This is where it began

Sitting in this rough hewn log cabin church at Cane Ridge near Paris, Kentucky – the focus of the revivals of the Second Great Awakening on America’s western frontier in the early 1800s – is a special experience for those steeped in the principles and witness of the Restoration Movement. Even by today’s standards, this place is remote and off the beaten track. Yet tens of thousands gathered and camped here for all sorts of reasons, the main draw card being unusual manifestations of the Holy Spirit as revival preachers of all sorts roamed around the campsites evangelising and serving communion under the eye of Barton Stone. Not many are knowledgeable and/or comfortable with such a phenomena being so critical to the rational foundation of RM history. It was both Stone and Alexander Campbell’s claim, however, that a profession of faith in Christ was based not only on careful logical thought but was equally a matter of the heart. Sharing communion here with the tour group was indeed a “thin spaces” occasion.