original source: Stone’s Hinge: The Return to Primal Restorationist Impulses in Post-Restorationist Churches. image: Post-Restorationist Radio by Adam Ellis, profile pic of the Facebook community found here.
“He was the harbinger of this restoration; a messenger of the Lord sent to prepare the way by calling men to repent, ‘for the restored kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ He was the John the Baptist of a new era of the gospel of the grace of God.”[5] Such were the laudatory words of W. L. Hayden in homage to Barton Stone at the Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and Christian Churches Centennial Address in 1909. Within this scope it may be questioned as to why Barton Stone’s life and ministry receives consideration over that of fellow-leader Alexander Campbell.[6] When compared with Campbell, Stone comes forward as a street-level church planter whose spiritual DNA can be witnessed in Post-Restorationist church planters today, as will be explored below. Within the Stone-Campbell Movement, there was perhaps less Stone and more Campbell, especially as the Movement unfolded.[7] So while Campbell—who Richard Hughes notes as the one who “emerged as the pivotal leader of the movement”[8] —had a more rational and scholarly bent, Stone could be said to have a more on-the-ground vocation. In contrast to Campbell’s scholastic orientation, Eugene Boring writes, “While Stone had a keen and vigorous mind, a good education by frontier standards, and saw the importance of disciplined study, he was busy farming, preaching, and founding churches”[9] (emphasis added).
Indeed, Stone was no stranger to the apostolic way of “constituting, “forming,” “organizing,” “founding,” or “planting” new churches,[10] as witnessed in his autobiography that tells of at least four accounts in which he planted churches. The following excerpt offers a brief glimpse into one of Stone’s church planting endeavors:
At that time Georgetown was notorious for irreligion and wickedness. I began to preach to them that they should repent, and turn to the Lord. My congregation increased, and became interested on the subject of religion. Soon we constituted a church of six or seven members, which quickly grew to two or three hundred. I was every week baptizing, sometimes thirty at a time, of whom were a number of my pupils, some of whom became useful preachers afterwards. The work of conversion spread a distance round…The harvest was truly great, but the laborers were few.[11]
Notably, Stone was not merely “shuffling the deck” of Christendom, but his efforts here took root amidst a reportedly irreligious community, which speaks to Stone’s hardnosed evangelistic pioneering. Further, Stone was working with rather small numbers initially—“six or seven”—which was enough for Stone to “constitute a church.” Identifiable in this brief report are the marks of simplicity and organic beginnings, as well as discipleship, as Stone would turn his Georgetown pupils into gospel preachers.
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[5] W. L. Hayden, Centennial Addresses Delivered in 1909, ed. W.L. Hayden (Indianapolis, IN: W. L. Hayden, 1909), 24.
[6] From a class lecture (September 26, 2007) at Abilene Christian University, Restoration Movement historian and Professor Dr. Doug Foster notes that we know more about Barton Stone now than anyone in the Restoration Movement 100 years ago, as Stone had been historically conflated with the more dominant Campbell until work by Disciples of Christ historians resurrected Stone’s identity in the 1930s. The Independent Christian Churches referred to the disappearance of Stone in Restoration History as “Stone silence.” A recovery of Stone’s contributions have been invaluable to the Restoration Movement, largely in thanks to the work of Star Bible Publications’ reprint of the dilapidated manuscripts of Stone’s journal The Christian Messenger in 1978.
[7] See C. Leonard Allen, “The Stone that the Builders Rejected” in Cane Ridge in Context: Perspectives on Barton W. Stone and the Revival, ed. Anthony L. Dunnavant (Nashville: Disciples of Christ Historical Society, 1992), 43-61. Allen argues, “The legacy of Stone has been almost entirely lost among Church of Christ in the twentieth century.” This was due to historic generalizations attributed to Stone based on the conflation of later leaders in the Stone-Campbell Movement. Further, Stone died just 12 years after his followers joined ranks with Campbell’s Reformers.
[8] Richard Hughes, Reviving the Ancient Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 11.
[9] Eugene M. Boring, Disciples and the Bible: A History of Disciples Biblical Interpretation in North America (St. Louis: Chalice, 1997), 13.
[10] See Barton Stone, The Christian Messenger, reprinted (Fort Worth: Star Bible, 1978). Such are the plurality of phrases found scattered throughout Barton Stone’s Christian Messenger used to describe the phenomenon that today is called church planting. The Christian Messenger was, of course, Stone’s popular print publication, which was published from 1826-1844 while working with very limited resources.
[11] Barton W. Stone, “A Short History of the Life of Barton W. Stone Written by Himself,” in Voices from Cane Ridge, ed. Rhodes Thompson (St. Louis: Bethany, 1954), 99. Within his autobiography, Stone twice mentions the planting and multiplication of a plurality of new churches, again mentions planting two churches, and also mentions planting one church—all at different points along his timeline and in different geographies. Knowing of Stone’s humility, old age, and the family audience to whom he was writing, it can be assumed there were other church plants he did not mention. Any self-hagiography in this context would seem highly unlikely.
Filed under: ecclesia |
Tags: post-restorationist, barton stone, restoration movement, stone-campbell movement, emerging church, missional
just in case you haven’t already read them (it seems you have), i think you might appreciate the books “participating in God’s life” by c. leonard allen and danny gray swick and and “communings in the sanctuary” by robert richardson.
before we moved to grand ecore and for a time after we arrived i was reading what some of us called (neo)restorationist works. including the works mentioned above. you could say it was my last ditch effort to hang on to any semblance of a restorationist vision. anyway, i was almost persuaded by some of allen, hicks, and hughes’ restorationist proposals. in the end (as you know) my convictions settled somewhere beyond restorationism in all its forms.
back to the main point: the new leaf (now leafwood) books turn on stone’s hinge, which is something you (and i) can appreciate.
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now if i may offer an observation on your post: it appears that barton w. stone would stand out in stark contrast to much of what passes as postmodern christianity—emergent or otherwise. he was a preacher with strong convictions and clear doctrinal standards. these are admirable qualities which i hope more post-everythings learn to appreciate and emulate.