct and the opposition to be in error.
The grounds of the Meeting House has a museum of artifacts from the revival as well as items of common use at the time such as tools and furniture. There also is a cemetery, with Stone's grave as well as a monument with his bust in memorial.







All around the grounds are quotes and lessons taught by Stone. Stone challenged many doctrines, one being on baptism, which resembled the Baptist doctrine. The meeting house holds weddings and hymn sings as well as other scheduled events.

The old photo of the meeting house reminds visitors of a bygone era in Kentucky history. The structure is now housed in a limestone shrine. In order to understand the history of the people of Kentucky as well as the spiritual history of the western movement of the United States, a visit to Cane Ridge Meeting House is an essential visit.