It is nearing the one year mark of first hearing about the circuit riders. Having intentions of leaving Todd White's Tulsa, Oklahoma Power and Love conference a bit early to spend more time celebrating my Dad on his birthday in Oklahoma City, I instead decided to stay for the evening speaker and drive west the next morning. Andy Byrd, of the University of Nations and YWAM Kona's Fire & Fragrance, spoke of the Circuit Riders of old. He shared a historical message disrupting the future, it's normalcy radically changing the traditional trajectory of my life.
“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
Circuit Riders of Old
The Circuit Riders were a peculiar group. They were mounted horseman, ministers to a charge of settlers, and wild-eyed revivalists establishing the church in the earliest years of our nation. In sparsely inhabited regions of the United States, the clergy of many denominations served more than one congregation at a time forming a circuit - a geographic area made up of many local churches.
““if you give me 100 men that fear God and hate sin with those alone I will change the world.” ”
The pastor was assigned and given the responsibility to conduct worship, visiting on a regular basis teaching, preaching, and building up the body of believers. Because of the distance between churches, these preachers rode on horseback being popularly called circuit riders or saddlebag preachers. They traveled with few possessions, carrying only what could fit with them on horseback. Traveling extensive distances through wilderness and villages, they preached every day at their charges and any place available (homes, cabins, courthouses, fields, meetings, basements and street corners). Unlike common clergy in urban areas, the circuit riders were always on the move reaching the far ends of the new nation - their word of the Lord purposed to share worth the discomfort and inconvenience of itinerant life.
In the late 1700's, there were only 600 American Methodists. Only 45 years later, there were nearly 200,000 American Methodists. The number had grown from 1 in 5,000 to 1 in 40 of the total population of the country, largely because of meetings and the committed work of the circuit riders. When Francis Asbury, a lead circuit rider, died he had ridden over 270,000 miles on horseback and saw the movement grow strong and personally raised up 4,000 preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified.
Fire of Revival
The American West had been won. It is now that we believe that just as the days of old we are again in a similar time - men and women who are willing to go to any lengths to reach the people of America. In the summer of 2011, Amy Ward, a deep lover of Jesus Christ and staff leader from YWAM Kona received a weighty word from the Lord. He spoke about a new breed of people arising with the fire of revival in their eyes showing a specific time in early America when men and woman called "Circuit Riders" had crisscrossed America awakening Revival. He spoke - it is happening again.
Not knowing exactly what to do, The School of the Circuit Rider was formed to train others to share the simple gospel with power just as the circuit riders of old. The school was a blend of teaching the enduring infallibility of the Bible - the word of God that stands forever, focusing on the fiery power of the Spirit of the LORD within, lifting high the gentle abiding servanthood of Christ, and the going after the command to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead - freely we have received, freely give.
Six years later in Huntington Beach, The School of the Circuit Rider renamed CR Experience morphed into a lifestyle movement of 100+ young people as well as 30+ staff members living in community with lives dedicated to learning more about the Lord and sharing the gospel with the youth among more than 200 college campuses in the United States.
And for me, less than one year from Andy Byrd's message of what was once history is now my present reality. I am privileged to call myself a circuit rider. Along with 130 others, I'm carrying the simple gospel in power to the youth of America - saving the lost, reviving the saved and training them all.