

Click on pic to visit Rev. Roadkill.
“If you hear a noise a comin’ through the cane-brake, it’s either a bear or a Methodist Preacher.”
That’s how one writer described the Methodist Circuit Riders in Arkansas 150 years ago. They rode horseback from one preaching point to the next on a circuit all the while looking to extend the circuit. Once a year they met for an ‘Annual Conference’ and the bishop would send them to a new circuit. They would ride away with new orders.
They carried books and Bibles in their saddlebags and went through every terrain to spread the gospel across the United States when many place weren’t states. Most of them were single men. Staying anyplace you could lay your head wasn’t exactly conducive to family life. Church members put them up, but there were plenty of miles in between.
Methodist preachers in 21st century still go to Annual Conference. The suspense of where our appointment will be is taken out by knowing a couple of months before hand if we are moving. Harkening back to a long gone era a few of us ride an iron horse to Annual Conference. If we could go to our appointments with the same fervor in spirit, simplicity in life, assurance of salvation, and holiness of heart, we would do ourselves proud to follow the tradition of the original Circuit Riders.