This Sunday, at the first of three new member orientation classes at Lancaster First United Methodist Church, I will be sharing this information about one of the most amazing circuit riding Methodist preachers of the 19th century. I also shared this with our staff at this week's chapel time.
- He was born in Virginia in 1785 two years after a treaty ended the American Revolution.
- His family moved to Kentucky and there he became a tough guy in rough Logan County, Kentucky known as Rogues’ Harbor. His mother prayed and prayed for him to turn to God.
- At age 16 he went to a camp meeting, confessed his sins and became a Christian. He joined a Church and within two years became a preacher.
- He was known to take on men who disrupted his camp meeting revivals inviting them to a fight in the woods and he would scare them off because of his toughness.
- Crowds from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois flocked to hear him preach and he often spoke for three hours at a time.
- 10,000 people came to Christ because of his ministry. Several church buildings needed to be built to make room for the new converts.
- He championed the start of new colleges to train preachers and he educated himself to help him in his ministry.
- He experienced lots of hardships in his ministry, at one point going without food for 3 days. He once returned from a traveling ministry with only 6 cents in his pocket.
- He ran for congress in 1846 losing to Abraham Lincoln. A decade earlier, he had defeated Lincoln in a race for the Illinois legislature.
- He died at age 87, leaving behind an autobiography which has become a classic and a tribute to this incredible servant of God.
But what’s most interesting to me is that this man was also the eighth preacher to serve First United Methodist Church in Lancaster, Ohio back in 1806. His name? Peter Cartwright, probably the greatest Methodist Circuit riding preacher to have ever lived.
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